Roseville’s Eric Schmidt took maximum advantage of a late race caution to capture an improbable victory in Saturday’s Tri-Holiday Classic Pacific Challenge Series Late Model feature at the Stockton 99 Speedway.
While Schmidt started from the seventh position in the 20 car starting field, it was pole sitter Ross Strmiska, of Manteca, who dominated the first third of the 100-lap race.
Strmiska earned the pole position by winning the eight car dash and he used it to jump out to a comfortable lead over Granite Bay’s Cole Moore and Modesto’s Mike Beeler in the opening laps.
Around lap 30, however, Strmiska began to slow a bit, allowing the pack to gradually reel him in. On lap 45, Manteca’s Jacob Gomes, who starting from the fourth position and had patiently worked his way up to second, went low on Strmiska to take over the lead.
Strmiska would eventually be passed by several other cars and then suffer a late race sin before recovering in the final laps to salvage sixth.
“We were really good early on and I thought we had a shot at it, but then something happened in the front end,” said Strmiska. “We were just trying to survive at the end.”
Schmidt, who would move into second around midrace, chased Gomes without success for the next 40 laps until a series of yellow-caution flags came out in the late going.
Gomes would survive the first two restarts, but the third time proved to be the charm for Schmidt as he powered past Gomes on the outside with just six laps remaining.
Gomes was unable to mount a challenge in the closing laps as Schmidt took the checkered flag ahead of Gomes, Upper Lake’s Jeremy Doss, Moore and Beeler.
“I knew at the start that we had a good car tonight and we were able to pick our way through traffic, but I think we got used up a bit doing it,” explained Gomes. “If we did get that last caution we pretty much had it. He just had more bite on that last restart.”
Schmidt concurred that the late race cautions were crucial to his victory.
“This place is tough. The top guys are all good and know what they are doing so we had to bide our time and luckily we had something left at the end,” said Schmidt. “That yellow flag was my only shot to get by him, but I would rather be lucky than good.”
The 35-lap Stockton Late Models feature belonged to Ben Lewis II. The Stockton driver jumped into the lead on the second lap and never looked back as he cruised to the win ahead of Lodi’s Aaron Shankel and Stockton’s Dennis Byers.
“I gave it everything I had tonight. I was able to stay consistent and it paid off with a win,” said Lewis, who earlier in the night captured his heat and the dash.
Peter Pierce Jr., of Sacramento, went side-by-side for several laps with Stockton’s Keith Clement before taking over the top spot on lap 16 in the 35-lap Legends of the Pacific main.
Clement would spend the rest of the race trying to chase Peirce down, but his efforts were in vain as he was forced to settle for second just ahead of Jake Wood of Loomis.
“It was fun race. Keith (Clement) was really flying there for a while, but the car was on a rail tonight,” said Pierce.
John Messina, of Galt, shot past front row starters Dave Anderson, of Stockton and Troy Walz, of Valley Springs, on the opening lap and sailed to his second victory of the season in the 20-lap main for the Bomber division.
The local racing shifts to the Stockton Dirt Track, located at the San Juaquin Fairgrounds, for the Summer Nationals Tractor Pulls on Friday, June 17, and the Jimmy Sills Classic, featuring the King of the West 410 Sprint Cars and All Star Modified Series, on Saturday, June 18.
The 99 Speedway returns to action the following Saturday, June 25, with the Stockton Late Models, Grand American Modifieds, Bombers and Mini Cups.
