PETERSEN MEDIA: Getting back to USCS action on Saturday night at Santa Maria Speedway, Cole Wakim and the Josh Ford Motorsports team had a very strong showing as Wakim powered his way to a runner-up finish.

“We timed in really well, ran well in our heat race, and put ourselves in a good position to have a good finish in the feature,” Cole Wakim said. “It was good to get back in the non-winged car after a few weeks off.”

Getting the night kicked off in qualifying time trials, Wakim timed the Quick Change Liquid Energy/Inland Rigging/MPe backed No. 73 entry in fastest in his group and was subsequently second fastest overall.

Gridding the field from the third row of his heat race, the Simi Valley, CA driver had his elbows up as he slowly carved his way forward. Racing into second, Wakim’s runner up finish put him in the nightly redraw where the five put him in the third row of the feature event.

As the feature event came to life, Wakim got bottled up in the early laps and slipped back to eighth as the field filtered out. Once he settled in, Wakim was able to race his way in fourth as the laps clicked off.

Continuing to run solidly inside the Top-5, Wakim had a front row seat to the second and third place cars tangling with just three laps to go and was able to avoid them and take over the second spot for a late restart.

Holding the second spot, Wakim capped a strong night off with a runner up finish with USCS as he chased Kaleb Montgomery across the stripe.

“We were just a little free in the feature, but we were in a good spot to have some things go our way and give us a little assist to the podium,” Wakim noted.

JFM would like to thank Quick Change Liquid Energy, Inland Rigging, MPe, SURECAN, Woodland Auto Display, Beilman Motorsports, and 1Way Technologies for their support in 2025.

BY THE NUMBERS: Races: 20, Wins: 1, Top 5’s: 8, Top 10’s: 12

ON TAP: Wakim’s next event is TBD at this time.

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