SEPTEMBER 14 RACE REPORT

SEPTEMBER 14 … IRWINDALE SPEEDWAY RACE REPORT
By TIM KENNEDY 

Rip Michels became the first driver to clinch a track championship this season at Irwindale Speedway on Saturday before 5,630 spectators in round 18 of the 19 race season. The Mission Hills driver led all the way in the 25-car NASCAR Jani-King Super Late Model 75-lap feature. The race also was round nine of ten in the Miller Lite Big 10 Challenge, led by Michels. 

Michels started his Ladco, M & R Engines Chevrolet Monte Carlo on the 
pole as the second fastest qualifier. He won a series record eight main 
events this season. Michels also became the second to win two championships 
at the four-year old track and the first driver to win titles in two racing 
divisions. (Jeff Green won the 2000-01 championships in Super Stocks.) 
Michels was Irwindale's 2000 champion in NASCAR Grand American Modifieds 
before he switched his racing program to the track's premier SLM division as 
a rookie last season. 

Michels, who won four of the five main events since August 17, also broke 
a tie with NASCAR Late Model Division driver Todd Burns for most feature 
victories at the track. Michels now has 26 main event trophies (including 17 
victories in the GAM division) to 25 triumphs for Late Model point leader 
Burns. 

"I can't believe I'm the champion here in the premier Super Late Model 
Division. I always looked up to (Ron) Hornaday and (Dan) Press in these cars. 
I thought I'd be driving a Grand American Modified for the rest of my life," 
Michels told  the media in a post-race conference. 

He said he has been lucky this year and praised his crew for working long hours and doing whatever is necessary to win. Michels then turned his attention to his competition with a driver at Madera Speedway for the lead in the NASCAR Weekly Racing Series rankings. "How did he do tonight?" was the question from Michels. He also revealed he 
might try NASCAR's touring Southwest Series next year if sponsorship can be 
secured. 

Two truck classes raced on the banked half-mile in the four-division 
program Saturday. Ron Peterson led all but the first lap of the 50-lap Ultra 
Wheel Super Truck 25-truck race. It was his second triumph of 2002 at the 
track. He started third in his Frahm Dodge-backed Dodge and passed pole 
starter Tom Stanton, the initial leader. 

Fastest qualifier Michael May, aboard a 2000 Ford, led all the way from 
the pole in a 24-truck West Coast Pro Truck Series main event that officials 
reduced from 40 to 30 laps as the 10:00 p.m curfew arrived. Point leader 
May's sixth feature victory at Irwindale this year came in race 12, including 
ten races under the series former American Race Truck Series name. 
The King Taco Legend Cars 35-lap feature ran on the third-mile track and 
started 27 of the replica 1930s Chevys, Dodges and Fords. Fastest qualifier 
Brent Jones led all 35 circuits from the pole for his only main event victory 
this year. His captured his initial feature trophy in his same 1934 Chevy 
last season. 

A controversy occurred during lap 13 when the Legend Cars of point 
leader/second-running Ricky Wildman and third place Ted Landreth collided in 
the first turn. Wildman spun and restarted on the lead lap. However, he 
finished 18th and lost the track point lead to second finisher/defending 
Legend Cars track champion Tom Landreth, the brother of Ted who finished 
third. Wildman entered the race 24 points ahead of Tom. When the race ended 
college freshman Wildman trailed l934 Ford driver Tom Landreth by eight 
points (448-440). Only two races remain in the 12-race schedule that will 
conclude October 5. 

In a unique tribute to the heroes of September 11, 2001, all 25 SLM 
drivers held large American flags on poles extended from the driver's side of 
their cars during the parade laps. Patriotic recorded music and a fireworks 
show from the backstretch followed the final main event. 

SLM fastest qualifier Tim Woods III, who started second, chased pole 
starter Michels for 31 laps before he yielded second spot to eighth starter 
Brandon Loverock. They finished in that order. Loverock trailed Michels by 
0.983 seconds. James Roland was fourth. NASCAR Southwest Series driver Nick 
Joanides came from 11th starting position to fifth in the Jackson Race Cars 
"house car" and earned the hard charger merchandise award. Nick DeFazio, 
leading SLM rookie Dan Moore, 1999 SLM track champion Rod Johnson, Kazuto 
Yanagawa and Doug Renno completed the top ten. Twenty of 25 drivers finished 
and 17 ran all 75 laps. 

Tony Bruncati, a SLM series front runner, was in fourth position on lap 
38 when the fifth place car of Roland made contact with Bruncati's Ford, 
which looped. He lost a lap and finished 18th. Bruncati trailed Michels in 
Miller Lite Big 10 Challenge points by only four points before the race. The 
lap 38 mishap dropped Bruncati 36 points behind Michels and 22 points behind 
second place point man Loverock. Woods now is fourth, only six points in 
back of Bruncati. Only the top three drivers split the $10,000 Miller Lite 
point fund--$5,000, $3,000 and $2,000. 

Joe Herold, Carson Woods III, rookie Ryan Arciero and Jim McGill finished 
second through fifth in the Ultra Wheel Super Truck race. Woods reclaimed the 
track's series point lead by six points (310 to 304) over Rich Geisler, who 
entered the race as the point leader. Geisler started 17th and he finished 
seventh. McGill is third in points at 302 with only one race (October 5) 
remaining in the nine-race Irwindale series. 

KING TACO LEGEND CARS: 
Fast Time: Art Nevill, 17.057. 
Main: Brent Jones, Tom Landreth, Ted Landreth, Nevill, Bill Everett, Bob 
Landreth, Jim Smith, Bob Graham III, Jim Kalawaia, Cory Miles, Ralph 
Alexander, Steve Twilligear, Dave Green, Mark Gaiser, Donnie Akers, Gary 
Scheuerell, Tom Skahill, Ricky Wildman, Wendi Westbrook, Jason Alsop, Bill 
Bonney, Dennis O'Connor, Warren Merrifield, Bill Vose, Greg Pyke, Brian 
Vandehey, Uli Perez.
 
ULTRA WHEEL SUPER TRUCKS: 
Fast Time: Carson Woods III, 19.350. 
Main: Ron Peterson, Joe Herold, Woods III, Ryan Arciero, Jim McGill, Louis 
Mammolito, Rich Geisler, Scott Davidson, Jesse Poppen, Jim Kondziela, Brian 
Harris, P. J. Baker, Jim Madrid, Greg Adler, Paul Brennan, Dave 
Blankenship, Kevin O'Neil, Colin Dickinson, Jim Van Gordon, Ken Davis, Mark 
Laeger, Tom Stanton, Jon Campbell, Kyle Evans, Dan Moore. 

WEST COAST PRO TRUCKS: 
Fast Time: Michael May, 20.783. 
Main: May, Dave Lyon, Terry Young, Aaron Staudinger, Chris Johnson, Josh 
Hulsebosch, Jeff Williams, Kirk Knostman, Michael Thomas, Val Cummings, Tony 
Forfa III, Mike Pennington, Dale Cromwell, Robert Leininger, Jim Satterfield, 
Bret Carlson, Cal Vandervoort, Dean Kuhn, Joe Perez, Ray Komar, Don Helgeson, 
Neil Conrad, Dennis Bennett, Steve Dyer.
 
JANI-KING SUPER LATE MODELS: 
Fast Time: Tim Woods III, 18.291. 
Dash: Nick DeFazio, Tony Bruncati, Rip Michels, T. Woods III, James Roland, 
Deyon Young. 
Main: Michels, Brandon Loverock, T. Woods III, James Roland, Nick Joanides, 
DeFazio, Dan Moore, Rod Johnson, Kazuto Yanagawa, Doug Renno, Brent Reynolds, 
Gary Jenkins, Deyon Young, Roger Brown, Russell White, Chris Skelton, Andy 
Coyle, T. Bruncati, Tony Gomez, Mike Brusco, Bob Caron, Chris Oddo, Stephan 
Sadler, Rob King, Keith Spangler. 

ATTACHED PHOTO: THAT'S THE HAPPY MICHELS TEAM AT IRWINDALE'S VICTORY SQUARE