By Gary Thomas
Placerville, CA – May 2, 2017…The Red Hawk Casino championship season marches on this Saturday May 6 with another action-packed five division program at the Placerville Speedway, which includes the second race of the season for the Thompson’s Auto Group Winged 360 Sprint Cars.
Also in competition on Saturday will be the Ltd. Late Models, Pure Stocks, the Bay Cities Racing Association Midget Lites and the brand new Mini Truck division.
The Thompson’s Auto Group Winged Sprint Cars opened the season on April 22, before taking last week off for the Sprint Car Challenge Tour event in Petaluma. The weekly teams are now amped up for the second point race of the campaign on Saturday, with beautiful weather on tap for the occasion.
Opening night saw Clarksburg’s Justyn Cox complete a clean sweep of the evening, setting the ADCO Driveline and Custom Exhaust fast time, followed by winning his heat race and the 25-lap feature event.
Visalia’s Steven Tiner also showed a lot of speed at the opener and came home in second after a great late-race battle with Elk Grove’s Greg Decaires, who is one of the favorites to bring home the track title. The four-time Thompson’s Auto Group Winged Sprint Car champion would love nothing more than to add number five.
Roseville’s Colby Copeland and Placerville’s Jimmy Trulli also had success outings on opening night. Copeland tallied a fourth place finish and then backed that up with a fine runner up this past weekend in Petaluma with the Sprint Car Challenge Tour. Trulli ran p5 at the opener and will be gunning to move up the order at round two on Saturday.
More drivers expected on Saturday will include Fair Oak’s Jake Morgan, Sacramento’s DJ and Dustin Freitas, Napa’s Kirt Organ, Hollister’s Tony Gualda, Calistoga’s Mike Benson, Shingle Spring’s Justin Johnson, Sacramento’s Matt Barber, Placerville’s Cody Fendley, Napa’s Chris Masters and others.
After a dominating drive last week Matt Micheli will look to make it back-to-back with the Ltd. Late Models on Saturday. A non-stop main event last weekend saw Micheli win by over eight-seconds to earn his first win of the season after running second at the opener. Ray Trimble, Mike Lightfoot, Tyler Lightfoot and Tom Tilford rounded out the top-five last Saturday. Opening night on April 22 was picked off by Ryan McDaniel.
Last week’s Pure Stock main event went to Ray Trimble, following an entertaining race-long fight for the lead with Scott Grunert. Nick Baldwin, Dan Jinkersen and Jason Palmer completed the top-five in the feature. Jinkersen was the winner on opening night and came back to earn another solid finish last Saturday.
The BCRA Midget Lites return for the second time this season on Saturday. The initial outing saw Craig Dillard dominate the feature en route to victory over Terry Bergstrom, Scott Kinney, Jim Ridell and Emilee Lindgren. The Midget Lites will continue to be a common site throughout the season.
Following a rainout of their scheduled opener on April 8 the new Mini Trucks will make their debut this weekend. The new class is built with the hope to provide an economic and fun division to get involved in dirt track racing.
Adult tickets this Saturday will cost $15, while seniors 62 plus and juniors 12-15 will be $13, children 6-11 are $6 and those under 6 will be free. The pit gate will open at 2pm, with the front grandstand gate opening at 3pm.
A happy hour will be offered from 4pm-6pm in the grandstands featuring discounted Coors Light and Coors Original at the beer stand. Drivers meeting will be held at 4:30pm, with cars on track for wheel packing at 5pm, qualifying scheduled to begin around 5:30pm and heat races expected to fire-off at 6pm.
After this week Placerville Speedway then gears up for the only appearance of the season by the King of the West-NARC Fujitsu 410 Sprint Car Series on Saturday May 13. Make plans to join us for a great night of high-speed competition on Mother’s Day weekend.
The Placerville Speedway is located on the beautiful El Dorado County Fairgrounds in Placerville, California. Take Hwy US-50 to Forni Road/Placerville Drive exit. Then go north on Placerville Drive to the Fairgrounds. The physical address is 100 Placerville Dr., Placerville, CA 95667. For more information on the Placerville Speedway log onto http://www.placervillespeedway.com
Since opening in 1965 the Placerville Speedway has been a favorite among fans throughout Northern California. Well known for its steep banks, distinctive red clay, loyal fan base and extremely close action, the track is located just 40-minutes up the hill from the capital city of Sacramento.
Join over 8800 followers of Placerville Speedway on Facebook, where you can keep abreast of updates for the 2017 season. You can also find Placerville Speedway on Twitter by following us https://twitter.com/pvillespeedway – In addition, Placerville Speedway is also on Instagram. Please follow us @PvilleSpeedway.
The Placerville Speedway is operated by Russell Motorsports Incorporated, which can be reached at the track business office at 530-344-7592. Contact Kami Arnold or Scott Russell directly for 2017 sponsorship opportunities at the office.