From Dean Mills
Placerville, CA — (May 14, 2016) — A packed house was treated to an impressive driving display to conclude the sixth scheduled event of the Red Hawk Casino Championship point season.
20 Thompson’s Auto Group 360 Sprint Cars were on hand for the evening. Justin Johnson of Shingle Springs sat on the pole of the 25 lap feature event, but it was current Placerville Speedway points leader Mason Moore of Princeton who got the jump into turn 1. Johnson fell in line in second, while Sean Becker moved from his fifth starting spot to 3rd, with Logan Seavey 4th. Action was slowed on lap 5 for Roseville’s Scott Hall who jumped the cushion in turn 1 and came to a stop.
When the race resumed, Moore maintained his lead while Johnson and Becker battled it out for the runner up position for much of the next 15 laps. Johnson stayed glued to the bottom of the ¼ mile oval and held on until Becker found momentum on top on lap 16 to take over second place. Johnson would retake second briefly in the waning laps of the race, before Becker would return the favor with a few circuits left.
Meanwhile, Mason Moore stretched out his lead to over a second before he encountered heavy lapped traffic, which allowed Becker to reel in Moore and challenge for the lead. On lap 24, Becker applied heavy pressure with Moore choosing the bottom while Becker remained upstairs. With the white flag flying, Becker passed Moore down the backstretch and shut the door entering turn three to pick up his first win of 2016 after five consecutive podium finishes. Justin Johnson came across the line in third, with Greg DeCaires 4th, and Logan Seavey 5th. Jimmy Trulli’s 6th place finish up from the 13th starting spot was good enough for the AL Driveline Hard Charger bonus.
05_14_2016_300c “This is so awesome to finally win this year”, explained Becker in victory lane, after climbing the front stretch catch fence in celebration. “I know Mason was good on the bottom and I was searching the track and kept having to inch my wing back to get more traction. I just kept hammering the top of the track,” he continued. “I thought I was going to junk it when I jumped the curb in turn three in traffic, but I settled it down and kept digging. Then I saw the opening in turn one on the final lap, and I just threaded the needle, shut the door on Mason in turn 3 and went on to win.”
Heat race victories went to Moore, Becker, and Adam Walters while the Adco Driveline & Exhaust Fast Time award went to Greg Decaires with an elapsed time of 10.720 seconds.