Kern County Raceway Park track champions David Mayhew and Brian Richardson defended the home turf by winning the SRL and CITGO Late Model events Saturday.

Track crews persevered through a three hour rain delay to deliver six main events of racing with 248 laps completed at the speedway complex west of Bakersfield.

Mayhew’s win was the richest victory in the young history of KCRP with $10,003 and brings his career victories to 22 on the half-mile speedway. For Richardson, the win avenged three narrow losses in October Classic events at the former Mesa Marin Raceway a decade ago.

“This is one of my best wins ever,” Richardson said. “Three times at Mesa Marin the October Classic got away from me. What a way to cap an exciting season!”

The Fall Shootout 100 presented by World’s Champion for the SRL Southwest Tour was led to green by Jim Pettit, whose family put up the $10,003 prize as part of the Pat Pettit Memorial Triple Crown. The race was slowed on lap two when Keith Spangler spun in turn two.

On the ensuing restart Jeremy Doss jumped up into third while points leader Derek Thorn slipped back to the fifth position. Despite slick conditions the race went green for 34 laps before a caution on lap 38. Bakersfield’s Kevin Callahan spun on the restart while early race favorite Brandon White surrendered a top-five when he retired to the pits with transmission problems.

Doss turned up the wick and worked his way into second place before succumbing to an engine failure on lap 53 that will ultimately eliminate him from championship contention. A lap 78 caution ended a 35 lap green flag run with Pettit still anchoring the field with Mayhew and Thorn in tow. Mayhew took advantage of the restart to sweep past Pettit on the outside. Pettit looked inside into turn three and clipped the apon, sending him spinning. Donny St. Ours suffered significant damage to end his night while Pettit and Eric Schmidt also had contact.

Pettit’s spin thrust Mayhew into the sole possession of the lead, and Mayhew was able to keep Thorn at bay for the final 18 laps for the victory. Greg Voigt steered Bakersfield’s NTS Motorsports to third for a Bakersfield 1-2-3 with Craig Raudman and Ross Strmiska rounding out the top-five.

For the CITGO Lubricants Late Model 50, a talented field of 17 drivers from across the western United States battled for the $5,000 win. 2014 division runner-up Lance Wilson started on the pole and led the first four laps before Richardson took over on lap five. Division Rookie of the Year Buddy Shepherd challenged and took the lead on lap eight, before Richardson took it back on lap nine.

Fast-time qualifier and 2014 Irwindale runner-up Andrew Porter tagged the turn four wall to bring out a caution on lap 16, and Shepherd attempted to challenge Richardson on the ensuing restart. Richardson, Shepherd, and Wilson continued to pace the field when the caution came out for Trevor Huddleston losing an oil line on lap 35.

Richardson proved too strong as he pulled away to a 1.006 second victory with Shepherd taking a $2500 second and Wilson a $1250 third. Christian McGhee and Toni McCray led the Irwindale contingent in fourth and fifth. Richardson’s win was his 11th at the track in 2014.

Sharing the stage on the half-mile were the SRL S2 Tour Series which also saw a Bakersfield sweep of the top-three positions. Blaine Perkins led 37 of the 40 laps to become the sixth different winner in the series’ six races at KCRP with points leader Brandon Weaver running second throughout the race. NASCAR Spec Mod regular Eric Brust had a strong series debut to run third with Johnny Butler and Nastasia Dodd rounding out the top-five.

The INEX Legends championship finale was a rain soaked affair on the quarter-mile track. Rain began to fall on lap 10 of the feature with Eric Olson in the lead. The next eight laps were run under caution to give the race an official distance of 18 laps. Olson’s win will give him third in the track points while seven time main event winner Brandon Weaver used a fifth place finish to win the division championship.

Championships were also decided in the Jr. and Sr. Mini Dwarfs who ran 20 lap features on the one-eighth mile speedway. Jeremy Clark scored a dominating half-lap win in the Sr. main but Anthony Balcazar finished second to put a cap on the championship.

The Jr. Mini Dwarf title was much more hotly contested, but Taft’s Bailey Thompson went out on top with both a race win and the top prize, while second in points Kercie Jung finished second in the race as well.

Kern County Raceway Park is dark for racing until Sunday November 23rd when it will welcome Davey Hamilton’s King of the Wing Sprint Cars for the George Snider Classic. The twilight show for the national championship will begin at 4 p.m.

Major marketing partners at Kern County Raceway Park include Budweiser, CITGO Lubricants, Monster Energy, Advance Beverage Company, Coca Cola, DC’s RV Center, Three-Way Chevrolet, and Whelen Engineering.

Kern County Raceway Park is online. More information is available on Facebook and on Twitter.

For marketing information on Kern County Raceway Park, contact Steven Blakesley by email atsblakesley@kernraceway.com or by phone at (661) 835-1264, ext 3203.

November 1 – CITGO Lubricants Fall Shootout
Kern County Raceway Park – Bakersfield, CA

NASCAR CITGO Lubricants Late Models
1) 4 Brian Richardson 50 Running $5000 + CITGO
2) 22 Buddy Shepherd 50 Running $2500 + CITGO
3) 15 Lance Wilson 50 Running $1250 + CITGO
4) 71 Christian McGhee 50 Running $1000 + DJ
5) 90 Toni McCray 50 Running $900 + On Track & CITGO
6) 53 Kyle Gottula 50 Running $800 + K&N
7) 88 Bobby Hodges 50 Running $700 + On Track & DJ
8) 40 Cole Adamo 50 Running $600 + CITGO
9) 20 John Piker 50 Running $550 + K&N
10) 13 Josh Horn 50 Running $500 + DJ
11) 55 Blaine Perkins 50 Running $400 + K&N
12) 34 Austin Gant 50 Running $400 + K&N
13) 1 Paul Ebersbacher 49 Running $400 + CITGO
14) 50 Trevor Huddleston 35 Oil Line $400 + DJ
15) 5 Chris Dalton 18 Rear End $400 + K&N
16) 7 Andrew Porter 16 Accident $400 + K&N
17) 51 Racin Vernon 6 Suspension $400 + K&N
Did Not Start: 04 Kevin Furden

Time of race: 29:55.154

Contingency Awards: CITGO Lubricants Case of Oil, DJ Safety Gift Certificate, Ron’s Rear End’s Gift Certificate, K&N Gift Certificate
Ron’s Rear Ends Hard Luck Award ($200): #7 Andrew Porter
On Track Race Supply Award ($500): 88 Bobby Hodges & 90 Toni McCray
Lap leaders Lance Wilson 1-4, Brian Richardson 5-7, Buddy Shepherd 8, Brian Richardson 9-50

SPEARS SRL Southwest Tour Fall Shootout 100
1) 17 David Mayhew, 2) 43 Derek Thorn, 3) 29 Greg Voigt, 4) 14 Craig Raudman, 5) 90 Ross Strmiska, 6) 16 Jacob Gomes, 7) 18 Jim Pettit II, 8) 51 Carlos Vieira, 9) 05 Eric Schmidt, 10) 3 JR Courage, 11) 37 Keith Spangler, 12) 44 Bob Lyon, 13) 20 Tracy Bolin, 14) 28 Nick Williams, 15) 32 Kevin Callahan, 16) 89 Bobby Hodges, 17) 21 Garrett Archer, 18) 6 Donny St. Ours, 19) 24 Scott Sanchez, 20) 46 Kevin Clark, 21) 75 Jeremy Doss, 22) 98 Blaine Rocha, 23) 19 Brandon White, DNS: 15 Lance Wilson 59:29.690

SRL S2 Tour Series – 40 laps
1) 50 Blaine Perkins, 2) 15 Brandon Weaver, 3) 99 Eric Brust, 4) 59 Johnny Butler, 5) 81 Nastasia Dodd, 6) 42 Carlos Quintero, 7) 0 Bill Waters, 8) 77 Zac Hunt, 9) 45 Dave Lowenstein, 10) 14 Dylan Baker, 11) 24 Craig Yeaton, 12) 29 Cory Elliott, 13) 01 Chris Morrison, 14) 44 Karon Lowenstein, 15) 97 Dylan Garner, DNS: 41 Todd Conrad 17:18.099

INEX Legend – 18 laps (rain shortened)
1) 17 Eric Olson, 2) 2 Timmy Mangini, 3) 7 Tony Mangini, 4) 31 Eddie Garone, 5) 15 Brandon Wever, 6) 5 Garrett Fine, 7) 7c Cameron Austin, 8) 24p Colton Page, 9) 19 Chad Actis, 10) 13 Jerry Flippo, 11) 25 Lawless Alan, 12) 21 Eric Nascimento, Jr., 13) 18 Justin Eddleman 7:52.805

Sr. Mini Dwarf – 20 laps
1) 8 Jeremy Clark, 2) 17 Anthony Balcazar, 3) 00 Cheyenne Flippo, 4) 41 Braelyn Whittington, 5) 12 Seth Wise 5:49.960

Jr. Mini Dwarf – 20 laps
1) 19 Bailey Thompson, 2) 17 Kercie Jung, 3) 86 Madison Meyers, 4) 04 Riley Massey, 5) 3 Mason Ratcliff, 6) 07 Kale McClenny, 7) 13 Kabe McClenny 5:52.791