Finally a busy race weekend. Even though it seemed like it was raining clear across the country, most series were able to get their races in. The three top series in NASCAR were all at “The Monster Mile” in Dover. The Grand Am series was at Virginia International Raceway. The World of Outlaws were at Williams Grove Speedway in Mechanicsburg, PA. The NHRA racers were in Atlanta, GA for the Southern Nationals.
This week our “NorCal Driver of the Week” is 50 year old Bill Lester, who grew up in the Bay Area (Oakland, I believe). Bill and 20 year old co-driver Jordan Taylor won the GT Class at the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series race in Virginia. It was his first win in a national series. Bill has had an unusual path to success in racing. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from UC Berkeley and worked for Hewlitt-Packard for 16 years. While working, he raced as an amateur around Northern California in SCCA events. He progressed through different series including several years in the NASCAR Truck Series and a couple of Sprint Cup starts. For the last few years, he has been pretty much racing full time in the Grand-Am series. After this win, Bill is in 5th place in the points standings. Congratulations to Bill Lester on a great win!
Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series
Scott Pruett from Auburn and co-driver Memo Rojas came in 2rd place and broke their string of 6 consecutive wins going back to July of last year in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series. They are still the points leaders by a substantial margin in the Daytona Prototype class.
Henri Richard from Los Altos Hills finished in 5th place in the Daytona Prototypes and moved up to 20th place in the points.
Bill Lester from Oakland won the GT class in Virginia.
Joey Hand from Sacramento had a 3rd place finish in the GT Class.
Dane Cameron from Glenn Ellen, (north of Sonoma) finished in the 4th position in the GT Class.
Other NorCal drivers competing were Memo Gidley from San Rafael and Jonathan Bomarito from Monterey.
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series
Matt Crafton from Tulare, started in the 10th spot and finished 3rd and took over the lead in the Camping World Truck Series points standings.
Justin Marks from Rocklin who won his 2nd career pole in the Truck Series had a good race and finished in the 10th position.
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
A. J. Allmendinger from Los Gatos, after starting on the front row and having very high hopes, finished 37th with engine problems. This disappointing finish dropped A.J. five spots in the points standings to 16th place.
Jeff Gordon from Vallejo, finished in 17th place and moved up 3 spots in the standings to the 14th position.
NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series
Brian Thiel from Pleasant Grove struggled a little and was eliminated in the final round of qualifying on Saturday. Brian is currently in 16th place in the NHRA Funny Car standings.
Karen Stoffer from Minden, Nevada has kept up her early season success. In Atlanta she qualified 2nd fastest with a time of 6.929 at 194.16 mph on the Geico Suzuki. On Sunday, Karen made it through 3 rounds of eliminations to lose in the final round to LE Tonglet. She is the NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle points leader.
World of Outlaws
Jason Meyers from Clovis started 16th in the A Main at Williams Grove Speedway and moved up 8 spots to finish 8th. It was his 11th top 10 of the year and good for 5th in the points standings.
Paul McMahan from Elk Grove didn’t have one of his best races. He started 22nd and finished in 19th. Paul is 8th in points with 4 top 5’s and tied for the lead with 3 fast times.