Toyota Speedway at Irwindale July 24th.
SWT TRUCKS: The 11-truck race had a three-truck invert starting lineup based on qualifying times. Fastest qualifier Jeff Williams shot from third to first entering the first turn and led front row starters Michael Zimmerman and Brady Helm for 15 laps. Then a truck spun to the infield leaving turn two with no yellow flag resulting. Williams slowed to sixth place. Second year driver Zimmerman led laps 17-35 and won his second consecutive feature by ten yards (0.597) over Helm.
Early leader Williams slowed even more with a mechanical problem and was lapped on lap 22. At lap 24 Williams exiting the fourth turn with sparks showing from his RF tire. The lapped truck of Glenn Schwenger slammed into the right side of Williams’ truck and the front straight wall near the starting line. Both damaged trucks crossed the line and stopped on the front straight without driver injuries. Seven trucks finished and all ran 35 laps. Neil Conrad placed third in his rebuilt No. 87 truck. "I hit the wall near the third turn at 80 mph during our last race. Thanks to all who helped me rebuilt it." Point leader Zimmerman, who won his first ever main on June 19, now leads Conrad by six points (326-320) after seven of ten events.
The Seven Year Itch
5/8/2010
IRWINDALE, CA - The Southwest Tour Trucks always put on a great show and this night was no different.
In qualifying:
· Jeff Williams set on top with a 20.046
· Michael Zimmerman qualified second with a 20.257
· Neil Conrad was third with a 20.412
· Brady Helm fourth with a 20.663
- Ed Cutler rounded out the top five with a 20.678
The main event would be a full invert except three trucks decided to start at the back actually making it an invert of eight. At the start of the main event it was Cecil Phelps #66 on the pole and Tony Curtis #07 on the outside pole.
At the drop of the green positions began to change. The #96 of Tom Mikla took the lead on the first lap with Neil Conrad in the #87 a few truck lengths back. Ed Cutler #4 was running third, Jeff Williams in the #28 fourth and Brady Helm in #45 was fifth.
In the early stages of the race Jeff Williams moved into third and began to challenge Neil Conrad for second. Neil was running down Tom Mikla and the #15 of Michael Zimmerman joined the mix as well. Neil Conrad took the lead on lap six and the #96 and the #15 battled hard with each other for second with the #28 running on their bumper in fourth.
Battles were everywhere Cecil Phelps and Tony Curtis were battling for sixth and the #4 of Ed Cutler joined in. Dan Coburn and Glenn Schwenger were fighting over 9th place and Dallas Johnson a young man that was having his first race with the series in a very long time and his first race at Irwindale Speedway was running 10th.
Zimmerman and Mikla battled a little too hard and made contact. The #15 was able to keep going but the #96 was damaged and left the track. On the restart after a caution Neil Conrad led the pack to the green with the #28 in second. At the drop of the flag Neil Conrad stretched out his lead as the #28 truck did not go. The #28 dropped to fifth place before the engine could come to life. Lap by lap the #28 made its way back into second place. The end of the 35 lap event was now in sight and Neil Conrad had led all but five of the 35 lap event.
The blue #87 would take his first win in seven years and cure his “Seven Year Itch” with a fine performance. Jeff Williams in the #28 was second, the #45 of Brady Helm was third, Ed Cutler finished in fourth, and the 15 of Michael Zimmerman was 5th.
Everyone did a great job and put on a great show for the fans. Our condolences go to Clarke Farrar in the #47, Clarke had mechanical problems in practice and was unable to make the main event.
Congratulations to Neil Conrad for his victory.
Race Number Two of the 2010 Season Saturday started off well with several of the South West Tour Truck teams having a good time in the parking lot before the gates opened. The weather was great and it looked like a good day for racing. It was obvious by the half empty pit area that the economy is still taking its toll on the racing community so I thank everyone that made the race and we hope that more and more start to attend. The first practice was led by Jeff Williams with a 20.4 best lap, Neil Conrad second with a 20.8 best lap and Michael Zimmerman third with a 28.9 best lap. During the second practice Williams and Conrad stayed in the pits while Zimmerman picked up four tenths and posted a 20.5. Brady Helm posted a 20.9 and Ed Cutler a 21.0 It should be noted that Larry Haw, in his first South West Tour Truck ride, posted a 22.7 in the first practice and a 21.8 in the second, a big improvement. Way to go Larry. In qualifying the #28 driven by Jeff Williams turned in another sizzling lap of 19.86 to take the pole position. Michael Zimmerman is beginning to show his potential and posted a 20.44 for second and Neil Conrad looking good this year posted a 20.47 for third. For the main event, Toyota Speedway officials decided to invert the entire field. Larry Haw and Glen Schwenger opted to remain at the back of the pack so the first and second fastest qualifiers started 7th and 8th. The front row consisted of the #66 of Cecil Phelps and the #21 of Dan Coburn. Knowing that everyone was just inches behind them it was a bit tense. Coming to turn one Phelps took that lead and Tom Mikla pulled into second. Jeff Williams dove to the bottom and was running on the yellow line, he pulled along side of Neil Conrad in turns one and two. Going into turns three and four, there were five trucks that you could have thrown a blanket over, Phelps, Cutler, Williams, Conrad and Mikla. On the second lap, the #15 of Zimmerman and the #45 truck of Helm and #21 of Coburn joined the group of five and made it eight trucks running together in turn one. At the exit of turn two on lap number two, Williams made it by Cutler to take over the lead. Lap two saw Williams in first, Mikla in second, Conrad third, Zimmerman and Helm rounded out the top five. By lap three Conrad had moved into second place and Zimmerman moved into third on lap four. With five laps to go in the 35-lap race, a caution came out when the blue "duce" with (Scary) Larry Haw at the wheel spun out coming out of turn four. He hit the wet grass but thank goodness that was all he hit. Haw got the "duce" fired up and rejoined the pack. The #15 of Zimmerman was battling the #87 of Conrad for second place and the crowd was on the edge of their seats to see how that battle would unfold when the green flag dropped again. When the green flag flew the #28 of Williams pulled away by several truck lengths and the #87 pulled a couple of truck lengths on the #15. The 15 went back to work on the 87 and on lap 34 he took over 2nd place. This was the second win in a row for Jeff Williams who has really been fast and this was the best finish ever for Mike Zimmerman and a good finish in third for Neil Conrad. Something happened to Glenn Schwenger’s truck and he went out of the race on lap 8, we hope his truck is okay. We thank Larry Haw for adding a truck to our line up and we hope to see more of our teams at the next race.
SWTT Opening Race of 2010
It was so good to be back at the race track after a few months off. Working on the truck is fun but racing it is the best.
We didn’t have the turn out that we had hoped for but thanks to all that showed up. We hope the rest of you will be at the second race.
Irwindale’s schedule featured seven different series and that makes for a very packed program. The SWTT were scheduled last on the list which means you have a lot of time on your hands between qualifying and the main event, or looking on the bright side if you have a problem you have a lot of time to fix it.
In the practice sessions the faster times were held by Neil Conrad and Mike Zimmerman. The #28 truck did not post a practice time due to a faulty transponder.
In qualifying:
- Jeff Williams pulled off a shocker and broke the track record with a 19.845 at 90.703 mph. That was one heck of a lap.
- Neil Conrad qualified second with a 20.292.
- Michael Zimmerman qualified third with a 20.519. I believe that is Michael’s best qualifying position to date.
The invert was a six so Gus Nanos and Ed Cuttler started on the front row. They seemed to have a difference of opinion about what part of the track should belong to whom. Thank goodness they got it worked out before the green flag fell.
At the 10:30PM start it was Gus Nanos getting to turn number one first; Ed Cuttler took the low line and fell in behind Nanos. Unfortunately for the #4 of Ed Cuttler the #45 of Brady Helm was also trying to run low on the track and the two came together. Cuttler got the worst of it and spun out in the apex of turns one and two. When Cuttler and Helm collided the #87 of Neil Conrad and the #15 of Michael Zimmerman took evasive maneuvers to keep from being collected in the accident.
While all of this action on the bottom was going on the #28 of Jeff Williams was passing everyone on the outside. Williams moved from sixth to first coming off of the second turn and was able to put some distance between himself and everyone else.
Halfway through the race we saw battles between the #87, the #96 of Tom Mikla, and the #15. Nanos in the #55 had fallen to fourth; the #96 was now in fifth, the #45 in sixth and a big battle between the #47 of Clarke Farrar, the #66 of Cecil Phelps and the #21 of Dan Coburn. The #4 of Ed Cuttler at this point was a lap down because of the spin on the first lap.
The race was caution free, Jeff Williams led all 20 laps for the win, Neil Conrad worked his way up to 2nd , Mike Zimmerman had his best finish of 3rd. Gus Nanos produced another top five picking up where he left off in 2009. Tom Mikla who travels all the way from Tucson AZ. to race with us also snagged a top five. Brady Helm finished 6th, Clarke Farrar 7th Cecil Phelps 8th, Ed Cuttler 9th and Dan Coburn finished 10th.
It was hard luck for Ed Cuttler but we know he will be back battling for top fives, his truck ran really well but the spin on lap one really hunt his finish.
The best battle of the race was between Dan Coburn, Clarke Farrar, and Cecil Phelps; they were trying really hard and put on a great show for the fans.
Dan Coburn came back this year with a really good looking truck. The new body looked great Dan.
Finally congratulations to Jeff Williams for setting a new track record and winning the Main Event. That was a great performance.
It seemed that everyone had a great time and we hope to see everyone at race #2.
