El Paso Speedway May 29
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The track at El Paso Speedway Park was as good as they come Friday night May 29th. There was high, there was low, the middle was amazing. Drivers could do anything on the track that they needed too, making for some of the best races of the season.
The night started with the 20 lap, USRA X-Mods main event with 12 X-Mods arriving up to do battle. After lap 1 it was all the PineTop Construction, MSD Performance, Patrick Carney Race Cars sponsored machine the 7C of John Carney Sr. After 7 laps the 52TX machine of Paddy Rush stepped up to the plate to make things interesting but with an unusual caution on lap 8 she would have to start outside John Carney Sr.
Carney Sr. pulled a good gap for the next few laps after the restart but with 5 laps to go the top 3 of Carney Sr., Paddy Rush, and Mingo Jauregui where once again running nose to tail. Even with all the bumping and sliding John Carney Sr. in the 7C would win and lead all but 1 lap in the 20 lap main event for the USRA X-Mods. Paddy Rush and Mingo Jauregui would battle hard and finish second and third respectively with Hector Prigione in the #38 finishing fourth and the #612 of Josue Saez finishing out the top 5.
Main event 2 of the evening came in the form of 20 laps from the USRA Street Stocks. Ten of these rough and tough warriors showed up for the night’s festivities and as usual they did not disappoint! The #08 of Michael Medina started inside pole with the #5 of Todd Tovar to his outside. A notable from the heat race was the #44JT of Jaime Torres who came from all the way back in 8th to 1st to grab the win in the Street Stock heat. Torres started outside row three for the main and was definitely a man to watch catch fire tonight.
At the drop of the green the #08 of Medina and the #5 of Tovar fell into line but behind them things got dicey! The #L750 of Froats, #74 of Josselyn and the #44JT of Torres would all go three wide into turn one to duke it out for third place. The #44JT would win that battle going from 6th - 3rd before even exiting turn 2! The first caution of the race would come just after that pass by Torres as the #5 of Tovar would get to high into 3 and smack the wall hard. That would be the end of the night for Tovar and we would go back to green with one lap in the books. The #08 of Medina took us back to green but the #44JT of Torres whom came all the way from 6th after one lap, would take the lead from Medina coming out turn two and never look back. With 12 laps to go #44JT Torres has a seven car length lead when the #08 pulls off the track. The #44X of George LaRose now runs 2nd but just like in the heats it becomes the JT show with ten to go. Torress may have been up a few car lengths ahead at this point but back in 3rd the #327 of Robert Vega and the #74 of Jason Josselyn where battling like it was the championship fight. They would run side by side for almost an entire lap before the Vega#327 would swing by and the outside with five to go and take 3rd all the way to the finish.
With one to go, no one in the house could touch #44JT Jaime Torres. He pushed the last circuit around smooth as butter and drove his Burger Time, Mainstreet Motors machine all the way to victory lane. The #44X of George LaRose would come across the line in 2nd with Jason Josselyn right on his tail for a solid third place finish. #327 Robert Vega and #MR13 Rudy Tarin III rounding out the top-five for USRA Street Stocks.
It was definitely a stacked field for the Southwest Late Models as 16 drivers came prepared to showdown. The #82 of Sherman Barnett would start inside pole with #911 of cliff Hansen to his outside. #G17 Fito Gallardo is our heat race notable finish coming all the way from the back to finish third in Heat 2 of the Late Models.
Gallardo starts inside row 2. Sean Bray was hauling in Heat 2 as well and starts outside row 6. As the green dropped it became ever more obvious who the competitors where going to be. It was the #357 Perez and #G17 of Gallardo who where going to be the men to beat. #82Barnett was still leading the field from a hard charging #911Cliff Hansen when the #911 machine got loose coming out of 2 causing #G17 Fito to check up. Giving the #357 of Perez an easy pass and a shot at the lead. Perez put down a sweet slide job on the #82 Barnett, taking the lead. From here Barnett slid back eventually leaving the track with an issue. Six laps in and its starting to look like the Oscar Perez show. Perez and the other top 3 are running such hot laps that only 8 laps in they find lapped traffic. With ten to go and after some bad groove choices by lapped drivers, Fito Gallardo has been able to catch Oscar Perez and the night is starting to look interesting!
The #29 of Mercedes Abercrombie is right in the mix as well and looked to move at any point. Perez finally found a clearing of lappers and started to check out again with 8 to go but only one lap later the #22N of Nita Deetz spins down the backstretch bringing out the first caution of the night. The restart goes great for Perez but with Gallardo still in touch. Perez and Gallardo nose to tail with 4 to go when the caution comes out for debris. This could be bad news for Perez as Fito Gallardo has been stomping the gas on restarts all night. This restart proves to be no different and Gallardo follows Perez perfectly in suit. They take the green flag, two laps to go! Perez and Gallardo come into turn one hard on the gas. Looks like Perez overdrives the corner slightly and around he goes. Gallardo gets away clean. Everybody maintains there positions except Perez who falls to the rear and we go back to green with a green white checkered! When the green waves Fito has competition from Mercedes in the #29 and Scott Logston in the #744. With 2nd and 3rd place battling it out Fito Gallardo is able to take his #G17 machine across the finish line in first place for the second time in the 2015 season. Logston passes Mercedes in the last few laps and takes second while #29 mercedes, #14 Bray and #57 Harris finish up the top five.
Only three hornets made it out to El Paso Speedway Park for the mains tonight but that doesn’t mean they didn’t make it interesting. Batman Rudy Tarin Jr #28T has lead every lap in his last two races. Tonight he shot for three. Starting in 3rd on the outside row 2 Tarin Jr had his work cut out for him to get to the first spot before the first lap was over! He had to pass both the #13X of Benny Penna and Chris Gonzalez in the #9. When the green flagged waved Penna took off like screaming bullet with Tarin just behind. The #9 of Gonzalez fell back slightly straight from the drop. It was down to the #13X and #28T. But who was going to get to the wire first and lead that first lap? Down the backstretch Tarin JR pulled a move that looked like it was straight out of Talladega Nights. He slingshot down into turn 3 just barely clearing the front of Penna. #28T Tarin Jr would continue his streak with that sweet move and would also go on to lead every lap after that for the 12 lap main event. Batman Rudy Tarin JR cant take all the credit for his win however. He had his girlfriend, known only as Robin, sitting in the passenger seat of the car the entire time! Ya you read that right, he won the race with a passenger. Maybe they should start calling him superman instead. This was the third straight win for Rudy and he has lead every lap of all three of those races. #13X Benny Penna took second with #9 Chris Gonzalez in third.
To finish off the night the Border International Truck 305 Winged Sprint Cars came out and put on a heck of a show! Wes Wofford #19 would start on the pole after getting the lucky draw in the Passing point Re-draw. To his outside was the 36DD of Matt Ziehl.
Wes Wofford jumped out to an early lead but #18 Lorne Wofford, his father, wasn’t far behind. One slip from Wes and the Wofford duo would be going at it toe to toe. As the wofford’s chased each other around the track the battle for third got hairy as #4 Harris battled with #36DD Ziehl. 5 laps in and #19 Wes Wofford still leads #18 Lorne Wofford with the #00 of Jerry Gonzalez and #131 of Royal Jones not far behind.
Lap 9 Wes Wofford was already catching lapped cars but seems to maneuver them perfectly. Almost drives the car as if they aren’t even there. The Wofford duo are 8 car lengths apart with 13 to go when the #19 of Wes seems to break down coming out of turn three and heads over the berm to the pits. #18 Lorne Wofford gladly takes over the lead from his son and by the time 10 to go has come around he has a full straight away over Gonzalez #00. As the #00 and #131 battle for second Wofford just continues to pull away.
6 laps to go and the #131 of Royal Jones is finally able to make the outside stick and he drives past the #00.
3 laps left in the night. The #18 only has a half corner lead on Royal Jones at this point and things are heating up! The next 2 laps they run nose to tail. It seems like Royal Jones has run out of laps and track but that doesn’t mean he is done trying. One last attempt to squeeze the inside coming onto turn 3 doesn’t prove worthy and that race is in the books! Lorne Wofford #18 wins by a car length over #131 Royal Jones. #00 Jerry Gonzalez, #48 Shawn Sander and #27 Cesar Fuentes finish out the top 5 for the Border international Trucks 305 Winged Sprint cars at El Paso Speedway Park!!
The Winged 305 Sprints will be back in action Saturday, May 30th, at the Southern New Mexico Speedway. The sport mods, X-Mods, Street Stocks and Bombers will also be joining them again for a great night racing!