Rhonda Costa-Landers/NevadaAppealTroy Regier, left, driver of the No. 98 S&S Motorsports supermodified racecar, accepts his main event trophy from the Rocky Mountain Raceways trophy kids Saturday night.
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH " Sometimes with teamwork you get everything right.
Such was the case for S&S Motorsports of Carson City at Rocky Mountain Raceways Saturday when the Supermodified Racing Association made its only visit this year to the three-eighths mile track.
Driver Troy Regier, of Dinuba, Calif., already owns the track record with a 12.838. He bested that time, although it was not during qualifying so his "old" record stays on the books.
From Friday's race at Twin Falls, Idaho, to Saturday, Regier went from a three-of-a-kind with three third-place finishes, to holding the aces with a fast qualifying time, to winning his heat, to winning the 50-lap main event.
"The car was perfect," Regier said after the race. "I appreciate everything the guys on this team have done for me and especially tonight. They worked hard to make the changes I asked for and it all worked. Everyone did a great job."
With nine cars starting the main event, Regier started in the eighth position, which he quickly left behind to head to the front of the field. By Lap 5, Regier was in third position, making passes on cars two at a time.
On Lap 8, Regier moved to the high side of Jeff Russell, who was running second, in Turns 3-4, to take over the second position, then quickly dove inside of Lonnie Adamson on the front stretch and stuck the move going into Turn 1 to take over the lead.
The race was slowed with a red flag incident when the No. 24 car of Jimmy Waters of Utah, drove into Turn 3 and the rear end of the car swung around on him and he backed hard into the wall. The race was stopped to clean up fuel and the driver got out under his own power and was OK.
The remainder of the race went green to Lap 50, with Regier taking the win with a half-lap lead over the second place position of Russell, while Bobby Dalton followed closely behind for third. Rounding out the field were Pat Whittet, Adamson, Whitey Janssen of Dayton, Waters, Eric Barlow, Bryan Warf and Jim Birges.
"The car ran fine for me," Janssen said. "It just overheated."
Janssen was pushed to the pits after the red flag condition was cleared.
"Well work out the bugs with the car," he said. "We'll get through it."
Warf won the first heat with Adamson taking second and Waters third. Regier won the second heat with Russell second and Janssen third.
"We finally found that sweet spot of where the car wants to be," Regier said. "We'll record it and use it at every racetrack from here on out."
"We owe much to our sponsors," said Steve Shaw, co-owner of the No. 98 supermodified. "The economy and racing is tough right now and our sponsors keep us out here."
S&S Motorsports is sponsored by Donn Simons, Sierra Racing Products (Ron Burdg), Capital City Auto Parts (NAPA), and Regier Farms.
"The car was freaking awesome," said a smiling Tom Silsby, co-owner with Shaw on the racecar.
Regier is in second place in the SMRA standings, just 31 points behind Russell. Janssen is fourth in points. The SMRA next races July 19 at Madera Speedway in Madera, Calif.