FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                                    July 20, 2009

Ermish Wins Wild Finish at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale

BAKERSFIELD , CA - Troy Ermish, the "Iron Man" of the SRL Spears Southwest Tour Series, with a series leading 78 career starts, came into Toyota Speedway hoping to improve on his 2009 season.  Prior to Saturday's "Spears Manufacturing 100", Ermish had one top 10 in four starts. Saturday night Ermish turned his season around in a big way by setting a new track record in qualifying (18.045 sec) and then taking home the $4,000 prize for his second career SRL win, after a wild final five laps of the 100 lap event.  It was the sixth fast time in a row for Bob Strandwold Racing and the second win of the year for BSR.

At the drop of the green flag by honorary starter, Renee Spears, Keith Spangler in the DM Motorsports/Ron's Rear Ends Chevrolet bolted into the lead past Mike Mendenhall into turn 1.  Spangler held the point until a hard charging Derek Thorn powered past Spangler while setting the fastest lap of the race (18.592 sec) on lap 6.  Thorn, competing in his first career SRL event, had moved into the lead from his ninth starting position.  M.K. Kanke, quickly moved into second, driving his back up car which had no laps on the track prior to qualifying.  By lap 10, Thorn and Kanke, the SRL points leader began to distance themselves from the field.

As the field pursued the two leaders, drivers used every inch of the Toyota Speedway half-mile with two, three and sometimes four-wide racing.  Jim Pettit II, who started eleventh after the twelve car invert, did not want the leaders to get away and moved up to Kanke's bumper on lap 17.  Thorn was showing the way to the two veterans, as he led until lap 26 when the engine let go of his Daniel Smith owned Jim 's Towing #22.

For the next 63 laps, Pettit tried repeatedly to make the inside pass on Kanke for the lead, but each attempt resulted in the Top of the Hill/Golden Gate Petroleum Ford sliding back up behind the RPM-PSI Chevrolet of Kanke.  Greg Voigt had moved past Jason Gilbert for third and was then able to make the slide job stick to move past Pettit for second with 10 laps to go.  The top five were, Kanke, Voigt, Pettit, Gilbert and Ermish.

In what looked like the top three drivers in the SRL championship standings were going to finish in that same order, things changed very quickly.  First, on lap 96, Pettit who was running third blew an engine and hit the turn three wall, collecting Gilbert who was fourth.  Next, Voigt, who was running second, pitted to change a flat tire while under yellow.  As the field came to the green for the restart, Ermish was now in second behind race leader Kanke.  Then, as the green flag waved, Kanke suffered transmission problems as he accelerated toward what looked like his fourth SRL win of the year.  As Kanke slowed, Ermish charged into turn 1 with the lead with four laps remaining.

With Kanke off the pace, the race was now wide open with the top six drivers all battling for their first win of 2009.  It was two and three wide racing over the final four laps, with Ermish leading, Kevin Callahan battling Spangler for second, while Gilbert put his nose inside of Callahan, and Voigt charging up to the battle after restarting seventh.  At the checkered it was Ermish, Callahan, Voigt, Gilbert, Mendenhall and a spinning Spangler, who crossed the line backwards for sixth.  David Mantooth, Kanke, Jerry Allec, Jr., and Josh Combs , who finished with a flat tire, rounded out the top ten.

The SRL Spears Southwest Tour Series next stop will be at Stockton 99 Speedway on Saturday, August 8^th for the "Don Conti Memorial 99 presented by Performance Electrical Company, Inc.".

Race Stats:  SRL Spears Southwest Tour Series "Spears Manufacturing 100" - July 18, 2009 at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale

Race Leaders:  Keith Spangler 1-6, Derek Thorn 7-26, M.K. Kanke 27-96, Troy Ermish 97-100

Lead Changes: 4

Winning Margin: 1.424 seconds

Fastest Lap of Race: Derek Thorn             18.592 seconds on lap 6

Time of Race: 54 minutes 51 seconds

Fast Qualifier: Troy Ermish       18.095 seconds (Track Record)

Five Star Race Bodies Hard Charger Award: Troy Ermish

Ron's Rear Ends Hard Luck Award: Rex Lockwood

Top Victory Circle Rookie-of-the-Year contender: Kevin Callahan

2009 Championship Standings - Top 20: Kanke 244, Voigt 215, Callahan 188, Byrd 185, Pettit 185, Ermish 171, Combs 156, Farre' 150, Raudman 147, Bammer 142, Mantooth 140, Newberry 137, Westmoreland 134, Mendenhall 109, Spangler 102, LaMoure 97, Vidovich 87, Sanchez 84, Gilbert 76, Wood 74  (Note: Best 9 of 10 finishes will be tallied for championship)

About SPEARS MANUFACTURING:  Celebrating its 40th anniversary, Spears Manufacturing is a world leader in plastic pipe fittings and valves.  SPEARS' maintains over one million square feet of manufacturing facilities in four states and nine distribution centers across the USA for worldwide distribution.  For more information, please go to www.SPEARSMFG.com.

About the SRL SPEARS Southwest Tour Series:

Celebrating its ninth season in 2009, the SRL Southwest Tour Series is a regional stock car series competing on paved ovals in the southwestern portion of the U.S. The series utilizes cars based on the former NASCAR Elite Division Series rulebook.  www.SRLSouthwestTour.com

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