In his first Perris Auto Speedway race driving a Late Model, Mike Kirby won both his heat race and the main event May 5.

"Car wasn’t bad.  Crew chief did a fine job tonight," said Kirby, whose crew chief is Chris Laney.

Laney is also Kirby’s brother-in-law.  Kirby’s sister, Carla Laney, had driven in the Art’s Concrete Pumping Extreme Late Model in previous years.  Although Kirby had never driven a Late Model at Perris prior to this year’s May 5 race, he had used his sister’s Late Model at other tracks.

"He’s a better driver," Laney said of letting her brother drive the car at the more competitive and higher-paying Late Model races.

In the past Kirby has driven a sprint car at Perris, and earlier this year he drove a Modified.  He has since sold the Modified to John Crow, who is on his crew.

Kirby purchased his own Late Model which was delivered May 1.  He did not practice in the car until the day of the race.  Kirby qualified last among the 14 Late Model drivers that day. "Qualifying was ugly," he said.

Part of that poor qualifying performance involved a valve which was subsequently fixed.  The Late Models ran two heat races, and Kirby participated in the second heat race.  The first heat race was won by Johnny Malcolm, thus giving consecutive heat race wins Advertisement

[ Berry-Bell and Hall Mortuary ] to brothers as Tommy Malcolm had won the final Street Stocks heat race.

Since Kirby and his sister were in the same heat race, the trend of siblings winning consecutive races would not continue.  "It would have been nice if I could get up there and race with him," said Laney, who finished sixth in the heat race her brother won and ninth in the main event.

Kirby and his sister had not competed in the same race since the 1980s when they were both in the Street Stock division at Ascot Speedway.  Kirby took a first-lap lead and never relinquished first place in the heat race.

Kirby and his crew made additional changes to the car between the heat race and the main event.  "We changed more springs than anything," he said.

Kirby started the 25-lap main event on the outside of the front row but fell to third after one lap.  On a second-lap restart he passed Mike Hixson to move into second place.  On a seventh-lap restart Hixson ran into Kirby; Kirby maintained second place while Hixson fell back.

Leader Art Peterson stalled on the 15th lap to cause a yellow flag; Kirby inherited the lead while Chad Jones took over second place.  Jones chased Kirby for the final laps.

Kirby plans to drive the Late Model for the remaining Perris races in 2007.