The finish, which occurred in his 56th career series start, and his first on the circuit since the since the Season 3 Dodge California Truckstop 300 at the Mesa Marin Raceway when he completed 26 of the 32 laps under power; 9 races ago. In the Truck Series, it's the 2nd for truck #43 and the 21st where the truck was still running. Across all the series in the SCRL, it's the 10th for the #43 and 278th where the vehicle was still running.
Saatchi has build up a pretty decent career in the SCRL to this point, having scored six career wins, but he has also found heart break as he nearly won the championship for Season 2 of the SCRL Rainbow Dash Truck Series before being taken out in a crash in the season finale at Las Vegas and losing to Jonathan Raines. Saatchi would return to the truck series for the same team he had driven for all of his previous truck seasons; Petty Enterprises with redemption on his mind to try and win the championship he came within ten laps of winning. Saatchi started off his third truck season by finishing 16th at Walt Disney World, 19th at Homestead, 22nd at Phoenix, 26th at Portland before finishing 15th in the last round at Evergreen.
The entry list for the third race in a row would be the usual 31 trucks that had signed up to compete in all races for the schedule. Zachary Fitzwater would win the pole with a time of 19.637 seconds, while Saatchi would post a decent time in qualifying, 20.055 seconds, placing him 16th on the grid. Posting the slowest time during qualifying was the #10 A & G Coal Chevrolet of Celious Wolf, who posted a time of 20.301 seconds, 0.664 seconds behind Fitzwater's pole winning time around the 0.543 mile short track
On race day, Ormond would trail for only the first turn before he knocked Walt Disney World last-place finisher the #3 GM Goodwrench Service Plus Chevrolet of Samet Ozkan, who would trail for the first two laps. Ozkan would knock the #16 NAPA Brakes Chevrolet of Chris Kyle to the final spot on Lap 3 as Kyle would lose nearly a full second to the trucks in front of him as he rebounded with his truck, closing back in with the trucks before knocking Saatchi into last for the first time on Lap 11. Saatchi would remain in last for one lap before knocking Kyle back to last on Lap 12 before Saatchi retook it back on Lap 13. Saatchi would trail for two more laps before knocking Kyle into the final spot on Lap 15. Kyle would also stay in last for two circuit before he passed Saatchi on Lap 17. Saatchi would fight back again and knocked Kyle to last on the 18th circuit but coming to the white flag, Kyle made the final move of the race, knocking Saatchi back to last and Saatchi would fail to get back around Kyle, less then two truck lengths behind Kyle when the checkered flag fell.
The remaining Bottom Five were; 29th was the #1 Team ASE Racing Ford of Michael Brown, 28th was the #87 BellSouth Mobility Chevrolet of Ben Crouch and for the second race in a row in 27th was Portland last-place finisher the #35 Ortho Lawn & Garden Products Chevrolet of Chakat Flaremane.
SCRLASTCAR STATISTICS
*This is the first time the #43 has finished last in the Truck Series at I-70.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
31) #43-Marcus Saatchi / 20 laps / running
30) #16-Chris Kyle / 20 laps / running
29) #1-Michael Brown / 20 laps / running
28) #87-Ben Crouch / 20 laps / running
27) #35-Chakat Flaremane / 20 laps / running
No comments:
Post a Comment