The Lucas Oil Modified Series, presented by Rockstar Energy Drink, officially launched their 2010 racing season March 27th at the Lucas Oil I 10 Speedway in Blythe-California. As in the case of the past three years, this regional touring series has enjoyed healthy car counts and the Rockstar 75 2010 season debut was no exception. 25 cars, representing some of the finest open wheel talent from the western states, arrived in Blythe vying for the 22 starting berths that featured guaranteed purse money just for starting the A main not to mention the $1,000 winner's check.
When the black and white checkers waved through the air on lap 75, Riverside-California's Jim Mardis parked his #51 Rockstar Energy Drink modified in victory lane and the "party like a Rockstar" process officially began. The newest edition to the Rockstar Energy Drink sports team created a proud moment for his new sponsor by completely dominating the last 51 laps of the race.
The process of earning Rockstar party rights actually began Saturday afternoon when the series' teams lined up for qualifying. When the session concluded young Austin Barnes found himself sitting on top of the speed charts. The Escondido-California teen driver ripped off a hot lap of 14.329 seconds around the the Lucas Oil I 10 Speedway's quarter mile paved oval. That lap more than earned him the $100 Budweiser bonus for setting the fast time of the day. However the Lucas Oil pre race inversion ceremony wasn't too kind to the young driver after he drew the number five. That ceremony moved pre race favorites James Cole and Chris Gerchman to the front row.
The SuperClean Modified Racing Series spent this past Saturday night at the Havasu 95 Speedway, a quarter mile oval in Lake Havasu City-Arizona, for the running of the Sunoco Fuels 75. For the third time in a highly competitive year the series produced a first time winner. But it really came with no surprise. All season long series observers said it was just a matter of time before Jim Mardis parked his race car in victory lane. He did it in a very big way Saturday night by leading every lap of the race. In fact, Mardis' performance was so dominant he was, at times, practically racing in his own personal zip code
GERCHMAN SCORES HARD FOUGHT LUCAS OIL-ROCKSTAR MODIFIED SERIES WIN IN LAKE
HAVASU CITY.
By lap 55 Riverside-California's Jim Mardis became a major player in this
race. The series points leader, based on his season opening win, staged a
furious assault on the race leader that featured several laps of side by
side racing for the lead that had the full grandstand of spectators on their
feet and cheering wildly.
The final caution flag of the race came out on lap 64 and it set up an 11 lap shoot out between Gerchman and Mardis. When the final green flag flew into the air, the race quickly became an another side by side, inch by inch, battle. With four laps left in the race Gerchman was finally able to get ahead of his rival just enough to secure his first win of the year as well as his fourth career series win