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Rip Michels and the Stock Building Supply/ Ladco Racing/ Victory
Circle Chevrolet racing team participated in the 2nd annual Toyota
All-Star Showdown this past Saturday night at Irwindale Speedway.
This invitation only event brought together 40 of the best short
track drivers from across the nation who competed in the NASCAR
AutoZone Elite touring divisions.
The team had good reason to be excited about this event; Rip has
three championships and has the most wins at the Irwindale track.
However, when you bring the 40 best drivers and teams together, no
one has an advantage. The practice times showed that all 40
drivers were within six tenths of a second from each other.
Rip struggled in the first practice with a time of 18.279, good for
15th. The team worked on the car and by the end of the second
practice, Rip was on top of the leader board with a time of
18.021, the fastest time set for the weekend.
The team felt they had a good car for Friday night’s qualifying
races. These races would determine the starting position for the
125-lap race on Saturday. Rip was in the second Elite division
race and started 8th on the field. When the green flag fell, Rip
moved his way up, but the car was very loose. Rip made his way up
to fourth place where he would finish. That would secure him an
8th place starting position for the big money race on Saturday
night.
On Saturday night Rip lined up in the fourth row outside for the
start of the two-segment race. The first segment would be 75 laps.
The teams would then get a ten-minute half time break to adjust on
their cars. In the first 75-lap segment, Rip was in a heated
battle for fourth place. Rip challenged Northwest Tour brothers
Jeff and Jason Jefferson in a three wide battle for most of the
race. Rip ended up finishing sixth in the first segment.
Rip won the six-car invert picked by the fans, which put Rip on the
pole for the final 50-lap segment. When the green flag dropped,
Rip took the lead for the next 43 laps with a number of cautions
in-between. Unfortunately, the car was too tight to hold off
fellow Nascar AutoZone Elite Southwest Division competitor, Eric
Holmes. Rip ended up settling for a second place finish.
“This weekend was everything I dreamed it would be. I would really
like to thank Toyota, NASCAR, and the folks from Irwindale
Speedway for this great event,” said Rip, “The car was very loose
during the race on Friday night, so we decided to make some
adjustments during the day on Saturday. We ended up tightening the
car too much for the first segment and burned off the right rear
tire trying to get the car turned in the corners. The team made
great adjustments during the half time break, but we just didn’t
go far enough. We were still too tight in the center. I drove that
car for all it was worth and I just couldn’t hold off Eric. Eric
had the best car all night and it showed. We took a fifth place
car and finished second. When you have 40 of the best race car
drivers in the nation competing, second really isn’t all that
bad,” commented Rip.
“We are extremely pleased with our overall performance this year,”
said Michael Sprague, tire specialist. “A year ago we had just
wrapped up our third championship here at Irwindale. The tour was
such a huge learning curve for all of us. The pace is so much
faster on the tour and the competition is incredible. Then you get
to come to an event like the Toyota All Star Showdown, and you are
completely humbled by the amount of talent in both drivers and
crews. It just makes us want to be that much better for next
year,” commented Michael.
The team now has ten weeks to prepare for the beginning of the
2005-racing season. They will be heading to the NASCAR awards
banquet held in Las Vegas, Nevada on December 10th. Rip will be
honored with his 7th place finish in the points and the 2004
AutoMeter Rookie of the Year.
For more information on Rip Michels and his sponsors, please visit
www.ripmichels.com
Source: LRM Sports Marketing, Inc |
