By Vincent Delforge, Special to Kickin’ the Tires
The Shasta 150, seventh race of the season in the 2024 ARCA Menards West Series, held at Shasta Speedway in Anderson, CA, ended with the victory of Tyler Reif. The young driver dominated this race head and shoulders by finishing first in the practice, the qualifying session and by leading all the laps of the race while posting the fastest lap in the race! A perfect performance that allows the Central Coast Racing driver to regain the championship lead with a five-point lead over Sean Hingorani, second in the race. A race led at a frantic pace, without the slightest yellow flag and completed in just 43 minutes.
Here is the full summary of the July 27 race.
ARCA West Practice/Qualifying
As previously mentioned, Reif (CCR No. 13) finished at the top of the practice session. He was ahead of Jack Wood (BMR No. 16) and Kyle Keller (KKM No. 12). Eric Johnson, Jr. (BMR No. 19) couldn’t do a single lap due to an engine problem. Robbie Kennealy (KKM No. 11) did a few laps without pushing. He finally used the car of his teammate Danica Dart, not present here, in order to do a start and park. As a reminder, he had broken his engine at Irwindale and the team was unfortunately unable to provide him with a new one for this race.
In qualifying session Reif wasn’t going to give anyone else the chance to take pole position. He set a time of 16.033 seconds, 40 thousandths better than Sean Hingorani (JPR No. 5). Jack Wood was third, accompanied on the second row by Trevor Huddleston (HPR No. 50). Note the excellent performance of Derek Copeland (DCR No. 80) who obtained the fifth time. Johnson, Jr. was not able to do a single lap and will start the race in last position. His team is still working on changing his engine.
Green flag!
From the wave of the green flag, Tyler Reif maintains the lead of the race. Jack Wood is side-by-side with Sean Hingorani and challenges him for second position. Todd Souza (CCR #3) passes Derek Copeland for fifth position. Behind Nick Joanides (JR #71) and Eric Johnson, Jr. gain positions after starting from the back of the pack. Robbie Kennealy drops back to last position. He leaves the track on lap five and stops as originally planned.
On lap 10 Copeland passes Souza to re-enter the top five. No change for the first four positions. Reif sets the fastest lap of the race in 16.397 seconds. He is so fast that he takes a lap from David Smith (SM No. 05) on lap 11.
Hingorani who passes Wood for second position on lap 12. Wood who begins to lose pace and he will be passed by Trevor Huddleston on the 18th lap. Johnson, Jr. passes Jaron Giannini (SPS No. 23) in the same lap for eighth position. At this point his new engine seems to be working well.
By lap 30, all the drivers still on the track are on the leader’s lap except for David Smith who is now two laps behind. Joanides takes 10th position from Takuma Koga (JPR #7) on lap 38.
From lap 39, Hingorani begins to close the gap on Reif. Giannini takes eighth position from Johnson, Jr. on lap 49.
By lap 50, which marks the end of the first third of the race, Hingorani is only 397 thousandths behind.
The complete classification at lap 50 is as follows: Tyler Reif leader ahead of Sean Hingorani, Trevor Huddleston, Jack Wood, Derek Copeland, Todd Souza, Kyle Keller, Jaron Giannini, Eric Johnson, Jr., Nick Joanides (-1), Takuma Koga (-1), David Smith (-4), Robbie Kennealy (out).
Reif in control, Keller coming back strong
On lap 60, Reif maintains a good half-second lead over Hingorani. Huddleston is more than six seconds behind and Wood is now under threat from Copeland at more than nine seconds. Keller passed Souza on lap 59 for sixth position. Eric Johnson, Jr. is slower and slower and loses a lap on the leader on the 63rd crossing of the line.
Copeland continues to impress and on lap 64, he passes Wood for fourth position. Keller comes back strong on Wood by driving three to five tenths faster per lap! Complicated moment for the Bill McAnally Racing drivers.
Halfway through the race (lap 75) Tyler Reif is more than a second ahead of Hingorani. Souza (seventh) and Giannini (eighth) lose a lap on the leader. There are still six drivers in the lap with in order Reif, Hingorani, Huddleston, Copeland, Wood and Keller.
Disaster for Johnson, Jr. who has to go to his pit box on the 77th lap due to engine problems. He will lose many laps, the time that the BMR team solves the problem.
On the 79th lap, Keller joins up with Wood. The battle between the two drivers is superb and on the 99th lap Kyle Keller finds the opening and takes fifth position from the BMR driver.
Hingorani gains ground
On lap 100, Reif is still the leader but his lead of nearly 1.5 seconds is melting like snow in the sun. The reason is that he was less incisive in overtaking the latecomer David Smith who is now seven laps behind. Hingorani did not question it and came back to four tenths.
The classification on lap 100 is as follows with Tyler Reif leading ahead of Sean Hingorani, Trevor Huddleston, Derek Copeland, Kyle Keller, Jack Wood, Todd Souza (-1), Jaron Giannini (-1), Nick Joanides (-1), Takuma Koga (-1), David Smith (-7), Eric Johnson, Jr. (off -23) and Robbie Kennealy (out).
On lap 106, it is Wood and Keller who will be overtaken by the race leader. Note that Johnson, Jr. returns to the track with a 28 lap deficit. At BMR, no question of giving up.
Huddleston is increasingly threatened by Copeland while in front Reif takes a few lengths ahead of Hingorani. Giannini starts to complain on the radio that his brakes are spongy. He will have to give up on the 121st lap because his brakes have lost all efficiency. A hard blow for the Sigma Performance Services driver who was giving another convincing performance. This benefits Joanides, Koga and even David Smith who joins the top-10.
Reif on another level!
The last ten laps of the race will be a walk in the park for Tyler Reif who widens the gap on Hingorani. The gap now exceeds two seconds. On the 147th lap, Reif puts Copeland, the fourth, one lap behind.
Reif who can finish the last two laps without taking any risks because he was almost 3 seconds ahead of the second.
Tyler wins the race, his first victory of the season and second in his career. He takes seven points back from Hingorani and therefore regains the championship lead with a five-point lead.
Huddleston, Copeland and Keller complete the top-five. Wood, Souza, Joanides, Koga and Smith finish from sixth to tenth position.
“It means the world to me,” Tyler Reif said in Victory Lane. “Me and this team have worked so hard this year, our first [full] year together. We’ve done nothing but grinding, being consistent and getting better and better.” This is the first victory for Central Coast Racing and its owner Kelly Souza since the one obtained by her husband and driver Todd Souza on the road track of Tooele, UT on August 2, 2008. At the time Tyler Reif was one year old! Michael Munoz was already the team’s crew chief and the car sported the iconic No. 13.
“I think we were better for a bit there but then we just got too free,” Sean Hingorani said. “Struggled a little bit with drive. These Jerry Pitts Racing guys worked really hard this weekend so I can’t thank them enough for that,” Hingorani said.
In the championship Tyler Reif has 340 points and leads Sean Hingorani (335), Jack Wood (300), Trevor Huddleston (300) and Kyle Keller (291).
Next race on August 10th at Tri-City Raceway in West Richland, WA for the NAPA Auto Care 150. A track that the West Series has not visited since 2003.