ROSEVILLE, Calif. – Derek Thorn won his 45th SPEARS SRL Southwest Tour feature in come from behind fashion on Saturday night at All American Speedway during the JM Environmental 150.
The Bakersfield, Calif., driver overcame a spin to win the feature.
Thorn led the first eight laps of the feature before a red flag for Trevor Huddleston pounding the turn three wall from the fourth position. Huddleston, the 2019 California State champion, was uninjured.
Eric Schmidt used a lap 20 caution to move past Tyler Fabozzi for second. Linny White hounded Schmidt for much of the first third of the race but couldn’t clear him for second. Thorn led Schmidt, White, Moore, and Fabozzi into the lap 50 scheduled break.
Schmidt went around the outside of Thorn on the restart to lead lap 51. Thorn then cut to the inside exiting turn two on lap 55, retaking the top spot. The caution flew a lap later for Idaho’s Zach Telford spinning. On the restart, Thorn jumped ahead which allowed White to move into second as well. Telford spun for an additional caution. The following restart saw White lead lap 79 on the outside.
Thorn nosed ahead at the line to complete lap 80 as the caution flew for debris on the backstretch. Another caution flew for additional debris which led to a restart where Gomes, Fabozzi, John Moore, and Jonathan Mawhinney piled up on the frontstretch. The incident brought the field to the lap 100 scheduled break 11 laps early.
Schmidt spun following the break, surrendering his position in the top-five. The spin allowed Cole Moore to advance up to second position as the race stayed green. Thorn began to pull away but spun from the lead in turn two to bring out a caution on lap 102. An oil down around the speedway was ruled as a possible cause, forcing a significant stoppage to the event.
Thorn rejoined the field from the rear while Carlos Vieira went outside Cole Moore on the restart to lead lap 103. Moore came back to him however, sticking his nose inside on multiple occasions. Cole Moore and Vieira collided for the lead a few laps later on the backstretch, which gave the lead back to a hard-charging Thorn.
Thorn capitalized on the final restart and outgunned Tracy Bolin on the way to the victory. Thorn led a strong run from John Moore and Jacob Gomes as the top-three finishers. Dean Thompson and Bolin rounded out the top-five.
The finish:
Derek Thorn, John Moore, Jacob Gomes, Dean Thompson, Tracy Bolin, Cole Moore, Kyle Neveau, Bobby Hodges, Eric Schmidt, Zach Telford, Carlos Vieira, Andy Allen, Linny White, Tyler Fabozzi, Jonathan Mawhinney, Joey Iest, Buddy Shepherd, Brandon Farrington, Scott Sanchez, Blaine Rocha, Michael Hite, Trevor Huddleston.