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Rip Michels and the Stock Building Supply, Victory Circle, Ladco
Race Team, posted its first top five finish in the young NASCAR
Auto Zone Elite Southwest Series season at the legendary Stockton
99 Speedway. Stockton is considered to be one of the most
treacherous racetracks in the country. Turns one and two are flat
like a parking lot, and turns three and four banked like Mesa
Marin.
Rip qualified 6th quickest amoung 31 competitors and because of the
invert, started on the pole. Rip had problems on the start and
broke the rear tires loose causing the car to pitch sideways and
lose momentum to outside front row starter, Eddie Mckean. Rip fell
back to third and was content to ride in that position and
maintain contact with the leaders.
Unfortunately, Rip had a problem getting around a lap car and
bounced the Stock Building Supply Chevrolet off the front stretch
wall, causing him to fall back to 5th. Rip worked his way back up
to 4th were he ended up finishing the night.
“It was a great night for us” said Rip. “This is a tough track to
get a hold of. You have to have a lot of finesse driving into turn
one, and you can really drive it into turn three”. I kind of
messed up the start when I broke the tires loose, but to come here
for our first time and finish 4th , we are extremely pleased”.
Rip currently leads the Auto Meter Rookie of the year standings
with 47 points. The next race for the series will be at Rip’s home
track, Irwindale Speedway on May 29th where he has 37 wins to his
credit since the track opened in 1999. " I can hardly wait for
Irwindale, our new Victory Circle Elite car should be ready for
that race and we are really looking forward to it". "The race car
is just a work of art, I really want to thank Les and Craig for
building me such a beautiful race car" said Rip.
For more information on Rip and his sponsors, please visit Rip's
web site at www.ripmichels.com. |
