Sebastian Torres picked up the 1st last place finish of his SCRL Grand National Series career in Sunday's Race 18 at the Winchester Speedway when his #16 Plymouth completed 24 of the 25 laps under power.
The finish came in his 25th career series start. In the SCRL Grand National Series, it's the 1st for car #16 and the 13th for running at the finish. Across all the series in the SCRL, it's the 8th for the #16 and 317th for running at the finish.
Entering his second ever full time season in the SCRL Grand National Series, Torres has already built himself a first ballot Hall of Fame career having picked up a total of 15 career wins and has already won three overall SCRL Championships, including becoming the first ever SCRL Strictly Stock Series Champion and was looking to defend his title from one season ago, a season that he actually went winless. Sebastian would start off his season with a 19th at Daytona Beach, 6th at the spring Charlotte event, 30th at Langhorne, 5th at Martinsville, 9th at Canfield, 14th at Vernon and a 4th at Dayton before finishing runner up to Chris Henry at Monroe County. A 16th in the summer Charlotte event would be followed by a 24th at Hillsborough, 11th at the summer Dayton event, 25th at Hamburg before scoring his first ever Grand National Series win at the first ever Southern 500 at Darlington, a win that would shot Sebastian into the points lead. A disappointing 22nd at the fall Langhorne, would be followed by a 25th at North Wilkesboro and a 6th at Vernon before Torres would gain more momentum by scoring win #2 at the fall Martinsville race in the last round and locking up the championship with two races to go, his second in a row in the premier SCRL series.
The entry list for the twelfth and final time this season would be only the full-time drivers, as the track wasn't big enough to fit all the full and part-time drivers.
In qualifying, Christian Russel would score his first career series pole with a time of 21.030 seconds. Torres would struggle around the bumpy half mile track, posting a time of 21.405, while only 0.375 seconds off Russel's time, it would place Torres 29th on the grid. Starting last in the race was spring Charlotte last-place finisher the #24 Pontiac of Nathan Ormond, who posted a time of 21.459, 0.429 seconds behind Russel's pole winning time.
On the pace lap, Ormond would actually spin out briefly in Turn 4 as the field went green and was trailing the field when both Torres and the #1 Fabulous Hudson Hornet Hudson of Johnston McClellan made a sharp turn to the inside of the track in Turn 3 and headed into the pits. By this point, Ormond had caught back up and pass those two cars and would actually climb up to finish 25th, just outside the Bottom Five. For Torres and McClellan, they both had suffered a flat right front tire and the teams chose to change only the right sides and sent their drivers back out, just behind the race leaders and would lose a lap. If a caution would have came out, Torres and McLellan would have had a chance to gain their laps back, but surprisingly, all the drivers was able to maintain control of their cars and no cautions would fly, keeping Torres and McClellan trapped a lap down with Torres trailing flag to flag in the race.
Rounding out the Bottom Five were drivers who finished on the same lap as the race leaders: 28th was the #14 Plymouth of Chris Kyle, 27th was North Wilkesboro last-place finisher the #59 Lincoln of Zachary Fitzwater and 26th was the #20 Oldsmobile of Kaitlyn Coyne.
Entering the season finale at Hillsborough, three drivers have a chance to become the
SCRLASTCAR Champion for Season 2 as AJ Jones, Brent Davison and Bruce Webster are all tied with two last-place finishes a piece. If any of those drivers outright finishes last at Hillsborough they will win the championship, however if anyone but them finishes last it will give the title to AJ Jones no matter if Davison or Webster finishes in the Bottom Five.
SCRLASTCAR STATISTICS
*This was the first time the #16 has finished last in a Grand National Series race as well at Winchester.
*This was the first time the #16 has finished last in a Grand National Series race as well at Winchester.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
30) #16-Sebastian Torres / 24 laps / running
29) #1-Johnston McClellan / 24 laps / running
28) #14-Chris Kyle / 25 laps / running
27) #59-Zachary Fitzwater / 25 laps / running
26) #20-Kaitlyn Coyne / 25 laps / running
30) #16-Sebastian Torres / 24 laps / running
29) #1-Johnston McClellan / 24 laps / running
28) #14-Chris Kyle / 25 laps / running
27) #59-Zachary Fitzwater / 25 laps / running
26) #20-Kaitlyn Coyne / 25 laps / running
No comments:
Post a Comment