DeKalb's Ron Breese victorious in Toyota All-Star Showdown

DeKalb's Ron Breese, Jr., poses along with his race car sponsored by Pinkston-Tadd, Inc., industrial roofing services. Breese won the Elite Division of Saturday's NASCAR Toyota All-Star Showdown. Photo courtesy of Pinkston-Tadd, Inc.

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IRWINDALE, Calif. - Austin Cameron claimed an emotional victory in the inaugural NASCAR Toyota All-Star Showdown, late Saturday at Irwindale Speedway. Cameron, a NASCAR Grand National Division, Winston West Series competitor from El Cajon, Calif., missed four races during the 2003 season while undergoing cancer treatments. Cameron's performance once he returned to the track was enough to clinch the 15th and final Winston West invitation to the Toyota All-Star Showdown, where he won $26,000 in prize money and the keys to a new Toyota Tundra pickup truck, which he will use for one year. Joining Cameron as a race winner was Ron Breese Jr., of DeKalb, who won the 100-lap NASCAR Elite Division portion of the event and took home $14,500 in prize money along with the use of a Toyota Tundra pickup for one year. "We didn't have a chance to win the championship this year due to some small 'hiccups' in my career and my life," said Cameron. "But, this is the best championship I could've won this year. We're back and we're here to stay. To be in the situation I've been in all year, basically fighting for my life, and come here and win the biggest race of the year, it's everything I could've wanted." Cameron's victory was a redeeming moment for the "home standing" Winston West Series teams, who were upstaged by the visiting Busch North Series teams throughout the All-Star event. On Wednesday, Mike Stefanik's No. 55 Busch North Series team won the Ringer's Glove pit stop contest. On Friday, both twin 50-lap qualifying races were won by Busch North Series drivers and the Busch North Series was also the winner of Saturday's "team" race segment, which scored the two series as "teams" for the opening 100-lap segment of the 125-lap feature race. Fifteen Busch North Series drivers were awarded with an additional $2,000 apiece as "team" victors in the event. Breese's victory, ahead of Featherlite Southwest Series driver Jim Pettit II, put an exclamation point on his series' dominance of the Elite Division race. Breese competes in the NASCAR Elite Division, International Truck and Engine Corporation Midwest Series, whose drivers claimed five of the top-10 finishing positions and were also scored as the "team" race winners in the opening segment of the Elite Division race. Breese, whose car is sponsored by Pinkston Tadd, Inc. industrial roofing contractors, was among 70 of the best NASCAR drivers from six regional divisions who competed in the invitation-only event. "We had a phenomenal car," Breese said. "The best of the world, I guess, is from the Midwest." In Friday evening's 50-lap qualifying race, Breese finished 0:00.294 ahead of runner-up Burney Lamar of Chino, Calif. Breese's best lap time was 0:18.351. Then in Satuday's Elite Division Championship, Breese held off a pair of California drivers for the checkered flag. In the 100-lap event, Breese registered an 00:18.411 clocking for his best individual lap as part of his winning time of 02:31.004. Pettit of Prunedale was 00:00.995 behind Breese while third-place finisher David Gilliland of Riverside was 00:01.540 further back. Saturday's 100-lap race which was shorter then the majority of events Breese - the owner and operator of Breezy's Heating and Air Conditioning - raced in during the season which saw him compete in Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Indiana, Tennessee and Colorado. Among his notable successes this season was the National Short Track Championship victory at the Rockford Speedway.