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Photo's by Steve Lamothe of http://www.stevesracingphotos.com
Strong night with Golden State Challenge Series at Petaluma Speedway ends prematurely for Zach Zimmerly in turn-two crash
By Gary Thomas
Petaluma, CA – April 21, 2010…Heading back to the site of his first ever sprint car win young Zach Zimmerly looked to be in position to have a career best night with the Golden State Challenge Series on Saturday evening, until an accident in the second corner just before the midway-point ended those chances at the Petaluma Speedway.
Zimmerly last September had won a California Sprint Car Civil War Series event at the Petaluma Speedway and despite not ending the night how he wanted this past Saturday he remained upbeat when taking the night in as a whole. "We were really fast all night in Petaluma and had a really awesome car," said the 15-year-old. "The feature didn't end how we wanted, but overall I feel it was a great night for the whole team and I can't thank my dad and Scott and Duke McMillen enough for helping me have a great racecar each and every week."
The West Linn, Oregon driver went into the night on Saturday fresh off a career best seventh place finish with the Golden State Challenge Series the previous week and opened-up the event in Petaluma by timing-in ninth fastest overall. Zimmerly then started on the front row of the heat race and easily checked out from the field to score the win by nearly a half-lap aboard the Christian Stover Foundation, Level One Concrete, McMillen Motorsports No. 94 sprinter. With one of the top-eight qualifiers being penalized due to qualifying out of order, it put Zimmerly into the dash for the second week in a row and he would draw the number four pill to give him a second row starting spot in the six-lap contest.
When the green flag came out in the dash Zimmerly settled into third and began to go after 13-time King of California Brent Kaeding for the runner-up position. The 15-year-old driver charged hard after Kaeding, but despite pulling up to his rear bumper on the final lap he couldn't get an opening and had to settle for third at the conclusion. "We were extremely fast in the heat race and in the dash I felt like I was faster than Brent, but the track was just too hard to pass on at that point," he said. "Being that good in the dash though definitely gave me some confidence heading into the feature."
Going from the second row in the 30-lap Golden State Challenge Series main event Zimmerly positioned himself into fourth during the early stages, before dropping a spot to a fast moving Kyle Larson on lap-nine. Just as traffic came into play and he attempted to close back up on the top-four though, Zimmerly had the front wheels come off the ground and caught a rut, which resulted in him flipping off the second corner with 12-laps complete. Zimmerly was checked out by the ambulance crew and was fortunately ok, but that wasn't the case for the car as damage was too severe to continue on and it put an end to the night.
"At the start of the main event we fell a couple spots and weren't quite as good as in the dash, but I think the car was going to come in with the race playing on," Zimmerly said. "Right after Kyle got by me I found a line where the car worked pretty well, but just when I was starting to catch the pack ahead of me the front-end rose up off turn-two, which wasn't too bad until I caught a rut. Once that happened all I saw was sky and noticed the car was facing the wall so I knew I was along for the ride. I didn't want the night to end like that, but if we continue to be as fast as we've been I have a feeling we'll be up there challenging for our first GSC win real soon."
Zimmerly will now head for two-night's of scheduled racing starting with the opener of the Silver Dollar Speedway Feather Falls Casino/Riebes Auto Parts 410 point season on Friday. Following that the Oregon racer will bring the Douglas Wheel Technologies, Miller&Zimmerly Holdings, Fire-Down Graphics No. 94 into the Ocean Speedway on Saturday for round number five of the Golden State Challenge Series. Zimmerly currently ranks seventh in the GSC standings and is just 11-points out of the top-five going into the Watsonville based quarter-mile clay oval this weekend.
For information, news, pictures and more on young Zach Zimmerly log onto http://www.zachzimmerly.com and don't forget to follow us on twitter at http://twitter.com/ZZR94
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Next up for Zach Zimmerly and the Butler Built Performance, McMillen Motorsports No. 94 will be the scheduled Bill Brownell Memorial/Silver Dollar Speedway 410 opener this Friday night. The 15-year-old is pictured here 'hard on the gas' at the high-banked Chico, CA quarter-mile last season. Then on Saturday the team will be in action with the Golden State Challenge Series at the Ocean Speedway in Watsonville.
www.sprintcarchallengetour.com
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