Rod Robison sixth in Pony Stocks main

Rod Robison posted his best Barona Speedway finish ever “

in fact his first-ever Barona Speedway main event finish “

Aug. 20, finishing sixth in the Pony Stocks main event that night.

œI started dead last, Robison said. œIt was a tough night, but I really felt like I had a car that if we would have had a decent starting position I could have contended for the top two or three.

Robison, who drove a 1974 Ford Pinto, started last among the nine cars after a seventh-place heat race finish. He was one of eight finishers in the 20-lap main event.

œThe car really ran well, Robison said. œIt's just hard to pass when you start in the back.

The race was the third for Robison at Barona Speedway. James Robison usually drives the Pinto, but Rod Robison has two daughters as well as a son and events prior to the Aug. 27 marriage of Clarissa Robison and Tanner Forman included Forman's Aug. 20 bachelor party. James Robison missed the Barona Speedway race for his brother-in-law's celebration. œHe had to go to the bachelor party, Rod Robison said. œLet me have the car and I tried not to tear it up.

Rod Robison's first race of 2011 was on April 30, when his son was out of town. The elder Robison had a seventh-place heat race finish and was credited with eighth place in the ten-car main event but did not finish. œWe had a mechanical problem the last time, he said. (The seven cars ahead of him all finished that main event.)

Robison made his Barona Speedway driving debut in the final Pony Stocks race of 2010, subbing for his son in order to have first-hand experience of the car's handling and performance on the track, but did not finish that Nov. 5 race.

Robison drove in the Cajon Speedway's Street Stocks division in the 1980s. His best main event finish as a Cajon Speedway driver was second place. œI had one chance to win and somebody took me out on the last lap, he said.

Robison then helped build the Sportsman Stocks car of driver Tobin Whitt and served on Whitt's crew. Whitt won the 1989 Sportsman Stocks season championship, which gave Cajon Speedway its first father-son season champion combination (Jim Whitt won the 1969 Super Stocks championship).

Tobin Whitt is also the father of current NASCAR Camping World Trucks driver Cole Whitt. James Robison, like Cole Whitt, is a third-generation driver; Rod Robison's father raced sprint cars at Devil's Bend Raceway in Texas.

Dave Londrow worked on Rod Robison's crew when Robison drove at Cajon Speedway. The Robison family moved from Santee to Fallbrook in 2007, and in 2009 Londrow attended the Robisons' 25th anniversary party. Londrow purchased the Pinto from Richard Heisel and offered James Robison a chance to race in the car. The younger Robison drove Heisel's Pure Stocks car while the Pinto was being readied for Barona before making his Pony Stocks debut in the Pinto on Sept. 11, 2010.

Although Devil's Bend was a dirt track, Cajon Speedway was an asphalt oval and Rod Robison had not raced on dirt prior to his first Barona race. œA lot of fun, Robison said of driving on dirt. œA little more challenging in some respects than asphalt, but it's also more forgiving.

Cajon Speedway was a 3/8-mile paved oval; Barona Speedway's dirt oval has a quarter-mile circumference.

Rod and James Robison plan to build a Street Stock to run at Barona in 2012, and Rod Robison may drive the Pony Stock once the family has two racecars.

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