IRWINDALE SPEEDWAY 2001 SEASON SUMMARY
IRWINDALE SPEEDWAY 2001 SEASON SUMMARY By Tim Kennedy Irwindale Speedway, in its third year of operation, crowned one repeat champion and four new champions in the five established "in-house" racing classes that utilized the half or third mile tracks at the now well-known San Gabriel Valley motorsports competition facility. Two new divisions, Legend Cars and Figure 8s, were also awarded track titles. All seven title-holders for 2001 received their rewards before a gathering of 460 at the annual championship awards banquet Friday, November 30 at the Hilton Hotel in Glendale. More than $75,000 in point fund checks and prizes were distributed to the champions and top ten drivers in each division. NASCAR FOOD4LESS SUPER LATE MODELS: Sean Woodside, the 1999 Winston-West Champion, led most of the season in SLM points and won the 18-race campaign over series rookie Nathan Wulff 722 to 674. Woodside won a single main event and had many top three finishes in the Walker Racing Chevy Monte Carlo. Woodside missed one SLM event when he raced in a Winston West race for the Walker team. SLM main event winners were David Gilliland (four), Wulff, Tommy Fry, Tim Woods III, Dan Holtz and Greg Voigt (two each), and Brandon Loverock, Brent Reynolds and Rip Michels (one each). Miller Lite Big 10 Challenge: Woodside also captured the Miller Lite Big 10 Challenge nine event series-within-a-series SLM $10,000 points chase. His 382 points got him a nice $5000, runner-up Fry took home $3000 for his 370 points, with third place Gilliland's 332 points good for third place and $2000. NASCAR AUTO CLUB of SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA LATE MODELS: Dave Hessing won four main events and out-pointed two-time winner Derek (the "X-man") Ward 720-710. Other feature winners in the 18-race series were Todd Burns (five), Tim Huddleston (three), Mike Price (two) and one each by Brandon Miller and Kevin Wood. NASCAR GRAND AMERICAN MODIFIEDS: Dean Kuhn overwhelmed fellow GAM competitors by winning ten of the 13 series events. A race absence and a DNF made his final point margin only 14 (592-578) over two-time winner Roger Carufel, Jr. Robert Rice was the only other GAM feature winner. NASCAR SUPER STOCKS: Repeat track champion Jeff Green captured three of the 14 super stock main events and finished 22 points ahead of double winner Will Cottrell-582-560. Rookie Andrew Phipps started the season at the third event when he completed his new Camaro and was an eight-time winner. Phipps finished third in points, only 28 behind Green. In the 2002 season this highly competitive division will become the "Vista Paint Super Stocks". NASCAR MODIFIED 4s: Guy Tripp took the main event trophy twice in the ten-race series that was called Mini-Stock for the past two seasons. Tripp beat five-time feature winner Terry Limberopoulos by a scant 28 points (428-400). Greg Tucker won twice and Rod Hicks won once. KING TACO LEGEND CARS: Tom Landreth won four times in 13 point events, as did track title runner-up Art Nevill. Landreth tallied 572 points to Nevill's 568 in their duel for the initial championship in Irwindale for the class. The four-point margin was the closest in any of the track's seven divisions. Jim Smith won three features. Bill Everett and Brent Jones each won one main. Jim Kalawaia won a non-point post-season event. PICK-YOUR-PART FIGURE 8s: Rusty Stewart captured three of the five Figure 8 races and the initial track title in the division. Consistent Robert Rice trailed by six-points (232-226). Chris Williamson and "shoeless" Billy Ziemann won the other "Crazy 8's" races. IRWINDALE SPEEDWAY 2001 FINAL POINT STANDINGS: SUPER LATE MODELS: LATE MODELS: 1 Sean Woodside 722 1 Dave Hessing 720 2 Nathan Wulff 674 2 Deryk Ward 712 3 Tommy Fry 622 3 Brian Kelley 706 4 David Gilliland 602 4 Mike Price 678 5 Brent Reynolds 592 5 Todd Burns 644 6 Brandon Loverock 570 6 Rob Chaney 566 7 Tim Woods III 548 7 Rick Miller 532 8 Kazuto Yanagawa 440 8 John Jones 504 9 Keith Spangler 418 9 Shaun Estes 486 10 David Beat 406 10 Richard Hooper 476 MILLER LITE BIG TEN CHALLENGE: GRAND AMERICAN MODIFIEDS: 1 Sean Woodside 382 1 Dean Kuhn 592 2 Tommy Fry 370 2 Roger Carufel, Jr 578 3 David Gilliland 332 3 Travis Thirkettle 508 4 Tim Woods III 308 4 Steve Luecht 502 5 Nathan Wulff 306 5 Robert Rice 486 5 Brandon Loverock 306 6 Henry Ford, Jr 440 7 Brent Reynolds 276 7 Mike Bush 398 8 Keith Spangler 214 8 John Watkinson III 370 9 Rip Michels 212 9 Eddie Ernst 368 10 Kazuto Yanagawa 210 10 Garrett Yamada 358 SUPER STOCKS: MODIFIED 4s: 1 Jeff Green 582 1 Guy Tripp 428 2 Will Cottrell 558 2 Terry Limberopoulos 400 3 Andrew Phipps 552 3 Tim Ross 392 4 Darren Cheek 490 4 Steve Rogers 370 5 Jon Wilkes 482 5 Lee Ladd 348 6 Don Rogers 408 6 Dustin Morgan 312 7 Brian Harrell 398 7 Rod Hicks 296 8 Greg Benner 396 8 Pat Ackley 276 9 Dan Fitzgerald 346 9 Howard Brown 272 10 Dan Rodgers 290 10 Greg Tucker 270 LEGEND CARS: FIGURE 8s: 1 Tom Landreth 572 1 Rusty Stewart 232 2 Art Nevill 570 2 Robert Rice 224 3 Jim Smith 452 3 Jeff Marquet 202 4 Ricky Wildman 418 4 Ron Chaney 184 5 Ralph Alexander 398 5 Billy Ziemann 172 6 Bob Landreth 362 6 Chris Williamson 160 7 Jim Kalawaia 326 7 Harry Kuenniger 148 8 Gary Scheuerell 316 8 Don Rogers 136 9 Donnie Akers 312 9 Henry Miles 114 9 Mark Gaiser 312 10 Yagel Berkovitz 104 THANKS!