April 18th, 2009

Cole Cabrera 1 of 2 kids to win at 14 in the ASA Speed Truck Series

Cole Cabrera in the #53 Ag Source Magazine Chev at the ripe old age of 14, captures his first Speed Truck win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway “Bullring” on April 18th, 2009, moving to the top position in the ASA Speed Truck Challenge Championship points and remains atop the board for the 2009 Rookie of the Year honors.

Cole hailing from Exeter, California, a Sophmore Honor Roll Student at Exeter Union High School is your every day high school student with the love of dirt bikes, video games, golf, school and working on his Speed Truck. Cole started racing dirt bikes at age 4 and continued through age 10 when he found himself behind the wheel of a Micro Dirt Sprint Car where he still competes. The last couple of years he has also raced Legend Cars on the pavement. At age 14 Cole’s dad found Speed Trucks and provided Cole with a 1race rental program at the end of the 2008 racing season. During the off season the team purchased a Speed Truck and hired Mike Munoz for the Crew Chief position and launched their 2009 campaign finishing 4th at the Lucas Oil I-10 Speedway on March 7th.

At Las Vegas Motor Speedway’s “Bullring” during the Friday night practice sessions Mike Munoz stated “the Speed Truck was good right out of the hauler and minor adjustments got the truck right where Cole wanted it.” “Saturday morning we continued dialing him in and our qualifying times showed us in second position but only missing our first pole by less than .021 of a second. Joey Licata getting his first pole rolled a one on the dice and placed us outside front row for the start of the 100 lap feature event.” Concluded Munoz.

Bobby Cabrera, Cole’s dad said “We knew our truck was as good as any other truck on the track and the time splits between first and last qualifiers was only .321 of a second so it was anyone’s race to win or lose. Cole got the lead on lap two and never looked back even though he had great pressure from Jeremiah Wagner in the #77 Speed Truck.

On lap 96 Jeremiah was on our bumper and we told Cole “it’s time to go” and he pulled away by about a 3 truck margin and got his first Speed Truck win. We could not be happier to accomplish this in only our second race this season and we are ready for the Verve! Havasu 95 Speedwayrace on April 25th.” Bobby concluded.

“I want to thank Ag Source Magazine, all my crew and my parents for giving me the opportunity to race in the ASA Speed Truck Challenge.” Stated Cole. “The Speed Truck series is second to none and gives drivers at age 14 the chance to race in full body, heavy vehicles before turning 16. This will help my racing career by preparing me for the next step. Thanks to ASA for having awesome insurance that allows us the chance to race and special thanks to Verve! for helping the series and the drivers earn extra money.” Cole concluded.

 

 

 

Racer Scout

I was most definitely prepared not to like Cole Cabrera. Several of us stopped in our tracks when the shiny new mega-rig pulled into the pits one summer Saturday in Irwindale, California. And when this slightly built kid stepped out, I could only imagine that anyone that young with that much rig couldn't be anything but a spoiled, snot-nosed brat. Right? Wrong.

I met Cole later as we all lined up for the night's autograph session. What struck me was the way he interacted with the fans and the way he looked as he helped anyone so inclined to climb in his race car and check it out. He seemed to genuinely enjoy sharing these moments with those who stopped by to visit. So, I stopped by myself. There was absolutely nothing snotty-nosed or bratty about Cole Cabrera.

And when I got the opportunity to watch him run - man he drove the wheels off that race car!

On his next race date, I met Cole's grandfather and it was easy to see where Cole gets his nature. And unless it skips a generation, I'm sure Cole's dad is a good guy too - I just haven't really had the chance to talk with him.

On a kind of funny note, I overheard one of the other drivers [maybe out of jealousy] say "Man, if I had all that I would at least give the car a decent paint job". On the contrary... I happen to think the flat black scheme with the old school round number background and embedded skull is VERY cool!

Cole is a driver. The real deal. With a very good nature to boot!

 

-Tory Christopher