From Placerville Speedway
PLACERVILLE, CA (4-16-10) – The 2011 Fast and Furious Dirt Track Racing Season resumed at Placerville Speedway Saturday with the second Red Hawk Casino-Hoosier Tires Championship race of the season at the El Dorado County Fairgrounds. Three divisions formed the evening’s race card with familiar faces returning to victory lane. The night paid tribute to a long time speedway supporter in the county with “Doug Veerkamp General Engineering Night” at the speedway.
In the winged Sprint Car division, Sean Becker of Antelope picked up his first victory of the new season along with Dan Brown Jr. of Grass Valley who took home the win in the Late Model feature. In the Pure Stock division the victor was Clarence Holbrook the III of West Sacramento.
A total of 23 cars formed the roster in Saturday’s sprint car division. After qualifying sixth in the field and finishing third in his heat race aboard the Scott Miller owned #2sb sprint car. Becker started Saturday’s feature event on the pole with Placerville’s own Jimmy Trulli on the outside. Defending Champion Andy Forsberg of Auburn started on the inside of row two with fast qualifier Garen Linder in fourth.
At the waving of the green flag, The Shark accelerated out of the fourth turn and begin to leave Trulli in his wake as Forsberg eventually worked his way into second place to set his sites on his longtime friendly rival. As Becker drove the protective lower line of the speedway, Forsberg searched for a faster route aboard the F&F Racing #X1 to very little avail.
Racing towards lapped traffic, Becker permitted Forsberg to close in on the lead and get a nose wing beneath the leader at one point. On the closing lap, Becker protected his lead position by positioning a lapped car between he and Forsberg as they raced to the checkered flag. Becker picked up the win over Forsberg. Trulli finished in third place. Scott Russell, who started seventh, finished in fourth over eighth place starter Mike Henry of Citrus Heights.
In heat race action in this division, preliminary victories went to Shane Golobic of Fremont, Cody Lamar of Rio Linda and Kyle Hirst of Sacramento. The B feature was claimed by Chico’s Brett Miller over Russell, Jeremy Burt of Grass Valley, Jeremy Phillips of Arboga and Chris Masters of Napa.