SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. -- With the force of a Texas tornado, James Cole arrived in San Bernardino-California July 11th looking for his first ever SuperClean Modified Racing Series win. He returned to his native San Antonio-Texas that weekend with a $1,000 check after winning the R&L Carriers 75 held at the ASA sanctioned Orange Show Speedway.

Cole led all 75 laps around the speedway's always challenging quarter mile paved oval and appeared to have the evening well under control. But that's now how it ended. Cole had to hold off a furious challenge from Jim Mardis who ran side to side, and door to door, during the final five circuits of the race before Cole finally reclaimed the lead heading into turn three of the final lap. The fans were literally jumping up and down in the grandstand as this five lap drama unfolded.

The first real sign that James Cole was going to enjoy a wonderful evening at the Orange Show Speedway actually began earlier that afternoon following qualifying and the series' six lap trophy dash.

Jim Mardis won the Budweiser Pole award for setting fast time in qualifying. Mardis ripped off a lap of 13.595 seconds/66.201 MPH and set a new modified track record for the Orange Show Speedway. However, SuperClean Modified Racing Series officials introduced a new inversion procedure prior to this race. Six Lucas Oil plastic bottles were placed in a cardboard box with three of them having inversion numbers ranging from three to six. Mardis selected the bottle with the number six in it.

The inversion process meant that Bryan Harrell and Cole were going to start the R&L Carriers 75 on the front row. At least that's what it seemed at the time. An elated Harrell led the starters for the series' six lap trophy dash only to find out that his evening at the Orange Show Speedway was not going to be so pleasant. During the trophy dash Harrell hit the wall in turn three, following some contact, and damaged his right front wheel area. He spent a fast paced afternoon making repairs so he could start last in the A Main. Unfortunately a lap 62 incident ruined any chance of Harrell redeeming himself with a good run during this race. With yet more damage to his car, the Riverside driver had to settle for a 16th place finish.

That chain of events moved James Cole to the pole position for the R&L Carriers 75. When the full field of 22 modifieds took that initial green flag Cole made quick work of jumping into the race lead. It was quickly apparent that Cole's bright orange modified was going to be the car to beat. By lap 31 he held a full straightaway lead over the remainder of the field. The only time anyone could get near Cole's car was during restarts that followed the four yellow flags that slowed the race rhythm.

While Cole consistently hit his marks and clicked off the laps in the race, there was some drama brewing several car lengths behind him. All this while Tim Morse and Jim Mardis were literally glued to each other in second and third. With time and laps running out Mardis knew it was now or never go time and began to seriously put some pressure on the Morse car in an effort to take over second and set his sights on the leader. Realizing that he wasn't going to get the job done riding the speedway's low line, Mardis jumped up into the upper groove and raced side by side with Morse until he was able to clear him to take the position.

However, by the time Mardis made the move to take over second, there were only ten laps left in the race. While many believed there simply wasn't enough time for a serious run at the race leader, no one told Mardis that. He adapted a checkers or wreckers approach to the remainder of the race and, much to everyone's amazement, only needed five laps to eradicate the asphalt between himself and Cole.

The Orange Show Speedway is the home track for Mardis. He's won a lot of features, and a championship, in the speedway's ASA Stock Pony Division. When Mardis closed in on Cole, with only five laps left in the race, the fans jumped to their feet to cheer on their home town favorite. The fight to the finish, between two drivers seeking their first series' win, was on and everyone knew it.

The unfolding dramatic finish hit a fever pitch on lap 72 when Mardis once again jumped up into the Orange Speedway's high groove and pulled alongside of Cole. When the pair of potential race winners took the white flag two laps later they were still racing wheel to wheel.. But going into turn three on the final lap, Mardis appeared to be a little out of shape and had to return to the low line behind Cole. That turned out to be the race winning move.

Since the middle of last year there has been a lot of series observers who said it was just a matter of time before James Cole won his first SuperClean Modified feature.. After parking his bright orange Mission Auto Parts-Swenson Racing-Screen Pro Graphics #11 in the Orange Show Speedway's victory lane, an elated Cole yelled "this one is long overdue."

Surprisingly Cole said his excellent evening in San Bernardino started off a little on the frustrating side. "It actually started out to be a rough weekend for us," he said adding "the Swenson Brothers helped us put together a brand new car for this race. We had some trouble getting it dialed in. If fact, the car really didn't come together until late today. But once we got the set up right, it was a bullet out there tonight."

Commenting on the dramatic run to the checkers the race winner said "during those final laps I was trying to save my car and the tires because I knew that the #51, (Mardis), was coming. I've got to say that Jim really ran me clean during those final laps and I really appreciate that."

Despite having to settle for second Jim Mardis was all smiles after the race. Commenting on how hard he had to work to get second place from Tim Morse, he said "it appeared that the #10, (Morse), was just a little bit slower than we were and I was trying everything I could to get the nose of my car in on him while we were racing the low line. But we were just flat running out of time and that's when I made the decision to move to the high line.. Much to my surprise my spotter told me we were actually running faster lap times after I moved the car to the top. The car stuck really well up there and got us into second place. Man, I was really licking my chops to get to that #11, (Cole). We really wanted it bad but we just simply ran out of laps."

Mardis was also very proud of the new track record they set during qualifying. But the one aspect that really made this night special was the fact that his Mom and Dad came down from Michigan and got to see him in a race that literally had a grandstand full of fans wildly cheering for him.

Burbank-California's Tim Morse was also all smiles after bringing his Slover Racing Head Service-Ron's Rear Ends-CMJ Racing-Lee Power Steering Pumps and Sunoco Fuel #10 to a top three finish. Commenting on that duel for second with Mardis he said "I was a little concerned that he was going to dump me when we were racing on the low line but he didn't and I appreciate the clean racing. We just missed on our set up just a little bit. I just couldn't believe that Mardis was able to stick his car on the high side that well."

Morse also expressed a lot of appreciation for the work that CMJ Racing Inc performed on his car prior to the team towing it to San Bernardino. "We are definitely going to call on CMJ Racing to help us with the car's prep prior to the next race in Las Vegas. We plan on switching to a larger motor and changing the cam prior to this race next month. We will be coming to Las Vegas with a vengeance because we feel like this track owes us one. We're going to put our heart and soul into it and our goal is to get our first series win at Las Vegas."

Also making a very impressive showing in the R&L Carriers 75 was Austin Barnes who ran in the top five all during the race and brought his car home to a fourth place finish. He also won the trophy dash earlier in the day. This San Diego area series rookie has been garnering a lot of attention in the SuperClean Modified Racing Series this year because he's making a lot of progress for a driver who's only 14 years old. Don't make the mistake of allowing this driver's age and youthful appearance to be misinterpreted as a lack of experience. Barnes started his career racing karts at age five and since that time has won 16 different championships in a variety of racing formats. This is a driver to watch for the remainder of this season.

Simi Valley-California's Andrew Phipps seemed to be happy and relieved with his fifth place finish. That's because he was fighting an extreme water temperature situation that began from the beginning of the race. Phipps said the water temperature got so hot midway through the race that he backed it down in hopes it would not damage the engine.

Phipps, who won the series' round three race last month in Las Vegas, was considered to be a major favorite to win the R&L Carriers 75. He's also considered to be one of the major players in the 2009 championship picture. Saving his engine for a fifth place finish last Saturday night could play a major factor in the final points standings.

This race definitely produced some shake up in the championship picture. Lake Havasu City-Arizona's Chris Gerchman began the weekend as the points leader. Much to everyone's amazement Gerchman's engine completely died on lap five of the race. It was later reported that a faulty ignition box was the problem. After several laps behind the wall, Gerchman was able to return to the race and managed an 18th place finish. But his ranking in the points saw him fall from first, at +6, to fourth, at -20.

Phipps emerged as the new leader with 180 points. But that's only a two point lead over Mardis and Cole who are tied for second.

When it came to post race happiness series co promoter Greg Scheidecker was second only to the race winner. With a huge smile on his face he said "man, did you see that finish? Side by side going for the win in the final laps. You just don't get any better than that. Talk about parity in the series. We've had four different winners in four races so far and the possibility of having a fifth different winner next month at Las Vegas is a very real."

Scheidecker and co promoter Bill Rozhon was also very pleased with the patriotic display prior to the start of the R&L Carriers 75. When the cars pulled up to the start finish line each of the 22 drivers were given miniature American flags. During the parade laps the drivers held their flags high and proud while the track's public address system played "God Bless America." The sight of those 22 mini replicas of "Old Glory" being held above the roofs of those 22 cars was most impressive.

The SuperClean Modified Racing Series returns to action on August 15th with another visit to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway complex. The 75 lap feature will be ran on the three eighths of a mile, high banked, oval known as "The Bullring."

In addition to its title sponsor the SuperClean Modified Racing Series is strongly supported by a highly potent marketing concept known as "Team Lucas." Team members include: Lucas Oil Products Inc, E3 Spark Plugs, R&L Carriers, Dixie Chopper, General Tire, and K&N Performance Filters.

There's also a list of series sponsors that includes: SuperClean Products, Hoosier Tire West, Budweiser, Blue Water Resort & Casino, Sunoco Fuel, Frank's Radio, DJ Safety, Steve Teets-STR, Short Track Race Cars, and Polydome Plastic Products.