Jacob Gomes intends to bring home the bacon from Las Vegas Saturday.
The 22-year-old Manteca racer trails Greg Voight by three points going into the SPEARS Southwest Tour Series finale this Saturday at The Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. If Gomes prevails, he will be the youngest champion ever on the Southwest Tour by a full six years.
Gomes, who made his debut on the Southwest circuit as a 17-year-old, has had two second place season finishes. He beat Voight twice this year in two of the bigger races on the schedule — Utah and Bakersfield.
“We’re getting tired of coming in second,” Gomes said with a slight smile on Tuesday.
The Gomes-Voight duel has attracted a lot of attention on the circuit.
“This is the closest championship battle in the history of the SPEARS Southwest Tour,” noted SRL’s Larry Collins. Besides Gomes being just three points being Voight, 25-year-old Parker Stephens is five points behind Gomes. The top six drivers actually have a mathematically chance at winning the championship.
MAVTV will televise the race nationally where the winner takes $5,000.
Gomes — who races Chevrolets — is sponsored by Sunnyvalley Smoked Meats along with Dell’Osso Farms, Perry & Sons, Pepsi, and Valley Pacific.
“He’s very aggressive,” Sunnyvalley Smoked Meats owner Bill Andreetta said of Gomes. “He’s aggressive while being very respectful to his fellow drivers. . .  He races very clean.”
Andreetta, who has been around racing as a spectator all of his life, took a liking immediately to Gomes when he first saw home race after being approached about helping sponsor No. 16. And it wasn’t racing style.
“He has a great personality,” Andreetta said.
Gomes has always wanted to race.
He was tearing up Big Wheels as a kid prompting his dad Joe Gomes who was the crew chief for a friend at the time to get him started racing Box Stocks ay Delta Speedway at age 5.  After his first win, Gomes was completely hooked and started what would become lifelong dream to become a NACAR driver. He moved up to Minicup. Then after four years and four championships he made the move as a 14-year-old in a true race car competing in the Baby Grand. The move brought with it the need to learn how to shift. A year later he won the championship.
Gomes stepped up to Late Model racing in 2009. His showing at Madera Speedway, All American Speedway, and Stockton 99 Speedway was so impressive he won National Rookie of the Year honors for the series. He finished 32nd overall nationally in his first year of racing Late Model. He had 32 starts, 20 top 5 finishes, and 28 top 10 finishes with 637 points.
At age 17 in 2010, he became the youngest driver on the Spears SRL Southwest Series and won the Victory Circle Rookie of the year. In 2011, he won three of 120 races in the SRL and had five top 5 finishes, 9 top 10s and was second I the point standings. Then in 2012 he has one win out of 20 races and finished fifth in the championship points.
Gomes credits Andreetta’s sponsorship with allowing him to upgrade his racing cars to be even more competitive.
As for Andreetta, he likes going to races in towns such as Las Vegas where he can brag to clients of Sunnyvalley Smoked Meats that he sponsors a winner.
Gomes said he is practically consumed by racing.
“My dad always has to remind me we’re working and not racing as I’ll check the Internet when we’re out working,” said Gomes.
Both father and son work in agriculture. That helps keep Gomes in shape to handle the physical demands of racing along with playing softball.
When 5 o’clock rolls around he heads to the shop with work on his cars with his crew. They spend an average of 100 hours preparing for each race.
The pit crew consists of Mikey Pauraque, Chris Oliveira, Joe Gomes, Mike David, and Phil Gomes.
And just as important as racing and winning for Gomes is the strong family ties that have developed between the crew, sponsors, and die-hard fans,
The 2011 East Union High grad said nothing beats the feeling of being behind the wheel of race car.
“When I get through with a race I feel great and energized,” Gomes said. “I’m amped up for about an hour and a half but then on the way home I fall asleep. They could flip the car and I’d still be asleep.”