By virtue of a dominant second half, Derek Thorn earned $25,000 in the Sunrise Ford All-Star Showdown at Irwindale Speedway.
Following a near clean sweep of Snowball Derby festivities in December, only coming up short in the Super Late Model main event, the native Californian returned home and promptly won the biggest event on the left coast.
It matches his 2017 victory at the Kern County Winter Showdown as his biggest payday to date.
“I’ll be smiling at this one for a long time,” Thorn said in Victory Lane.
Thorn led the opening 21 laps before falling behind. However, he never left the top three and in familiar fashion, clawed at the gap to grab the top spot just before the halfway break.
“We’ve been snakebit on a lot of these shows,” Thorn said with the memory of the Snowball Derby fresh in his mind. “It’s slipped through our fingers so many times, so those last 25 laps, I’m saying, ‘Come on, baby.’ It’s just awesome to be here in Victory Lane.
“I just can’t thank the Campbells enough. Mikey, Vickie and all the guys on this crew to make this possible. Everybody here on this car helps us get here. It’s a group effort on everybody’s part. He (Mike) is a big key to this puzzle, and makes these things haul butt.”
Preston Peltier finished in second, 4.464 seconds behind, but kept Thorn honest through most of the race. He was the only other leader in the second half when he had a nose out front for Lap 150 before Thorn was quicker picking his way through lapped traffic.
“Second place isn’t really what you want,” said a dejected Peltier. “Derek got a little rough with me there on those restarts. I don’t know if it bent something, but the car got real tight suddenly and there was nothing I could do with him.
“This Fire Alarms Service Toyota and Generator Source — I gotta thank those guys.”
Tayler Riddle ran as low as eighth position, but stayed calm through traffic as he dodged some incidents surrounding him. The patience paid off as he found himself completing the podium in third.
“The two in front of me are probably the best Late Model racers in the nation,” Riddle praising Thorn and Peltier. “You learn so much just by getting the chance to race them. Pretty happy to come home third tonight.”
Jack Wood and Dylan Lipton rounded out the top-five. Linny White, who led early in the race, faded back to sixth. Logan Bearden, Eric Schmidt, Carlos Vieria and Austin Reed completed the top-10.
The complete list can be found below.
- Derek Thorn
- Preston Peltier
- Jack Wood
- Dylan Lupton
- Linny White
- Logan Bearden
- Eric Schmidt
- Carlos Vieira
- Austin Reed
- Bobby Hodges
- Chris Davidson
- Cale Kanke
- Joe Farre
- Keith Spangler
- Tyler Fabozzi
- John Moore
- Jacob Gomes
- Cole Moore
- Brandon Farrington
- Trevor Huddleston
- Scott Sanchez
- Kyle Neveau
- Don Zoll Jr.
- Eric Holmes
- Kole Raz
- Joey Iest
- Christian McGhee
- Greg Voigt
- Andy Allen
- Dean Thompson, DNS
- Tayler Riddle, DQ