SONOMA — Former Lakeport resident Derek Thorn finished second in his Sonoma road course debut June 23, placing second in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West Pick-n-Pull 200.
Piloting the Bob Bruncati Sunrise Ford No. 6 car, Thorn took the checkered flag behind winner Dave Gilliland. The runner-up finish moves Thorn to within 10 points of third place in the Series point standings.
Thorn, 26, is competing in his first full year on the Series. He also has experience racing on the NASCAR East Series and the SRL Southwest Tour. The former Lakeport Speedway driver is a four-time track champion on asphalt and dirt with 33 wins in 158 starts.
At the 1.99-mile Sonoma road course, Thorn moved into second and trailed Gilliland during the final stages of the 64-lap race. He now has five top-five finishes and six top-10 finishes in eight starts in Fords prepared by crew chief Bill Segwick, according to the www.derekthorn.com racing website.
“Running against a guy like David Gilliland says a lot about the series to have guys like that run with us,” Thorn said on his website. “It allows you to push yourself … it was obviously a lot of fun. It was my first time at Sonoma so we had a lot to learn. Being able to follow David for the last 10 or 15 laps definitely helped me out a bunch as a driver. We didn”t quite have enough to beat him but it was fun to run with him.”
Thorn, a resident of Bakersfield, was back in action last Saturday as the SPEARS SRL Southwest Tour visited the Madera Speedway. Although leading the race most of the way, Thorn got hung up in lapped traffic late in the 125-lap race and was passed by Jim Pettit II, who took the checkered flag in front of Thorn.
Earlier in the evening Thorn, driving the Byron Campbell Motorsports No. 43 FourStar Fruit Ford, broke his own Madera track qualifying record of 14.009 seconds set back on April 21 with a new record of 13.942.
Thorn has already won twice on the SRL circuit this season and is the series points leader.
Next up for Thorn is a return to the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West on July 14 in Monroe, Washington.
