By Gary Thomas
Merced, CA…Hollister’s Ryan Bernal doesn’t make as many starts nowadays, but on Saturday night he continued to show that he’s more than capable of running up front with many of the best in California, by topping a 52-car field at Merced Speedway.
The “Worlds Fastest PG&E Worker” blasted around Andy Forsberg following a late restart and went on to claim his second career Sprint Car Challenge Tour presented by Elk Grove Ford and Abreu Vineyards victory. Despite limited starts, Bernal has now won with the USAC/CRA Wingless 410s and the SCCT Winged 360s during the month of April.
When things got underway in the 35-lapper Bernal carved his way to the lead over Corey Day and Andy Forsberg. The action was fast and furious on the bullring, with the initial 27-laps clicking off caution free. Weaving their way through heavy lapped traffic Bernal and Day battled it out up front before Forsberg joined the mix around lap 20.
The 16-year-old from Clovis got a great run down the backstretch at that time and drove to inside of Bernal to snag the lead, which also brought Forsberg along for second. The intense racing kept fans on the edge of their seat throughout.
On lap 23 Forsberg then sliced his way to the inside of Day but couldn’t quite stick the move. While this was going on Bernal ran the high-side like a boss and hounded the top-two with traffic on every square inch of the Merced quarter-mile. With 26-laps complete Forsberg fought his way below Day for the lead, as the youngster then slowed with a blown engine to end his bid at victory. One lap later the caution waved to set up a seven-lap dash to the finish.
After the restart Bernal immediately went to the high scary side and used the vast banking to slingshot himself past Forsberg and into the top-spot that he would not relinquish. He drove off to cross the checkered flag for the win, which came aboard the Matt Wood Racing/ Elk Grove Ford/ NOS Energy Drink No. 17wx entry.
Forsberg earned a strong runner up effort at the helm of the Pacific Highway Rentals/ Wilkie Masonry No. 92 mount, while Roseville’s Colby Copeland rounded out the podium in the VSR/ Bianchi Farms No. 5v Sprinter. Completing the top-10 were Bianchi Farms fast qualifier Tony Gomes, Mitchell Faccinto, 15th starting Shane Golobic, Sean Becker, Justin Sanders, Pit Stop USA Hard Charger Ryan Robinson and Tim Kaeding.
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Contingency winners from round two at Merced Speedway:
Bianchi Farms Fast Time- Tony Gomes who topped the 52-car field with a 10.820
Tiner Hirst Enterprise Heat 1- Mitch Faccinto
BR Motorsports Heat 2- Colby Copeland
King Racing Products Heat 3- Andy Forsberg
A.R.T. Ent. Speed Equipment Heat 4- Sean Becker
Sierra Foothills Wine Services Heat 5- Keith Day Jr
QuickTime Mortgage 1st non transfer/- JJ Ringo
D&D Roofing final finisher in B-main- John Clarke
Pit Stop USA Hard Charger- Ryan Robinson
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The Sprint Car Challenge Tour presented by Elk Grove Ford and Abreu Vineyards will now get a couple weekends off, before resuming the championship fight at the eighth annual “Peter Murphy Classic” in the Central Valley. Opening night will occur at Tulare Thunderbowl Raceway on Friday May 13th, with Saturday May 14th taking place at Keller Auto Speedway in Hanford. Both nights also feature the NARC 410 Sprint Cars.
Merced Speedway SCCT round two Results- 52 cars
A Main 35 Laps
1. 17WX-Ryan Bernal[1]; 2. 92-Andy Forsberg[3]; 3. 5V-Colby Copeland[7]; 4. 75-Tony Gomes[6]; 5. 21T-Mitchell Faccinto[8]; 6. 17W-Shane Golobic[15]; 7. 22X-Sean Becker[10]; 8. 2X-Justin Sanders[12]; 9. 14W-Ryan Robinson[21]; 10. 42X-Tim Kaeding[13]; 11. 22-Keith Day Jr[4]; 12. 2XM-Max Mittry[11]; 13. 67G-Grant Dunkerkin[23]; 14. 35M-Chase Majdic[22]; 15. 34-Landon Brooks[5]; 16. 121-Caeden Steele[20]; 17. 83T-Tanner Carrick[18]; 18. 88N-DJ Netto[14]; 19. 98M-Michael Pombo[16]; 20. 21-Shane Hopkins[17]; 21. 41-Corey Day[2]; 22. 83SA-Isaiah Vasquez[9]; 23. 33H-Eric Humphries[19]; 24. 38B-Blake Carrick[24]
B Main 15 Laps
1. 14W-Ryan Robinson[6]; 2. 35M-Chase Majdic[1]; 3. 67G-Grant Dunkerkin[4]; 4. 38B-Blake Carrick[2]; 5. 2K-JJ Ringo[3]; 6. 83V-Joel Myers Jr[9]; 7. 88A-Joey Ancona[11]; 8. 2-Brooklyn Holland[7]; 9. 37-Steven Kent[10]; 10. 7C-Jodie Robinson[8]; 11. 33-Dylan Bloomfield[12]; 12. 98-Sean Watts[5]; 13. 12-Steel Powell[14]; 14. 12J-John Clark[13]
C Feature 1 10 Laps | 00:02:11.171
1. 88A-Joey Ancona[1]; 2. 12J-John Clark[2]; 3. 21M-Michael Ing[4]; 4. 9-Dustin Freitas[3]; 5. 94TH-Kyle Hirst[6]; 6. 99T-Tanner Boul[7]; 7. 5R-Ryan Rocha[8]; 8. 94-Greg Decaires V[10]; 9. 15-Cody Key[9]; 10. 68-Jayson Bright[5]
C Feature 2 10 Laps
1. 33-Dylan Bloomfield[4]; 2. 12-Steel Powell[1]; 3. 9T-Camden Robustelli[6]; 4. 19-Colby Thornhill[8]; 5. X1-Kaleb Montgomery[10]; 6. 21X-Gage Garcia[7]; 7. 87-Ashlyn Rodriguez[5]
Heat 1 10 Laps
1. 21T-Mitchell Faccinto[1]; 2. 2XM-Max Mittry[2]; 3. 17W-Shane Golobic[5]; 4. 75-Tony Gomes[4]; 5. 35M-Chase Majdic[7]; 6. 14W-Ryan Robinson[3]; 7. 88A-Joey Ancona[11]; 8. 31C-Justyn Cox[6]; 9. 9T-Camden Robustelli[10]; 10. 19-Colby Thornhill[8]; 11. 94-Greg Decaires V[9]
Heat 2 10 Laps
1. 5V-Colby Copeland[2]; 2. 42X-Tim Kaeding[6]; 3. 83SA-Isaiah Vasquez[1]; 4. 21-Shane Hopkins[7]; 5. 38B-Blake Carrick[8]; 6. 7C-Jodie Robinson[10]; 7. 12-Steel Powell[5]; 8. 21M-Michael Ing[9]; 9. 15-Cody Key[11]; 10. 94TH-Kyle Hirst[4]; 11. X1-Kaleb Montgomery[3]
Heat 3 10 Laps |
1. 92-Andy Forsberg[1]; 2. 2X-Justin Sanders[2]; 3. 17WX-Ryan Bernal[4]; 4. 121-Caeden Steele[5]; 5. 67G-Grant Dunkerkin[6]; 6. 83V-Joel Myers Jr[7]; 7. 12J-John Clark[3]; 8. 68-Jayson Bright[8]; 9. 5R-Ryan Rocha[9]
Heat 4 10 Laps
1. 22X-Sean Becker[1]; 2. 41-Corey Day[4]; 3. 98M-Michael Pombo[2]; 4. 33H-Eric Humphries[3]; 5. 2K-JJ Ringo[7]; 6. 2-Brooklyn Holland[5]; 7. 7P-Jake Andreotti[8]; 8. 33-Dylan Bloomfield[9]; 9. 99T-Tanner Boul[6]; 10. 56-Michael Faccinto[10]
Heat 5 10 Laps
1. 22-Keith Day Jr[3]; 2. 88N-DJ Netto[2]; 3. 34-Landon Brooks[4]; 4. 83T-Tanner Carrick[1]; 5. 98-Sean Watts[7]; 6. 37-Steven Kent[6]; 7. 9-Dustin Freitas[8]; 8. 87-Ashlyn Rodriguez[9]; 9. 21X-Gage Garcia[5]