STREAK CONTINUES WITH FIFTH STRAIGHT WIN!
(05-17-08) Driver Nick Joanides, in the J&M Racing AC Delco Super Late Model, with Jackson Race Cars pulled off his fifth consecutive win. This time however, he had to work hard for it. With temperatures in excess of 100 degrees, track conditions in afternoon practice were not good. The fastest cars were nearly a half a second off normal practice times. Knowing that they would not learn anything in these conditions, the team chose not to run any practice laps. They bolted on a set of sticker tires for qualifying and set the fastest qualifying time for the fourth consecutive event.
With
only a two invert, Joanides started the main event from the outside pole
position. Current point leader Dan Moore was on the pole and decided to
play games prior to the green flag, getting into the side of Joanides
and running him up to the marbles coming to the green. Joanides was
still able to get a decent start, however Moore, while still not being
clear, came up the track heading into turn one. Joanides backed off to
avoid turning him 
head first into the wall and settled into the second
position. An accident back in the pack brought out the caution at lap
one. Joanides wasted little time on the restart and took the lead from
Moore on lap 5 with an inside pass. Joanides led the rest of the way,
but third starter Travis Thirkettle, who took over the second position
on lap 9, put up heck of a fight. The two battled hard nose to tail and
side by side all the way to the finish with Joanides winning by just
0.334 seconds. Both drivers set the fastest lap of the race with
identical 18.67 second laps on lap 4. "That boy wore me out"
Joanides said of Thirkettle.
With the win, Joanides moves up one spot to third in the local point standings, just 8 points out of second and 22 out of the lead. With five bonus points awarded for wins in the National and Regional standings, Joanides unofficially leads the California Regional point standings. The National and Regional standings were established to rate drivers all across the country to determine national and regional champions at the end of the year. The California Region contains five different race tracks with more than 150 drivers earning points so far. Official standings will be released on June 4th.
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