Tracy Press

 
Gilbert dominates; Philpott moves up

With seven wins in 15 races, including 14 top-10 finishes, Gilbert extended his lead over Doff Cooksey of Brentwood and Guy Guibor of Manteca.

Meanwhile, Tracy’s Justin Philpott took a step forward in the standings with an eighth-place finish in the first 50-lap race and a third-place finish in the second race. The results moved Philpott into the top 10 in the Altamont’s Western Late Model standings.

His finish in Saturday’s second race shows his steady progression since the start of the season. Philpott said his family has worked out some of the front-end trouble he had earlier in the year with his Taxbrain-sponsored Monte Carlo.

“When you turn better, you can get on the gas better going into the straightaway,” he said, adding that with a top-10 finish in the first race he was motivated to go after the win in the second race.

“I just went for it and came up with third, which is pretty good. It’s hard to catch that No. 44 car (Gilbert),” he said.

Philpott has started in 13 of 15 races at Altamont, which puts him about 400 points behind leader Gilbert and nearly 300 points behind second-place Cooksey. There are five races left in Altamont’s Weekly Whelen Western Late Models series, probably putting Philpott out of top-spot contention.

“It’s pretty hard to catch the leaders, but I’m within 100 points of the top five,” Philpott said. “This is the first year I’ve grown as a driver, and I’m competing with the best guys on the West Coast.”

Saturday’s races saw the usual leaders take charge early on.

Carlos Vieira of Merced took the lead at the start of the first race, while Gilbert and Cooksey followed in second and third. Gilbert took over on lap 12 and kept the lead, and Cooksey pulled into second on Lap 20. Gary Glenn of Orangevale took third place away from Vieira on Lap 48.

Philpott started in eighth position and battled the whole race in the middle of the pack.

In the second race, Vieira started in third position and quickly charged into the lead ahead of Kyle Gotulla of Modesto. Philpott also moved up quickly from his start in fifth and competed with Gilbert for most of the race, with Cooksey and Glenn in fourth and fifth.

Gilbert took the lead from Vieira on Lap 30 and held on as the others competed for the remaining top spots. Glenn passed Philpott on Lap 44, while Cooksey held at fourth place, with Vieira finishing fifth.

In other races
In the U.S. Auto Club 50-lap Western States Sprint Car race, Brian McClish of Santa Rosa took the lead on the 12th lap and held on for his second Altamont win, followed by Porter Smith of Aztec, N.M., Tanner Swanson of Kingsburg, Eric Humphries of Chowchilla and Scott Pierovich of Alamo.

Bobby Grewohl of Hollister took the USAC Western States Midget race ahead of Paul Zimmerly of Ridgefield, Wash., Nic Faas of Huntington Beach, Dan Bedford of Brentwood, and Steven Matthews of Canada.

Jeff Oleen of Bethesda, Md., finished the USAC Ford Focus race ahead of Alex Bowman of Tucson, Ariz., Garett Peterson of West Sacramento, Jessica Brunelli of Hayward and Ian Mille of Pleasanton.

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