Irwindale results 2000-10-28

David Gilliland won the featured Food 4 Less 100 for NASCAR Super Late Models on Saturday night at Irwindale Speedway by taking the lead on lap 34 and keeping it until the checkered flag 67 laps later.

On the lap chart it's all Gilliland in car number 30 right there lap after lap, but it doesn't tell half of the story of what was going on behind the young Chino driver as he made the most out of an "old cobwebby" backup car that he hadn't even sat in until the previous Wednesday.

Setting fast qualifying time and running a solid second to Bakersfield's Dan Holtz for the first 34 laps, Gilliland just seemed to have a car that was perfectly suited to the night's race. "We knew that we had a car that was capable of winning, this was probably the best car I've ever had right from the first lap," was Gilliland's exuberant explanation of his success.

Only a few places behind Ben Walker, Charlie Utts, and Shawn Calderwood all ran two and often three-wide barking at the lead pair's tailpipes. The North Hills, Camarillo, and Bakersfield-domiciled trio were all running about as hard as anyone could and putting on the kind of show that always leaves the crowd feeling that they've got their money worth.

A last lap struggle for second place saw Norwalk's Brandon Loverock slide wide out of position coming out of turn four and loose second place to a hard-charging Barry Bradshaw of Oildale. In what would have been the drive of the race (last to second) had it not been for Gilliland's near perfect racing, Bradshaw stood the crowd on their feet numerous times as he scythed trough the pack.

Earlier in the evening Tim Woods lll of Chino Hills won the Food 4 Less Fast 4 Shoot-Out, a four lap trophy dash for the featured Super Late Models that netted the Chino Hills driver a cool $1000 for his expertise in a taking the two-mile sprint.

The fifty-six Super Late Model machines entered in the race set a new record as did the thirty-six car Super Late Model main event.

In the supporting events, Troy Decuir from Moreno Valley won a hotly-contested Mechanix Wear Speed Truck 50-lapper and Tom Landreth of Alta Loma just edged Newport Beach's Nick DeFazio in the Legends Car race.