By Gary Thomas
Placerville, CA…The Russell Motorsports Inc. managed Placerville Speedway showcased some of its best racing of the season on Saturday night. In the end it was 17-year-old Blake Carrick of Lincoln who stood in victory lane, following his second career Thompson’s Winged 360 Sprint Car triumph.
Also snagging wins on Kings Meats Night were Kevin Jinkerson with the Pure Stocks, Thomas Jensen with the Mini Trucks and Terry Bergstrom with the BCRA Lightning Sprints. All four victors during the night went home with a box of assorted meats valued at $250, courtesy of our friends at Kings.
The 25-lap Thompson’s Family of Dealerships feature started off with Tracy’s Kyle Offill impressively jumping into the lead. The 2017 SCCT Rookie of the Year ran the bottom side of the speedway to perfection, as he kept the field at bay. Placerville’s own Shane Hopkins ran the cushion like a champ as well though, keeping pace with Offill and looked to pounce as lapped traffic came into play.
A caution waved on lap 12 and during the restart Hopkins charged to the outside for the lead, only to suffer mechanical problems shortly after, which put a tough end to his evening. During the ensuing restart Blake Carrick rode the cushion to challenge Offill for the top spot, before achieving the pass with 15-circuits complete. Offill did not let Carrick get away however and stayed close hoping for a chance at traffic.
The action behind those two also kept the crowd on the edge of its seats with 11th starting Kalib Henry, Tanner Carrick and 17th starter Michael Faccinto throwing it down on the bullring. One final caution waved on lap 19 and during the restart B. Carrick pulled away to take the Ron Stahl checkered flag. Henry was able to battle his way around Offill on the final corner to snag second. Offill, Faccinto and T. Carrick completed the top-five. Andy Forsberg, Joel Myers Jr., Justyn Cox, Andy Gregg and Dylan Bloomfield rounded out the top-10.
A total of 31 Thompson’s Family of Dealerships Winged 360 Sprint Cars competed at the seventh point race of the year.
Winged 360 finish: 1. 38B-Blake Carrick[6]; 2. 17-Kalib Henry[11]; 3. 88-Kyle Offill[2]; 4. 5H-Michael Faccinto[17]; 5. 83T-Tanner Carrick[7]; 6. X1-Andy Forsberg[9]; 7. 46JR-Joel Myers Jr[4]; 8. 7C-Justyn Cox[10]; 9. 16X-Andy Gregg[16]; 10. 33-Dylan Bloomfield[3]; 11. 7P-Jake Andreotti[20]; 12. 94-Greg Decaires V[14]; 13. 34-Landon Brooks[8]; 14. 5V-Angelo Cornet[5]; 15. 12J-John Clark[13]; 16. 80N-Justin Bradway[12]; 17. 21X-Michael Ing[18]; 18. 24-Justin Henry[15]; 19. 78-Bret Barney[19]; 20. 21-Shane Hopkins[1]