By Troy Hennig
(Chico, CA 5-9-21)…Lincoln’s Tanner Carrick won his third career sprint career race during Friday nights special show. A total of 43-winged 360 sprint cars graced the pit area. Carrick was solid all night but did benefit from the misfortune of race leader Shane Golobic on the final lap. Golobic had just recently passed Carrick for the race lead on lap 17. Up to that point Carrick had dominated the race. With Golobic out front, slower traffic was looming ahead. As Golobic received the white flag and entered turn one, two slower cars ahead of him seemed to check up and bottleneck the track. Golobic reacted and tried to change his line but his right caught a rough patch in the track, and it sent the No. 17w upside down. Carrick was in the second spot and after the red flag situation, was the leader once again.
It was good to see Sean Becker back up in the mix again. Becker restarted second, and it was a spot he would finish in. Yet, behind Becker was the driver we all might have been pulling for. Blake Carrick started his main event charge in the C main. He won the C. Then started last row of the B main and won that. Carrick then started 21st in the feature. He went from 21st to third in the 23 laps that had been completed. The final two laps he could not get around Becker and ended up third. We calculated Blake passed 31 cars throughout the three mains he was in. John Michael Bunch was solid all night and came home in fourth place. Justyn Cox rounded out the top five with his steady driving style.
Keith Ross won the exciting 20-lap feature for the hobby stocks. Ross had a late race battle with Kyle Cheney and Shannon Collins. Collins had a fantastic night and ended up finishing second. It was encouraging to see Collins have a successful finish. Cheney, who had led most of the race, was disqualified during a post-race tech issue. This moved up Kevin Lesch into the third spot at the line. The BEAST, Jacob Johnson came from his 13th starting spot all the way home to a fourth-place finish. Multi-time track champion Kyle Allen rounded out the top five. As usual, the hobby stocks put on a close competitive race. Ross clean-swept the night with his heat one win. Toby Merrifield earned the win in heat two. Zach Lindgren won the third and final heat. A total of 18 hobby stocks put on a driving clinic tonight.
Matt Micheli took the lead on lap 17 and won the 20-lap street stock feature. Micheli pumped his left fist into the air as he crossed the line first. Richard Vander Ploeg led the first five laps. On lap six, Phil Marino took control of the race. Marino held the top spot until lap 16. Props to Bill Hall, who finished second tonight, and won the second heat race with ease. It was nice to see veteran Terry Lawrence get behind the wheel of the family No. 4t and score a third-place finish. Richard Workman crossed the line in fourth. Fritz Zanker rounded out the top five. Marino won the first heat race. A total of 11 street stocks attended tonight’s race.
Full results are here https://speedhive.mylaps.com/Events/1856427