McGill Gets His First Win of Season

Jim McGill was the prime beneficiary after division leader Van Knill crashed his car in the trophy dash, winning Saturday night’s super-late-model feature race at Irwindale Speedway.

McGill started second, passed pole-sitter Dan Moore on the opening lap and went on to a wire-to-wire victory in the 50-lap race on the half-mile track, finishing 4.802 seconds ahead of Moore.

Knill’s Ford struck the wall during the six-lap trophy dash because of a mechanical problem, forcing him to use Todd Southwell’s backup car. Knill finished sixth.

Kenton Gray was 16th, dropping out after 48 laps in his first race since getting a sponsorship from Bridge Publications, which publishes Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard’s bestseller “Dianetics.”

McGill received $1,250 for the victory, his first in the season’s eight races.

In the super-truck race, Ron Peterson set the track record for consecutive victories by winning his 10th race in a row. Peterson had shared the record with Todd Burns, who won nine consecutive late-model races during the 1999 and 2000 seasons.

Peterson moved into first on the 24th lap of the 40-lap race.

Tom Smith won the figure 8 race.

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-- Steven Herbert