By Vincent Delforge, Staff Writer
The 72nd season of the ARCA Menards West Series kicks off with a thrilling finish between Trevor Huddleston and Kyle Keller. Huddleston won the West Coast Stock Car Motorsports Hall of Fame 150 at Kevin Harvick’s Kern Raceway, Bakersfield, CA on Saturday, January 25th by a small margin. Although he led 144 of the 150 laps of the race, he never got to rest as his lead averaged just one second or less over his closest pursuer. But let’s take a closer look at that day.
ARCA West Practice/Qualifying
If on Friday, the free practice organized by ARCA was dominated by Eric Johnson, Jr. and his Jerry Pitts Racing No. 5 Toyota, Saturday’s saw Daniel Hemric hoist his Bill McAnally Racing No. 19 Chevrolet to the top of the charts. Hemric would confirm his speed in the qualifying session by taking the pole position. His first in his career in two races and the 80th for his owner Bill McAnally. The team, the historical leader in the number of pole positions, had not obtained one since October 25, 2020, with Jesse Love. It was already with the No. 19 and it was also in Bakersfield.
Tanner Reif (No. 13 Central Coast Racing) is second ahead of Kyle Keller (No. 71 Jan’s Racing Team) and Trevor Huddleston (No. 50 High Point Racing). Newcomers Adrian Ferrer (No. 3 Central Coast Racing), Gavin Ray (No. 7 Jerry Pitts Racing) and Blake Lothian (No. 51 Strike Mamba Racing) are seventh, ninth and tenth respectively.
Green Green Green !!!
Right from the start, poleman Daniel Hemric was overtaken on the outside in turns 3 and 4 by Tanner Reif. Behind Trevor Huddleston did the same thing to Kyle Keller. Huddleston, who at the start of the second lap, took second place against the struggling poleman.
Huddleston quickly got back into Reif’s rear bumper and dove inside in turn 3 to take command of the race at the end of the sixth lap. However, at that moment, there was concern about the blue Ford Fusion because a little smoke was coming out of the right rear wheel arch.
On lap 10, the ranking was as follows for the top 5, with Huddleston leading with a 1.089-second lead over Tanner Reif. Kyle Keller got rid of Daniel Hemric on lap 8, who was now only fourth ahead of Eric Johnson, Jr. who was increasingly threatening. At High Point Racing, we are reassured that the smoke has disappeared, and Huddleston is the fastest.
Hemric is driving in a false rhythm with a car that is difficult to turn. He is clearly trying to preserve his tires. But he is losing position after position. On lap 20 he is only seventh with Robbie Kennealy (No. 9 Jan’s Racing Team) stuck to his rear bumper. Hemric was overtaken by the Spanish rookie Adrian Ferrer, who is having an excellent race in fourth position. Eric Johnson, Jr. and Spencer Davis (No. 42 Cook Racing Technologies) are respectively fifth and sixth.
Nothing changes until lap 30, except for the fact that David Smith (No. 05 Shockwave Racing) is caught for the second time by the leader Huddleston, which will be effective on lap 32. Ferrer takes the third position from Keller on lap 31.
The Spanish charge!
Nothing seems to stop the progression of the young Madrid native Adrian Ferrer who takes second position on the 36th lap against his teammate Tanner Reif. Keller will take advantage of Reif moving away towards the outside line to also overtake the driver of the No. 13. With Kennealy who also previously passed Hemric, then Keller who takes the lead over Ferrer, the ranking at the end of the 40th lap is strongly shaken up. Only Huddleston is the unchanging leader. The top 10 is therefore as follows: Huddleston, Keller, Ferrer, Reif, Johnson, Jr., Davis, Kennealy, Hemric, Gavin Ray and Cody Dennison (No. 72 Strike Mamba Racing). Blake Lothian is 11th and Smith is last two laps behind.
Lothian who loses a lap on the 49th lap. He has been having power problems since the start of the race, his engine only running on seven cylinders.
The first third of the race (lap 50) is reached with the only changes in the top 10 being that Kennealy has taken sixth place from Davis. And Ray has taken eighth place from Hemric. On lap 58, Dennison loses a lap to the leader Huddleston whose lead over Keller has been stuck between eight and nine tenths for nearly 20 laps.
Midway race
On lap 75 the complete classification is as follows: Huddleston ahead of Keller by nine tenths, Ferrer, Reif, Johnson, Jr., Kennealy, Davis, Ray, Hemric and Dennison (-1 lap) complete the top 10. Lothian (-2) and Smith (-4) bring up the rear.
The first and only yellow flag of the race is waved on lap 99 following problems with Spencer Davis who is slowing down on the backstretch. Davis joins the pitlane. crew chief Sean Samuels and the CRT crew will try to resolve the problem, and Davis will return to the track for a few laps before having to definitively park his Chevrolet No. 42 on lap 104. Electrical problem. Dennison (10th) benefits from the free pass and goes from two to one lap behind the leader.
This yellow flag is a godsend for Hemric who had kept the leader just behind him for about ten laps. He goes through his pit box and makes chassis adjustments. His car will, from then on, be totally transformed in its behavior. And No. 19 will become the fastest in the last third of the race.
Restart !
The restart is given on lap 107 with Huddleston leading ahead of Keller. Dazzling until then, the Spanish rookie Adrian Ferrer will experience hell with cold tires. He will tumble from third to eighth and last position on the leader’s lap. That’s one thing he will have learned. In the West Series, keeping your tires at the best possible temperature while cooling your brakes during the yellows is essential. Just as it is essential to be at full speed as soon as the green flag waves, otherwise you will be overrun by the pack of furious drivers!
If Huddleston manages to regain a small second’s lead over Keller. Behind Hemric comes back like a bullet. By going through his pit box during the yellow, he, who was last in the lap, has lost nothing; on the contrary, he had everything to gain by using this strategy. Fifth on the 111th lap, he is fourth on the 113th then third on the 125th. And he reduces the gap on the first two. From 2.2 seconds on the 130th lap, he is only 1.3 seconds on the 140th.
Note that Blake Lothian has to go through his pit box twice to try to solve his power loss problem first and then to change his front right tire which has a flat. He loses a lot of time and laps on the leaders and drops out of the top 10.
Ferrer did not find a fast enough pace quickly enough and lost a lap on Huddleston on the 138th lap. Unfortunately for Hemric, while overtaking the latecomer David Smith on lap 139, the two drivers touched. If, at first, the fears about this contact quickly disappeared because Hemric seemed to be as fast as ever, he would suddenly lose all his speed on lap 147 and return to his pit box slowly without causing a caution. What a disappointment when victory seemed possible.
Keller puts the pressure on!
The last ten laps are incredibly intense. Kyle Keller, on his 20th birthday, wants to take his first career victory. He wins tenth after tenth, and on Lap 149 he is only 89-thousandths behind the leader, Huddleston. He dives inside at turn 1 but has to move out of the way because the duo is coming back on the latecomer David Smith. This little hesitation by Keller gives a few meters of lead back to Huddleston who starts the last lap with Keller stuck to his rear bumper.
Kyle Keller tries everything coming out of turn 4 on the last lap but slides a little and lets Trevor Huddleston cross the finish line as the winner with a .243-thousandth lead.
The battle between the two drivers was intense but fair play until the end.
Trevor Huddleston wins his first victory at Bakersfield, his sixth in his career and leads the championship for the first time. His father Tim interviews him on Victory Lane:
“Thank you so much. Thank you to all the fans for coming out. This is what we wanted: this nice beautiful weather. I know it didn’t start that way. But thank you guys, we do this for you so we’re going to have a lot of racing out here this year and going to do a lot of exciting things. Definitely just want to say hats off to Kyle Keller over here. I mean that’s how you race a race. He ran it perfect and he didn’t use me up at all. He was going for that win and he just got unlucky that car was there (David Smith). I saw that in my windshield and I knew I had to do what I had to do. He did a great job. I’m pretty sure my crew chief, Jeff Shrader, was a little mad at me. He thought I was pushing it a little too hard, but he kept me calm. It was all [the whole HPR team members]. They made it happen today.” Said Huddleston.
Kyle Keller stated: “It was wreck Trevor or race him clean. We had a good photo finish there, then I got behind the lapped car and thought I had to take a right. I tried to put it in the middle, but it was either stuff him in the fence or dog it until the end. I’m never going to race Trevor dirty, and we’re going to race good all year against each other.”
The rest of the top 10 is composed of Tanner Reif, Robbie Kennealy, Eric Johnson, Jr., Gavin Ray (best rookie), Adrian Ferrer, Cody Dennison, Daniel Hemric and David Smith. Blake Lothian and Spencer Davis finish 11th and 12th.
In the championship, the standings are the same as the race. Huddleston is first with 48 points. Six more than Kyle Keller and Tanner Reif tied.
The next race is on March 7 in Phoenix, AZ. A race that will be combined with the ARCA Menards National Series.