PETERSEN MEDIA
20-year-old Rico Abreu put together his best King of the West race to date during the opener on Saturday night, as the St. Helena, CA youngster charged from his 13th starting position to a strong third place finish.
Being the first car out to qualify with 25 cars in the pit area, Abreu saw his time fall down the speed charts to 13th, narrowly missing the heat race inversion, and putting his Abreu Vineyards/Kaeding Performance/Stadelhofer Construction team behind the eight ball all night.
Starting in the third row of heat on the hooked up, and fast Antioch Speedway, Abreu grabbed the fifth position and transferred to the feature event, where he would start in the middle of the 22-car field.
Abreu started charging his way through the field quickly as he went both high and low to work his way inside the top-10, and to the eight spot by the time the first caution flew on lap eight.
On the ensuing restart, and huge pile up of six cars took place in front of Abreu, dodging the trouble, Abreu moved up to the fourth spot, where he found himself of the rear bumper of Bobby McMahan during the ensuing single file restart.
Over the next ten-laps, Abreu and McMahan put on an entertaining battle for the third spot, with McMahan holding off Abreu, until the caution flag again waved on lap 18.
Taking advantage of the double-file restart, Abreu got the better of McMahan and took over the third spot, but couldn’t get up to the lead duo over the final twelve laps.
At the stripe, Abreu chased Tim Kaeding and Jonathan Allard across, earning his career best, third place finish with the series.
“It was an awesome night,” said a gleaming Abreu. “We didn’t time in too well, and that put us deep in the field. My guys gave me a great car, and we were able to pass on a track that was pretty tough to pass on. I can’t wait for our next race.
ON TAP: Rico will be in action again on Friday night, April 13th for a round a Taco Bravo action at the Ocean Speedway, before heading to Hanford on April 14th for round two of the KWS.
STAY CONNECTED: Stay updated with Rico by visiting his website at www.ricoabreuracing.com, ‘liking’ him on facebook at www.facebook.com/ricoabreuracing or following him on twitter @RicoAbreu24.
VIDEO: Be sure to check out http://www.youtube.com/ricoabreuracing for video of Rico, as content is constantly being uploaded!