STOCKTON, Calif. (Nov. 8, 2016) – Chase Johnson had a strong performance during most of the 33rd annual Tribute to Gary Patterson last Saturday at Stockton Dirt Track with the King of the West 410 Sprint Car Series.
Johnson opened his winged sprint car season finale by qualifying 10th quickest, which lined the Shawn and Cyndi Thomas owned team up on the outside of the front row for a heat race.
“We put in a great qualifying effort and the car was great all night,” Johnson said. “In the heat race I didn’t get the jump at the start and fell back a bit. We had a caution a couple of laps in and on the restart I got a great run on the outside and got around the leader and led the rest. I got another chance and took advantage.”
The heat race win locked Johnson into the dash.
“The dash went good,” he said. “We were faster than the sixth-place car, but just couldn’t get around him. There’s not much that will happen in a dash with that good of competition.”
Johnson finished where he started – seventh. That lined him up on the inside of the fourth row for the main event.
“The car was great,” he said. “We picked off a guy or two on the start so we were fifth or sixth.
On the second lap in turns three and four I got out of shape and up and over the cushion. The car was sideways and pointed down the hill. When that happened we got clipped by another car and that wiped out the car.
“It was very disappointing. I feel bad for my guys. The incident was 100 percent my fault. We had such a strong night going and looking to have a strong finish. I’m really grateful to Shawn and Cyndi for the opportunity they gave me this year.”
Johnson was unable to finish the race.
He is slated to return to action Nov. 24 at Ventura Raceway in Ventura, Calif., for the Turkey Night Grand Prix in his family owned non-wing sprint car.