The combination of showing continued improvement and speed, combined with escaping crashes and running near the front allowed Jordan Latimer to score a top-10 finish on Saturday night at Sunset Speedway.
The night didn’t start off as he quick as hoped, posting the 16th fastest time in time trials with a lap of 15.475 seconds. Ultimately, the early laps of the feature didn’t go as planned as he fell back to the 19th spot by Lap 8. He’d escape a wreck on the early race restart to move up a pair of spots, eventually moving up to 13th by Lap 15.
At the front of the field, there’d be contact shortly after a mid-race restart amongst the race leaders, collecting nine cars in total. Latimer was not one of those involved as he made the evasive move to the bottom of the track going into turn three to get by. In exchange, it’d allow him to run in the 11th spot with 18 laps remaining.
The third-generation racers evasive moves to escape wrecks continued as he’d make another move at Lap 23, getting by a spun car to move up to the 10th spot. He’d maintain his position as the race went on, battling side-by-side for the 10th spot with second feature runner-up Paul Maltese at Lap 28. Maltese got the spot on Lap 31, with Gord Shepherd getting alongside Latimer for 11th.
Ultimately, Shepherd was able to make the pass, resulting in Latimer crossing the finish line in the 12th spot.
As the 12th place finisher in the first feature, Latimer had the honor of starting pole for the second feature. The drop of the green flag saw a battle for the lead between Latimer and Shepherd, with Shepherd putting grabbing the advantage. Latimer now ran in the second spot ahead of Maltese and Mike Wilkinson. The next couple of laps saw Latimer drop back a couple spots, running in the fourth spot at Lap 9. He’d continue to run there till the first caution flew at Lap 13 for an incident in turn four.
The restart saw Latimer battle for third with Tom Walters, with Walters ultimately getting the spot at Lap 16. Al Inglis then got alongside Latimer for fourth, completing the two laps later for Latimer to now run in the fifth spot. Latimer continued to slip back, running sixth at Lap 23 after a pass by Travis Hallyburton. Ahead of him, though, things got interesting as the leaders took each other out, with Latimer escaping the wreck to move back up to the fourth spot.
Latimer fell back a couple spots on the restart, though was able to escape a three-car incident ahead of him with three laps to go to gain some ground. he then put together a couple of solid laps to complete the feature, crossing the finish line in the sixth spot.
Be sure to join Latimer and JL Motorsports for the next night of racing on Saturday July 9.
JL Motorsports is proud to be supported by Kicx 106, 104.1 the Dock, Kitchen Tire, Creechers Design, A/C Electric, Gamebridge Go Karts, Thor Motors Orillia, Jack Latimer Sales Representative Re/Max Orillia, Krueger Electrical Services, T&C Construction and Welding, Hazlet Trucking Orillia, TSS Top Shops, Tax Smart, and North River Motorsports this year.
Be sure to follow Jordan on twitter at http://www.twitter.com/LatimerJordan, and like the JL Motorsports facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/JLMotorsports/304091730527.
