LOS ANGELES – The second ARCA Menards Series West race of the year at Irwindale Speedway occurred in front of a sold out crowd of 6,500.
The car count increased from 18 on July 3 to 20 on Aug. 21. The NAPA Auto Parts 150 was presented again by the West Coast Stock Car Hall of Fame. NBCSN recorded the race for a one-hour national telecast on Aug. 28. It captured the competitiveness and intensity of the event. The 150-lap race started at 7:05 p.m. and concluded at 8:13 p.m. There were six caution flags, including the mid-race break, totaling 38 laps.
There were eight Toyotas, seven Fords and five Chevrolets. A mid-race full-field break for service took place on the third-mile oval in turns three and four so spectators could watch pit work. For the first time at Irwindale, ARCA held the autograph session for fans under the main grandstand instead of on the front straight. Drivers were introduced individually on the front walkway of the grandstand. Then they got into their race cars and drove to the backstretch and to the front straight for usual intros row by row.
There were three female drivers — Amber Balcaen, 29, Bridget Burgess, 19, and rookie Mariah Boudrieau, 20, from Colorado Springs, Colo.
Boudrieau has raced late models at Colorado National Speedway. She raced the No. 77 Toyota at Irwindale for SoCal car owner Joe Nava. Balcaen is from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Burgess, from Brisbane, Australia, now resides in Utah. There also were two drivers from Japan — Takuma Koga, from Nagoya, and Hiroyuki Ueno, from Osaka.
Balcaen qualified 11th fastest, Burgess was 13th and Boudrieau 17th quickest. Koga was 12th fastest and Ueno 18th best. Paul Pedroncelli Jr. was fastest at 97.699 mph and his father was 20th at 86.622 mph, so they bookended the field.
First-time ARCA driver Sebastian Arias, 21, is from Bogota, Columbia. He said he wants to be the next Columbia-born driver after Juan Pablo Montoya to make his mark in the United States. He began racing at age 11 in karting. His father Nestor is his biggest fan and supporter. He sold the family home in Bogota to finance Sebastian’s rise through the ranks to his ultimate goal — NASCAR. His dad’s money ran out years ago, but Sebastian has teamed with his management company InterPhase Entertainment. BradyIFS, a large janitorial and food service distributor in the western United States, is sponsoring him currently.
Arias made his U.S. debut at Irwindale Aug. 21. He drove a fourth Bill McAnally Toyota Camry, the No. 5 that SoCal’s Lawless Alan raced last year as No. 12. During practice from 3 to 4:15 p.m., all 20 drivers ran as many laps as they wanted on the half-mile. Arias turned the 14th fastest time (93.250 mph) on his 27th of 28 laps. He earned a starting spot on the outside of the seventh row. Unfortunately, he contacted the crashwall in turn three and broke the rear end and driveshaft according to his crew, so he did not start the race. However, he did participate in the driver autograph session.
The innovative qualifying session used by the series at Irwindale for the first time counted all practice laps run by each driver as official qualifying laps. Drivers ran a low of six and eight laps and a high of 48 laps. Eight drivers ran 40 or more practice/qualifying laps. Most drivers logged their fastest laps during their last couple of laps.
Half of the 20-car grid were ARCA West rookies. They included: Cole Moore, 25, the 2020 SPEARS SRL Southwest Tour super late model champion, Joey Iest, 18, ARCA’s July 31 Dacono, Colo., winner, Eric Nasciemento, Irwindale NASCAR late model regular Jake Drew, 21, driving the Sunrise Ford No. 9, Balcaen, Boudrieau, Ueno, Arias, Pedroncelli Sr., and NorCal’s Brian Kamisky.
Dean Thompson, 20, was home after testing positive for COVID-19. His crew chief/spotter/driving coach Ryan Partridge became the substitute driver of the HPR No. 51 Ford. He turned the ninth fastest qualifying time. Partridge had raced in the series regularly in Bob Bruncati’s No. 9 Ford through the 2019 season and had won five races in the touring series and finished second in series points when it was known as NASCAR K&N Pro Series West.
Partridge, 33, was the ideal choice as substitute driver. He was the chief driving instructor at Irwindale for the track driving school. He did not race in 2020 and came out of retirement to race a NASCAR spec late model twice for a recuperating driver in July and August. He won both races on the half-mile to bring his Irwindale feature victory count to 62, fourth best all-time at the track. He finished the ARCA 150 fifth as one of 13 finishers and eight drivers on the lead lap. Runner-up Drew trailed the winner by half a second. The top eight finishers were within 2.728 seconds. The ARCA 150 went into overtime and ran 153 laps because of a lap 146 yellow flag.
Trevor Huddleston, the three-time (2015-17) NASCAR late model champion at Irwindale, shot from inside row two and led the first 87 laps in Bob Bruncati’s Sunrise Ford No. 6. Huddleston, 25, has won the most main events in Irwindale history after recording his 70th win recently. He waged a stirring duel with sensational Toyota rising star Jesse Love, 16. Love led laps 88-153 in McAnally’s No. 16 NAPA Toyota. That gave him three consecutive ARCA feature triumphs at Irwindale. Three years ago Love led a three-day Toyota combine that featured 10 young drivers participating trying to secure Toyota career development backing.
Love, the 2018 BCRA midget champion and a 2017-18 junior late model champion, has also raced Toyota-powered midgets for Keith Kunz in POWRi. He won the 2020 ARCA Menards Series West championship as a rookie driving McAnally’s No. 19 Toyota. The versatile teen became the youngest ARCA champion in a NASCAR touring series. In his spare time he also raced super late models and winged sprint cars.
Love, from Menlo Park, Calif., now lives in Cornelius, N.C. He flew out of Los Angeles Saturday at 11:30 p.m. to Chicago and raced Sunday afternoon, Aug. 22 in the ARCA Menards Series annual Springfield 100-lap race that MAVTV televised nationally. It was his first race on a mile dirt track. He started third, raced near the front, and finished fifth in a 16-car field. Corey Heim, driving for Venturini Motorsports, won.