PETERSEN MEDIA
After taking nearly three months off from racing a winged sprint car, Rico Abreu returned to his native California for a pair of events, and the 20-year-old product posted a pair of top fives in Chico, CA on Friday, a fifth, and in Watsonville, CA on Saturday, a second.
Taking part of the season finale at the Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico, CA on Friday night, Abreu and his Abreu Vineyards team started their night off qualifying seventh quickest of the 21 entrants.
Scoring a heat race win, Abreu would line his Abreu Vineyards/ButlerBuilt/Outlaw Wings machine up in the fourth row for the 25-lap feature event.
Taking the green, Abreu was able to work his way up inside the top five on the initial lap, as he clawed his way forward to the third spot by the tenth lap.
While running up in the third spot, Abreu slipped up just a touch, but it cost him spots to Sean Becker and Cody Lamar and he found himself in the fifth spot.
As he hounded the duo in front of him, he wasn’t able to get the spots back, and he ended his night in the fifth spot.
“It’s awesome to get back behind the wheel of this Abreu Vineyards No.89,” said Abreu. “It’s been a while, and it showed a little as I made some mistakes, but to end up with a fifth place finish is decent for us, and I think we can build off of it.”
Saturday night saw the team head to the Ocean Speedway Watsonville for the Johnny Key Classic. Not being locked into the feature, Abreu would need to qualify for the A through one of the three B main events.
Qualifying fourth quickest during qualifications, the St. Helena, CA youngster would line up in the second row of the first B, needing to finish in the top six to transfer.
On what was a very hooked up track during the B’s, Abreu would fall back to the fourth spot at the start of the race, and hold on to it, and transfer to the A, where he would end up starting in the ninth spot for the 50-lap feature event.
The racetrack continued to widen out as the feature event got underway, and Abreu was on a mission early as he worked his way towards the leaders in a hurry.
As the caution waved on lap four, Abreu had already advanced up into the sixth spot. On the restart, he was able to move into the fifth position, and then overtook Dominic Scelzi for the fourth spot on the 15th lap, after a very spirited battle.
The caution waved for the mandatory stop on the 25th lap, and Abreu still sat in the fourth spot. On the restart, Abreu caught a break as third running Brad Furr was involved in a wreck, and he moved up to the third spot, behind Shane Golobic.
Caution flags marred the final 25-laps as the yellow came out every two laps, with various spins throughout the field.
On the lap 27 restart, Abreu would overtake Shane Golobic for the second spot, as he looked to chase down race long leader, Tommy Tarlton.
With only one long green flag run during the final 25-laps, Abreu wasn’t able to catch Tarlton, and the youngster ended up finishing in the second spot.
“Overall it was a pretty good weekend,” he said. “We had Paul Silva helping us this weekend, and I think we gelled well in just two races. We were pretty good on Saturday night, but all of the cautions made it tough to get going, but Tommy Tarlton was pretty good on this night.”
Rico and his team would like to thank Abreu Vineyards, Toyota, ButlerBuilt,, Outlaw Wings, and Petersen Media for their partnership.
ON TAP: Rico will return to action on Wednesday, September 5th for the opening night of the Gold Cup Race of Champions.
STAY CONNECTED: Stay updated with Rico by visiting his website at www.ricoabreuracing.com, ‘liking’ him on facebook at www.facebook.com/ricoabreuracing or following him on twitter @RicoAbreu.
VIDEO: Be sure to check out http://www.youtube.com/ricoabreuracing for video of Rico, as content is constantly being uploaded!