By Vincent Delforge, Special to Kickin’ the Tires
Sean Hingorani’s return behind the wheel of a Venturini Motorsports car quickly turned into a fairy tale. Indeed, the 2023 champion won the NAPA Auto Parts 150 presented by West Coast Stock Car Motorsports Hall of Fame at Kevin Harvick’s Kern Raceway, Bakersfield, CA, the penultimate race of the 2024 ARCA Menards West Series season, leading from start to finish after securing pole position. He also set the fastest lap of the race. In short, a perfect copy that allows him to look forward to a second championship with greater confidence, as he will enter the finale in Phoenix on November 8 with a 14-point lead over Tyler Reif and 37 over Trevor Huddleston.
Here is the full summary of the race.
ARCA West Practice/Qualifying
Rip Michels shows that Jan’s Racing really has a lot of performance on the half-miles since he sets the best time of the only practice session ahead of Tyler Reif and Buddy Shepherd. Hingorani is only seventh but has driven a lot to refine his race setup. This will not prevent him from being the fastest during the qualifying session since he obtains pole position, his fourth in his career, with 80 thousandths ahead of Rip Michels and 153 thousandths ahead of the duo Kole Raz, winner here last April and Buddy Shepherd who achieved exactly the same time to the thousandth! Note that Isabella Robusto is only 15th and Takuma Koga 18th. The latter two complaining of numerous problems with their respective Toyotas. As usual David Smith brings up the rear in 20th and last position.
Green flag!
As soon as the green flag waved, Hingorani took control of the race with authority and… never let go! Michels quickly lost positions, struggling to find the excellent pace he had earlier in the day. By the eighth lap, he was only 10th. The complete opposite of Tyler Reif who moved from fifth to second position but was already 1.2 seconds behind the leader. Buddy Shepherd, Cole Raz and Jack Wood completed the top 5.
Hingorani’s teammates, Brent Crews and Isabella Robusto, methodically moved up the pack. Crews joined the top 5 on lap 20 and Robusto the top 10 on lap 30.
Hingorani in demonstration
We reached the first third of the race (50th lap) and Sean Hingorani has almost three seconds ahead of Trevor Huddleston who passed Tyler Reif for second position. Huddleston, only ninth on the starting grid is the fastest on track with the exception of the leader of course. The rest of the top 10 is composed of Brent Crews, Kole Raz, Jack Wood, Jaron Giannini, Eric Nascimento, Jr., Isabella Rosbusto and Rip Michels. The latter seems to have finally found a decent pace and is holding on ahead of Eric Johnson, Jr., Kyle Keller, his new teammate, and Buddy Shepherd who is having more and more trouble with the behavior of his car.
The first yellow flag comes on lap 67. Kyle Keller suffered a flat tire on the right front and hit the wall in turn 1. The damage was significant and despite all the efforts of his mechanics, he had to retire shortly after halfway through the race, his car being undriveable. It was also a suspension problem that caused Shepherd to lose a lot of time and would be the cause of his retirement shortly before halfway through the race. The free pass was awarded to Eric Johnson, Jr. who was eleventh.
Midway Break
The restart is given for five laps before the next yellow flag is waved, signifying the halfway point. Hingorani handled this first restart perfectly and continued his ride at the front of the race. Reif put pressure on Huddleston during these five laps but was not able to pass him for second position. All this more than a second behind the leader.
The complete classification at halfway point is as follows: Sean Hingorani leader in front of Trevor Huddleston, Tyler Reif, Brent Crews, Jack Wood, Kole Raz, Jaron Giannini, Eric Nascimento, Jr., Isabella Robusto, Rip Michels, Eric, Johnson, Jr., Spencer Davis, 12th, receives the free pass and returns to the leader’s lap. Ethan Nascimento (-1), Henry Barton (-1), Todd Souza (-1), Kyle Keller (-2), Joey Kennealy (-2), Takuma Koga (-3), Buddy Shepherd (-6 / out) and David Smith (-7).
Huddleston complains, his throttle is sticking.
The restart is given on lap 85 and Hingorani resumes his march forward. He takes advantage of the battle between Huddleston, Reif and Crews behind him.
Robusto in the wall!
A three-way battle ended badly on lap 87 when Eric Nascimento, Jr., while trying to slip between Eric Johnson, Jr. and Isabella Rosbusto, hit the rear of the latter’s Toyota and sent it into a spun. Robusto violently hit the outside wall at the end of the frontstretch with the left front and came to a stop entering turn 1. She had to dismount. This contact would also have consequences for Eric Nascimento, Jr. because he would also have to retire on lap 99 following damage to his right front suspension. But the big brother’s misfortunes were good for the little brother. Indeed, Ethan Nascimento got the free pass. Which would allow him to join the top 10.
The restart was given on lap 97 and for the first time Hingorani was threatened by Huddleston for the first position. But it would not last long. Hingorani would quickly be rid of the driver of the Ford No. 50. The latter had a lot to do to contain the attacks of Reif and Crews. A few laps later, Crews tried to pass on the inside on Huddleston in turn 3 but slid and forced the latter to drive in the dust. Huddleston went from second to seventh position in a few meters!
From there, Brent Crews will gradually become more and more threatening on his teammate and stick to the latter’s rear bumper 10 laps from the finish. He will try several attacks but during the penultimate lap, slips a little too much by delaying his braking to the maximum at the entrance to turn 3 and thus definitively leaves the way open to Hingorani who will pass as winner under the checkered flag. He will have led all the laps and thus made the good operation in the championship.
Behind, Huddleston made his effort and returned to the podium in third position. Reif is fourth ahead of Wood. Raz, Giannini, Michels, Johnson, Jr. and Ethan Nascimento complete the top 10.
On Victory Lane, Sean Hingorani will say: “Venturini Motorsports brought me such a great race car today and I can’t thank them enough for that. Had to hold off there at the end, but we were able to lead wire to wire and dominate here today. I had a fun time. Thanks for all the fans once again.”
This is the third victory of the season for the 2023 champion, his seventh in his career. While at Venturini Motorsports, Kevin Reed, Jr. and Cayden Lapcevich played a big role in preparing the cars, it was Taylor DeWolf who was Hingorani’s crew chief. She becomes the first woman to win a race as crew chief in the history of the West Series. And the cherry on the cake is that her partner in life, Gregory Papp, takes second place. Papp is Brent Crews’ crew chief. A pair of crew chiefs finishing first and second in a West Series race is another first in the history of the series.
In the championship, Sean Hingorani has 562 points, 14 more than Tyler Reif (548), 37 on Trevor Huddleston (525), 61 on Jack Wood (501) and 84 on Kyle Keller (478).
The championship finale, the Desert Diamond Casino West Valley 100, will take place in Phoenix, AZ on November 8, 2024.