IRWINDALE, Calif. – Preston Peltier took home the top prize in Saturday’s SPEARS SRL Southwest Tour Series main event at Irwindale Speedway.
Senneker Performance ensured the winner would receive $5,000. The purse attracted an all-time high Irwindale field of 34 super late models. The SPEARS Manufacturing Modified Series was also on hand.
About 3,000 spectators viewed a pair of 50-lap segments for the super late models and a pair of 40-lap segments for the modifieds. Drivers with the best average finishes in the combined segments were the winners in each division. Ties were broken by the highest finishes in the second segments. The new format commemorated the 50th year anniversary for long-time racing sponsor Spears, based in So Cal.
Two drivers removed all doubt about the winner in each division. Peltier, a 41-year old veteran super late model driver, came from his base in Brighton, Colo., and raced at Irwindale for the first time. He won both 50-lap super late model segments and earned $5,000.
Peltier, a 2010 PASS South and PASS National champion, drove the Generator Source Hamke chassis for Colorado-based Ed Vecchicrelli. He has employed Peltier for three years to race and maintain his fleet of seven super late models and two modifieds. Peltier left his Bakersfield-area home at age 18 and worked as a fabricator at Hendrick Motorsports on the No. 24 car driven by Jeff Gordon.
Peltier now races in high-dollar super late model events around the nation, including the Snowball Derby in Florida, events at Evergreen Speedway in Monroe, Wash., plus the Winter Showdown in Bakersfield, where he finished third this year in a Rowdy Chassis.
Trevor Cristiani, 25, from Boise, Idaho, duplicated Peltier’s dominance by winning both 40-lap segments of the modified event in his own STR chassis. It was his second visit to Irwindale. He duplicated his Aug. 18 victory last season as a modified series rookie aboard a car owned by Don Newman.
With cool temperatures during the late afternoon, one-lap track records in both series were broken. Four drivers topped the super late model record of 17.272 seconds set in 2016. Peltier, Rod Thorn and Trevor Huddleston broke Thorn’s old mark. Then Dylan Lupton, a 25-year old Californian who has raced in NASCAR national series for four years, turned the new record of 17.055 seconds (105.541 mph) as the 19th qualifier.
Cristiani broke the modified series track record of 18.470 previously set by Ryan Partridge with a lap of 18.424 seconds (97.699 mph).
A 35-lap Southwest Tour Truck Series main event with nine trucks opened racing Saturday. Ronnie Davis Jr. led the final 34 laps of the 35-lap event. He won by 5.699 seconds over Mike Kelperis. He became the third winner after three races at three tracks.