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Gomes, Philpott star in SPEARS CARS Tour West at Stockton 99
Stockton 99 SPEARS
Jacob Gomes (16) battles with fellow Mantecan Jace Hale (15) in the SPEARS Cars Tour West Series feature Saturday night at Stockton 99 Speedway. - photo by DALE BOSOWSKI

By BILL POINDEXTER

& DALE BOSOWSKI

Special to the Bulletin


STOCKTON — The SPEARS CARS Tour West Series returned for its only appearance of the season at the Stockton 99 Speedway on Saturday night with a three-division program that included a 100-lap feature for the SPEARS CARS Tour West Pro Late Models, plus the Limited Pro Late Models and the MMI Legends Tour West divisions.

Jacob Gomes sat on the outside of 14-year-old Jace Hale, both of Manteca, at the front of the 10-car field for the Pro Late Model feature and immediately vaulted into the lead going into Turn 1 of the opening lap. Hale managed to stay within striking distance of Gomes throughout the entire race, but even with a couple of late-race caution restarts, he was never able mount a serious challenge, as Gomes rolled to the checkered flag in wire-to-wire fashion.

“I was able to take the lead early and then manage what we had. We worked hard yesterday on our long-run setup, which is where we have really capitalized the last few years,” said Gomes, who pocketed $7,500 for his winning effort. “The biggest thing on these short tracks is to get good restarts, and I was able to do that today.”

Stockton 99 SPEARS
Jacob Gomes basks in his win with family at Stockton 99’s victory lane.

Hale spent the final laps holding off Colton’s Linny White for the second spot and maintain his points lead over White in the West Pro Late Model division season standings. Overall, Hale now has two wins and five top five finishes in six races this season.

“He had a pretty good car and could keep it straight off the corners and I couldn’t, so he (Gomes) kept driving away,” Hale admitted. “Second is not bad, but first is pretty good, too.”

While the West Pro Late Models was a relatively mundane affair, the 75-lap main for the Limited Pro Late Models was anything but, providing more twists than an Agatha Christie mystery novel.

Afterward, a triumphant Justin Philpott of Tracy handed the trophy to a family member with instructions to give it to his grandfather at home.

Philpott is a three-time track champion at Stockton 99 Speedway, but this was his first victory on the SPEARS CARS Tour West circuit. Several members of the family with Tracy roots – from Grandmother Laverne down to the youngest toddlers, all flashing No. 1 signs – posed around Justin for photos following his victory in a 75-lap grind that included seven cautions and two red flags.

“Whose house is it?” dad David Philpott shouted, himself a two-time 99 season champ and household name at the 76-year-old

Stockton 99 SPEARS
Justin Philpott celebrates his victory in the Limited Pro Late Models division during the SPEARS CARS Tour West circuit’s only stop of the season at Stockton 99 Speedway on Saturday.
speedway.

John Philpott, who also raced at the 99, was home, but there was no way Grandma Laverne would miss the race.

“He puts in a lot of work to get these things ready,” Justin Philpott said of his grandpa. “Everything I learned is from my dad and my grandfather. They’re the ones that started all this. We’re trying to carry it on. I know he would have been standing on that wall, bowing his head, like Kyle Busch does.”

It was Philpott’s first race in the car and on a new set of tires. He said the familiar Philpott orange and white No. 50 was in pieces two weeks ago. There were electrical problems. The team took apart the machine and started over. It wasn’t the fastest car on the tight quarter-mile oval, but Philpott guided the racer away from trouble and put it in Victory Lane relatively unscathed.

“It takes a village,” he said. “It’s like raising a kid, but it’s a stupid racecar.”

Philpott said the car got “extremely tight” as Parker Malone of Redlands took the early lead over the 17-car field.

“I thought we had something wrong,” Philpott said.

Malone held onto the lead through three restarts as the field began to thin, and a lengthy green-flag run changed Philpott’s outlook.

“We were catching them,” he said. “They were backing up to us, so I knew we had a good shot.”

A pileup in Turns 3 and 4 sent Malone to the infield for repairs – one of nine cars collected overall during the race– and moved Ripon’s Bubba Nascimento to the front with Jace Hale, who was doing double duty on the night, points leader Dylan Zampa of Napa and Philpott trailing.

Parker returned to the race but got collected again and this time was done for the night following a collision in the front stretch involving Chris Monez of Modesto and Tanner Huddleston of Agoura Hills. Two other cars were also involved. Malone exited the car and was OK.

Nascimento kept his lead and was slowly pulling away from the field until a late race yellow-caution popped out on lap 64. On the restart, Hale moved inside of Nascimento and coming out of Turn 2 gave the No. 21 car a nudge on his way by and into the lead. Following yet another restart, the pair battled it out over the next handful of laps with Nascimento on Hale’s back left bumper until they exited Turn 4 side by side where Hale got sandwiched between Nascimento and the front straight wall as a shower of sparks sprayed the area.

“After that big pileup early on we ended up second and we had a pretty good race car. We had a great restart, but I got bumped from behind and we got moved up into him (Nascimento) but I managed to get the lead,” explained Hale. “We had another amazing restart after that next caution and I was alongside of him, but he chose not to lift, and we ended up into the wall. It was 100% his fault, I gave him plenty of room.”

Nascimento led the field through the caution period until pulling his grinding, sparking machine into the infield. He returned the track under caution at the back of the pack, and Philpott drove the last five laps to the checkered flag well ahead of Zampa.

“I saw that whole thing coming from the middle of Turns 3 and 4 to the end right here,” Philpott said of the Nascimento/Hale incident. “Sometimes when you have 17, 18 yards and first to 10th (place) is a 10th-and-a-half of a second, you’re going to have carnage. It is a battle of pacing yourself. When you race here, it’s not like a half-mile. … Stuff happens really fast here and you have to survive. We survived.

“I was totally in shock,” Philpott added, reliving the moment after receiving the $4,000 winner’s check. “I stopped over here to take my helmet off and I’m like. ‘Did I just win the damn race?’ ”

Tanner Reif of Las Vegas, who sits second in ARCA Menards Series West points, hopped into a Legends racer and led wire to wire to capture the 35-lap MMI Legends Tour West race over a 13-car field. Although he led the entire race, Reif was just able to stave off Bakersfield’s Taylor Mayhew late race charge coming out of the final corner to take the checkered flag by less than half a car length.

Reif found the little Legends to be much different than piloting a stock car, saying, “You gotta be up on the wheel, you gotta be constantly fighting and constantly put the car on the edge.”

Earlier, in one of two races for the local divisions, Tony Hunt won another 30-lap NCMA Sprint Car race over Chowchilla’s Eric Humphries and Fair Oaks pilot Shauna Hogg. Although he eventually pulled away from the field to win by more than 2.5 seconds, the Rocklin driver engaged in an entertaining lead exchange with Hogg in the early part of the race.

Hunt passed Hogg heading into Turn 1 on lap 7 but left enough room for Hogg to immediately zip by Hunt before Hunt regained the lead.

“If there’s nothing more disappointing than to get the lead and get passed, it’s to get passed again,” Hogg said.

Said Hunt, “I’m having a great time. I’m no spring chicken, but I’m having a good time and it gets my heartbeat pumping, and I go into engagement mode.”

Natalie Harper of Stockton led the entirety of the 15-lap NorCal Mini Stock race for her second victory this season, beating Stockton’s Steve Ford the finish line by almost seven seconds.

Stockton 99 Speedway runs again next Saturday, June 14, with Stockton Late Model action along with the Legends of 99, Pure Stock, Nor Cal Mini Stock and Grand American Modified divisions.

Admission gates open at 5 p.m. with racing at 6.

Tickets are $20 for adults ages 16-59 and $15 for juniors 11-15, seniors 60 and over and military with an ID. A family four-pack (two adults and two juniors) costs $55, and kids 10 and under are free.