SRL S2 Tour, Legend Cars, & Irwindale Race Trucks Too!
Irwindale, Calif. – – After two quiet Saturday nights in a row Irwindale Speedway fans have got to really be ready for a great night of high speed short track racing … and Saturday, June 6 looks just perfect.
The cars of the SRL Spears Southwest Tour will be making their annual visit to the blended banking of the Irwindale half-mile for the Spears Southwest Tour 100 presented by Pinnacle Peak Steakhouse. That’s 100 action-packed laps, straight through, no pit stops, just full-out, side-by-side full-out professional stock car racing with some of the very best in the business looking to grab some gold at the legendary Irwindale half-mile.
After the first three of nine races in the 2015 SRL Championship quest, Jeff Bischofberger (#66) from Long Beach leads the pack with 460 points. Goleta, California’s Greg Voigt (#29 a multi-time Irwindale main event winner) lies second only 11 points back at 449 with (#20) Tracy Bolin (Valley Springs) waaaaay too close for comfort in third at 448. Carlos Vieira (# 51) from Livingston is fourth in points, with rookie sensation (#31) Ryan Cansdale (Laguna Beach) very close behind … fifth place in points with 424.
Adding to the excitement the SRL’s own S2 Tour cars will also compete on Saturday night in the fourth of 10 championship points races that the spec-class cars will run in 2015.
Arcadia’s Johnny Butler leads the S2’s in with 685 points on the board, followed closely by Cory Elliott (Bakersfield) who’s only nine points behind with 676. Another San Gabriel Valley “local”, Todd Cameron will come to his home track tied in third place with Natasha Dodd from Bass Lake at 612 markers each.
The S2 cars are all technically identical in every aspect and built almost right across the street from the Speedway at the Race Car Factory. Aimed at making driving prowess more important than outright expenditures, about the only thing that differentiates these cars are the colorful paint jobs that they each sport. They come complete, ready-to-race (except for paint and numbers), with a 350 horsepower Chevy “crate” engine and everything it takes for a serious run at a track title. And, because these machines are so evenly matched, every S2 is always exciting, always competitive from lap one to the checkered flag.
Legend Cars are the largest single class of racing cars ever seen on the face of the Earth, the cute-looking little ½-scale racing cars (made to look sort of like the first NASCAR “stockers” of the 40’s and 50’s) are, in reality, real race cars, in fact they are real FAST racecars that smoke around Irwindale’s quick inner third-mile track a astonishing speeds.
Legend Cars are also the place where hundreds of new drivers like the Busch brothers, Joey Logano, and Trevor Bayne all got their start s on the road to pro driving stardom. They’re a real crowd favorite at Irwindale. We’ve only had one race of the nine events that the Legends will run this year at IEC, and Chad Schug from Oak Hills leads the pack with winner’s haul of 50 points, Jordan Hyland (North Hills) is second at 48, Parker Steele from Peoria, Arizona is third at 46, Mark Lungerich (from Granda Hills) lies fourth with 44, and Darren Amidon (who is not from a place with “Hills” in the name) has 42 points in fifth place.
And that’s not all for June 6 … Another huge crowd favorite, the
Irwindale Race Trucks are also on the menu for Saturday night with veteran racer Ken Michaelian from Lawndale carry a 10 point lead over Las Vegas’ youngster Riley Herbst (170 to 160). Lucas McNeil from Saugus is only two points behind at 158 in third and Luis Martinez Junior (Long Beach) is only two back of McNeil at 156. To add to the IRT fun … none of the top four in this division has won a race yet this year (!). And Conner Cantrell (Valencia) who has won the last three races has a strong looking 150. With six races left to go, and one of them a double points run, this class is only 20 points apart from first to fifth and there’s 50 big ones of them up for grabs on Saturday!
FANS INVITED: If you’ve ever walked out on a pro football field or major league baseball diamond before a big game, you’ve felt if … The place looks and feels very different when viewed from the field of play.
Looking up into the Irwindale grandstands with row upon row of seats, the control tower, the starter’s stand and the spotters airy loft crowning the structure is like that.
… Look down the track almost at driver’s eve level to try to imagine how narrow their field of vision must be at 120 miles an hour heading into turn one. Feel the banking of the track …
Here on the front straight the banking is a sedate 6 degrees … out there as the corners rush up at you, the banking morphs from six to seven and a half, to nine, to twelve degrees all blended into one continuous swoop that (done right) hurls the race car down the back chute like a crack the whip ride at the amusement park …
And that’s what fans are going to experience when they attend Irwindale’s Pre-Race On-Track Autograph Session with all the cars, all the drivers, crews and all the excitement of the pre-race right down on the racetrack … no special pass needed … no extra charge … everyone young, old and in between are all invited: 5:45 p.m. RIGHT ON THE RACETRACK!