Rookie Lupton sweeps Twin 30 Late Model races at Irwindale

Rookie Dylan Lupton of Wilton swept the Late Model Twin 30s at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale and Brandon Davis from Huntington Beach padded his lead in the Late Model standings with a pair of podium finishes at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale on Saturday night.
Lupton has won three of the past four Late Model races at Irwindale. Davis was third in the first race and second in the second race. He won the first five races of the season and was the runner-up in the next two. But he was disqualified after his car did not pass inspection after the most recent race.
Despite being disqualified, he entered Saturday night’s race with a 22-point lead over Toni McCray of San Bernardino.
McCray was eighth in the first race and fifth in the second race.
In other races, Zack Green from Long Beach won the Super Stocks race, the first of his career. Gerrit Cromsigt of Saugus was second, followed by Rich DeLong III of Santa Clarita in third.
DeLong maintained his lead in the Super Stocks standings despite not winning a race this season. He has one runner-up finish as is six points ahead of Curtis White of Norwalk and Green after five races.
Jeff Williams of Newbury Park won his fourth Southwest Tour Trucks race in a row. Neil Conrad of Arcadia finished second for the fourth race in a row. Kirk Knostman of Hesperia was third and finished on the podium for the first time in his career.
Jason Galvin of Valencia, one of the track announcers at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale, won the Open Comp race. He was followed by Jerry Toporek of Venice in second and Jim Schoening of Chicago in third.

Mike Johnson wins second straight NASCAR Late Model race at Irwindale

It looks like Mike Johnson is poised to put together another winning streak in the NASCAR Late Model division at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale.
Johnson won the Late Model race at Irwindale on Saturday night. It was his second in a row and his third of the season. He won four in a row last year and five of the last nine races. Johnson said he would like to win the rest of the races in the Late Model season at Irwindale.
“That’s my plan,” said Johnson, a driver from Covina. “I always think I’m gonna win when I come here. I guess that’s a good thing to have.”
Nick Joanides, the reigning Late Model champion at Irwindale, was second and R.J. Johnson, the leader in the Late Model standings at the track, was third.
“I felt like the meat in the Johnson sandwich,” Joanides said after the race. “We kept it close. R.J.’s a great racer. We chipped away two points off the 22 we lost last week.”
R.J. Johnson saw his lead in the Late Model standings trimmed to 24 points over Joanides. There are four races remaining in the Late Model season.
In other races at the track, Darren Amidon of Santee won the Legend Cars race, his third in a row. He has won seven of the past eight Legend Cars races. His worst finish in that stretch was a runner-up.
Chad Schug of Oak Hills was second, followed by Tony Green of Oak Hills in third.
Brent Sheidmantle of Alta Loma, the leader in the Legend Cars standings at the track, was sixth. He has a 34-point lead over Schug.
Gerrit Cromsigt of Saugus won the NASCAR Super Stocks race. It was his fourth win of the season and his fourth win in the past five Super Stocks races.
Rich DeLong III of Santa Clarita, the leader in the Super Stocks standings, was second. Eric Sunness of Chatsworth was third.
Daryl Scoggins of Sunland won the NASCAR Mini Stocks race. It was his second win in a row and his sixth of the season.
Ryan Bragdon of Beamont was second, followed by Richie Altman of Wildomer in third.
Scoggins leads the Mini Stocks standings by 16 points over Jacob Rogers of Riverside. Rogers was seventh out of eight cars in the Mini Stocks race.
Jeff Williams of Newbury Park won the Southwest Tour Trucks Series race. It was his fourth win of the season.
Neil Conrad of Arcadia was second followed by Brady Helm of Huntington Beach in third.
Michael Zimmerman of Hemet, the leader in the Southwest Tour Truck Series standings, was fourth.

RJ Johnson wins second straight NASCAR Late Model race at Irwindale

R.J. Johnson of Canyon Country won his second NASCAR Late Model race in a row and extended his lead in the Late Model standings at the Toyota Speedway at Irwindale on Saturday night.
Johnson took the lead on lap 15, passing Nick Joanides who started on the pole. Joanides, the reigning Late Model champion at the track, was second, followed by Chris Holloway of Bakersfield in third.
“There is always good racing in this class,” Johnson said. “When you surround yourself with good people, it just takes the whole package to make everything right.”
Johnson maintained his lead after Joey Licata of Van Nuys spun out on lap 21. He crashed into High Point Racing teammate Brandon Davis and brought out a caution flag. Johnson has a 26-point lead over Travis Irving from Norco.
Irving won the opening night race, but was 12th in Saturday night’s race.
Joanides said his clutch was slipping and it prevented him from challenging Johnson on the restarts.
“He was just a little bit better,” Joanides said of Johnson on the restarts. “We were both close. When he was in front, he was probably safe. I was happy lose more spots. I didn’t want to see anymore restarts.”
Holloway had his best finish since finishing second on opening night.
“It’s fun,” Holloway said. “I’m not used to being in this position. It’s just a learning experience basically.”
Ryan Partridge of Rancho Cucamonga won his fourth NASCAR Super Trucks race in a row. Todd Cameron of Monrovia was second and Pat Mintey Jr. of Quartz Hill, a two-time Super Trucks champ at the track, was third.
Bill Sedgwick of Acton, a former driver in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, was sixth.
Partridge has a 12-point lead over Cameron, who has two runner-up and two third-place finishes in four races at the track.
Rich De Long III of Santa Clarita won the NASCAR Super Stocks race. It was his fourth of the season.
He won the first three races of the year and was second two weeks ago. De Long leads the Super Stocks standings at the track by 22 points over Bryan Harrell of Riverside.
Harrell finished second in the Super Stocks race, his third runner-up finish. Gary Frankovich of Barstow was third.
Eric Sunness of Chatsworth, who won the Super Stocks race two weeks ago at Irwindale, was fourth.
 Steve Stewart of Long Beach won the figure 8s race. Billy Ziemann of Bloomington was second followed by Andy Schoening of Corona was third.

Photo: R.J. Johnson of Canyon Country won his second NASCAR Late Model race in a row at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale.

RJ Johnson wins first NASCAR Late Model race of his career at Irwindale

R.J. Johnson of Canyon Country won the first NASCAR Late Model race of his career at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale on Saturday night before 2,015. It was Johnson’s fourth career start in the Late Models at the track.
“I didn’t expect to get it this quick,” said Johnson, who moved up after winning the NASCAR Super Trucks championship at Irwindale last year.
Mike Johnson of Covina was second, followed by Christian Copley of Santa Ynez in third. It was Copley’s best finish in the Late Model division at Irwindale.
R.J. Johnson was the third different winner in three Late Model races at the track. Travis Irving of Norco won the opening night race. Nick Joanides of Woodland Hills, the reigning Late Model champion at Irwindale, won the second race of the season.
Joanides, who also won the NASCAR Super Late Model championship at the track in 2009, said before the race that he was not going to continue in the Super Late Model division and focus on the Late Models. The motor on his Super Late Model car broke in last weekend’s races.
Joanides finished fourth in the Late Model race. Irving was fifth.
R.J. Johnson took over the leads in the Late Model standings. He has a six-point lead over Irving after three races.
Ryan Partridge and Rancho Cucamonga made it three wins in a row in the NASCAR Super Trucks. Rookie Ken Maler Jr. of Acton had a career-best runner-up finish and Todd Cameron of Monrovia posted his third straight top-three finish, coming in third.
Partridge is also racing in the NASCAR Super Late Models and is in sixth place in the Super Late Model standings at the track. He is coming off a season-best second-place finish in the Super Late Models last week.
Maler was making his fourth career start in the Super Trucks division. It was his first top-five finish of the season. He was sixth in the opening night Super Trucks race and followed with a seventh-place finish.
Eric Sunness of Chatsworth won the NASCAR Super Stocks race and snapped the three-race winning streak of Rich DeLong III.
DeLong, a driver from Santa Clarita, finished second, followed by Gary Frankovich of Barstow in third.
DeLong won the first three races of the Super Stocks season. He has three wins and one runner-up in four races and leads the Super Stocks standings.
Sunness missed the first race of the Super Stocks season, but has not finished worse than third in the past three races.
Mike Colato Jr. of Chatsworth won the NASCAR Classic Stocks race, his first of the season. Lawndale’s Harry Michaelian finished second and Ken Michaelian was third.
Colato snapped Ken Michaelian’s three-race winning streak to start the season.

Travis Irving wins NASCAR Late Model opener at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale

Travis Irving of Norco won the NASCAR Late Model season opener at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale on Saturday night, beating out a pair of relative youngsters.
Chris Holloway of Bakersfield finished second, followed by Canyon Country’s RJ Johnson in third. It was Holloway’s best finish at the track in the Late Model division. He was 12th in the Late Model standings with a best finish of sixth place in 2009.
Irving said racing Holloway for the lead at the end of the race made him “a little nervous.”
“He paid his dues over the years,” Irving said.
Johnson won the NASCAR Super Trucks championship at Irwindale in 2009 and was making only his fourth start in the Late Models.
Irving described Johnson as a slick driver. “I needed to keep my eyes on him,” he said.
It was Irving’s fourth win in the past two years in the Late Models at Irwindale. He won three Late Model races and was third in the Late Model standings at Irwindale last year.
Nick Joanides of Woodland Hills, the reigning Late Model champion at Irwindale, worked his way up to fourth place, but with six laps to go, he got a flat tire and pulled off the track. He finished 19th.
Tim Huddleston of Agoura Hills, a three-time Late Model champion at Irwindale, was involved in a crash midway through the race and finished 16th.
In other races, Santa Clarita’s Rich DeLong III made it two wins in a row in the NASCAR Super Stocks. DeLong beat Eric Sunness by 0.207 seconds to win his second Super Stocks race in as many weeks at Irwindale.
DeLong inherited a win on opening night at Irwindale after Garrett Cromsigt was disqualified. With two wins in the first two races of the year, DeLong has a six-point lead in the Super Stock standings.
After the race, DeLong said he was dedicating the win to his grandmother who died earlier in the week.
Bryan Harrell, a driver from Riverside, was third in the Super Stocks race. He was followed by Curtis White of Norwalk and Gary Reed of La Verne.
Jacob Rogers of Riverside won the NASCAR Mini Stocks race. Rogers was ninth in the Mini Stocks standings with three runner-up finishes last year.
Rod Schmitt of Alta Loma was second, followed by Daryl Scoggins of Sunland in third.
Ryan Partridge of Rancho Cucamonga won the season-opening NASCAR Super Trucks race. As a rookie in 2009, Partridge won one race, finished second twice and was fifth in the Super Trucks standings.
Todd Cameron of Monrovia was second, followed by Pat Mintey Jr. of Quartz Hill in third.
Ken Michaelian of Lawndale, the reigning Classic Stocks champion at Irwindale, won the Classic Stocks season-opening race. He won 11 of the 13 Classic Stocks races in 2009.
Michaelian has won three Classic Stock races in a row, dating back to 2009. He has also won eight of the past nine Classic Stock races and has not finished worse than second since opening night in 2009 at Irwindale.
Mike Colato Jr. of Chatsworth was second, followed by Harry Michaelian Jr. of Lawndale in third.

RJ Johnson takes third in NASCAR Late Models opener at Irwindale

Canyon Country’s RJ Johnson has a new car for the 2010 season at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale. He will be in the No. 15 car for High Point Racing in the NASCAR Late Model division.
Johnson, who won the NASCAR Super Trucks championship at Irwindale last year, is one of five drivers for the High Point Racing team.
The NASCAR Late Model championship is very much up for grabs. Nick Joanides, a driver from Woodland Hills and the reigning Late Model champion, started seventh and finished 19th, but he might not race the entire season. Depending on how he finishes from race to race will determine if he continues throughout the season.
Tim Huddleston of Agoura Hills, Johnson’s boss and the owner of High Point Racing, won the Late Model championship in 2008 and is a three-time Late Model champions at Irwindale.
Johnson won the S2 race on opening night at Irwindale. But Johnson said his race in the S2 car was probably a one shot deal. His focus will be in the Late Models.
He finished third in the Late Model race.
“That had to be as fun to watch as it was fun to drive,” Johnson said. “Travis was really strong.”

New drivers at High Point Racing

Tim Huddleston has five cars ready to go in the NASCAR Late Model division at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale. He will also have a sixth car, for Travis Thirkettle, in the Super Late Model division.
He has drivers lined up for three of his Late Model cars. Travis Motley, a driver from Tucson, Ariz., will be in the No. 59 car, Dallas Collodny, from Reno, Nev., will be in the No. 51 car, and Cassie Gannis, the lone woman driver so far at High Point Racing, will be in the No. 56 car. Huddleston, the owner of the team and the reigning Late Model champion at the track, will be in the No. 50 car.
Gannis is also scheduled to race in the Super Late Model race in the Showdown. She will be in the No. 09 car.
High Point Racing is preparing a fifth car for the Late Model division, but does not have a driver for it yet. Huddleston was talking to a potential driver for the car on Friday night. Kendall Lopez and her mother and father were meeting with Huddleston at the track.