Sunday, January 01, 2006

Herrera wins first day of Roger McCluskey Classic

Herrera's win gives him points championship
TUCSON Ariz. ---- Johnny Herrera held off a late charging Charles Davis to win the Sprint Car Racing League's main event at the Roger McCluskey Classic Saturday at Untied Sports Arizona Race Park.
With the win Herrera of Albuquerque N.M. clinched the SCRL's Southwest series points championship.
After taking the lead at the halfway mark, Herrera held an 18 second lead on lap 29, but Jason Tanner of Albuquerque N.M. flipped end-over-end on lap 37 of the 40 lap race coming out of turn 3, causing a huge hole in the fence and bringing out the first red flag of the race.
"I didn't know how much tire I had so I was playing it a little easy," Herrera said. "But after the restart I found out I had a little more tire so I ran a little harder."
Drivers were informed at the pre-race drivers meeting that tire management was going to be an issue and that drivers had to conserve on tires. However no major tire issues took place as the race was mostly clean with only three cautions.
"I think you only seen one flat tire in the whole race but that was early in the race," Herrera said. But I think all the guys did a good job managing their tires. We knew what we had to work with and that's all we had."
The Roger McCluskey Classic continues today, with the first points race of the new SCRL's East-West series.
Rodney Haas
SCRL Media Relations

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