LAKEPORT — The final points race for the Northern California Racing Association modifieds took place Saturday at the Lakeport Speedway where Mike Sullivan of Kelseyville nailed down the division championship with another strong performance.
Sullivan entered the last race of the COVID-19-shortened 2020 season with a 39-point lead over Richard Knight, but he needed everything to run smoothly to maintain that margin. That’s exactly what happened.
Sullivan earned six more points for being the third-fastest qualifier Saturday, then he won his heat race and collected 25 additional points. In the points-rich main event that followed, he finished second behind winner Scott Winters to wrap things up in grand style.
After clinching the division points title, Sullivan posted this on social media; “Last year when I debuted my new car I made it about fifteen feet and got shoved in the fence and (it) destroyed my car. At the time it was incredibly devastating to me. I had some serious people invested in my racing and we put together the best opportunity of my career and I destroyed it basically from my perspective.”
Added Sullivan on his post, “The day after my crash I grabbed my white eraser board and I wrote down, ‘Mike Sullivan 2020 Lakeport Speedway modified champion.’ And a couple things I needed to achieve to get that even though I felt as low as a driver can possibly feel; this was still my mindset the very next day. Every single day before work I would look at this board and every single night before bed I would look at this board, visualizing it.
“To go from absolute destroyed tears in my beers to speedway champion in one year’s time is a great feeling and a true testament that if you put your mind to something you can achieve it, and it’s an absolutely amazing, great feeling to do so”
Sullivan’s future plans are to finish out the year with the North State Modified Series, beginning with the first race of the NSMS fall schedule Sept. 12 at Lakeport Speedway.
In the final NCRA modified point standings at Lakeport, Sullivan finishes with 520 points to 461 for Knight, 402 for Ian Elliott, 374 for Robert Schmidt, 170 for Donovan Cox, 112 for Darrin Sullivan, 104 for Winters, 104 for Sammy Nuno, 97 for Darrin Knight, and 96 for Jeremy Nowlin.
