By Gary Thomas
Placerville, CA…Auburn’s Andy Forsberg and Roseville’s Jodie Robinson thrilled the Placerville Speedway crowd on hand Saturday, putting on an exhilarating race right down to the end with the Thompson’s Winged 360 Sprint Cars.
Lapped traffic made things interesting, but at the Ron Stahl checkered flag it was Forsberg who picked up his 67th career Sprint Car win at the El Dorado County Fairgrounds venue. Sharing victory on First Responders Night were Dan Jinkerson with the Mountain Democrat Limited Late Models, Nick Baldwin with the Red Hawk Casino Pure Stocks and Ben Wiesz with the Nor-Cal Dwarf Car Association.
Early in the 25-lap Sprint Car feature it was all about Robinson, as she pulled out to a healthy lead. Once lapped traffic came into play however, it gave Forsberg the chance to close in. The duo proceeded to race back and forth up front until Forsberg assumed command on lap nine. The veteran then worked lapped traffic like a magician, weaving his way through while keeping the field at bay.
As the race wound down though Forsberg would get bogged down in traffic, which allowed Robinson to make a final bid at victory. She was able to pull alongside on lap 23, but Forsberg got the drive up high and scooted away to grab the win. Robinson, Shane Hopkins, Trent Canales and Joey Ancona rounded out the top-five in the main event. Forsberg also took home the extra $100 courtesy of Silva Motorsports and began the evening by claiming the $100 ADCO Driveline and Custom Exhaust fast time award.
Winged 360 finish: 1. 92-Andy Forsberg[2]; 2. 4-Jodie Robinson[1]; 3. 21-Shane Hopkins[3]; 4. 5C-Trent Canales[5]; 5. 88A-Joey Ancona[7]; 6. 7C-Ryan Robinson[15]; 7. X1-Kaleb Montgomery[6]; 8. 31C-Justyn Cox[8]; 9. 93-Stephen Ingraham[9]; 10. 94-Greg Decaires V[10]; 11. 20-Michael Ing[18]; 12. 46-Jeremy Wilson[20]; 13. 8JR-Brian McGahan Jr[4]; 14. 85-CJ Humphreys[11]; 15. 98-Chris Masters[12]; 16. 9L-Luke Hayes[16]; 17. 77-Ryan Lippincott[19]; 18. 33T-Jimmy Trulli[17]; 19. 15-Michael Sellers[14]; 20. 25-Justin Johnson[13]
Defending Mountain Democrat Ltd. Late Model champion Dan Jinkerson raced to his second consecutive triumph to begin the season on Saturday. The Diamond Springs driver hounded the rear bumper of Clint Reichenbach for several laps, as the pair put on an excellent race for the lead. Reichenbach eventually suffered issues that forced him back to the pit area and cost him a shot at the win.
Once in front that was all she wrote for Jinkerson, who crossed the checkered flag for the victory over Kiely Ricardo, Ray Trimble, Rod Oliver and Jay Norton.
Ltd. Late Model finish: 1. 23-Dan Jinkerson[3]; 2. 98-Kiely Ricardo[4]; 3. 37-Ray Trimble[2]; 4. 57-Rod Oliver[5]; 5. 15J-Jay Norton[8]; 6. 28G-Andrew Pearce[9]; 7. 22G-Paul Gugliomoni[7]; 8. 3-Eddie Gardner[10]; 9. 15-Dan Brown Jr[6]; 10. 196-Clint Reichenbach[1]; 11. 23J-Tyler Lightfoot[11]
The Red Hawk Casino Pure Stocks also provided some thrills on Saturday while racing on a hooked up red clay bullring. Several cars battled up front early including Jason Poppert, Michael Murphy, Nick Baldwin, Wayne Trimble, Chris McGinnis and Tommy Sturgeon. After numerous laps of pack racing Baldwin sliced his way to the front and would never look back as he claimed yet another Placerville Speedway win.
Scott Grunert crossed the stripe in second followed by Sprint Car driver Ryan Robinson, who made his Pure Stock debut on Saturday. Kevin Jinkerson and Sturgeon completed the top-five.
Pure Stock finish: 1. 17-Nick Baldwin[5]; 2. 14-Scott Grunert[4]; 3. 23-Ryan Robinson[11]; 4. 30-Kevin Jinkerson[10]; 5. 16-Tommy Sturgeon[7]; 6. 83-Ryan Peter[12]; 7. 47-Michael Murphy[2]; 8. 316-Ryan Murphy[18]; 9. 08-Oroville Owens[15]; 10. 4-Jonny Walsh[3]; 11. 64-Thomas Jensen[13]; 12. 1-Chris D’angelo[14]; 13. 93-Mel Byers[19]; 14. 24-Earl Lee[17]; 15. 22-Chris Mcginnis[6]; 16. 87-Jason Poppert[1]; 17. 22K-Jason Palmer[16]; 18. 68E-Wayne Trimble[9]; 19. 74-Russell Murphy[8]
The Nor-Cal Dwarf Car Association once again brought a solid field of 24-cars to the Placerville Speedway on Saturday. Colfax driver Ben Wiesz has become one of the top Dwarf Car wheel-men in the Golden State and that was on full display last night. He was able to hang tough through several caution periods to claim the win over Danny Wagner, 16th starter Josh Wiesz, Corey Eaton and Mike Grenert.
Dwarf Car finish: 1. 57N-Ben Wiesz[7]; 2. 11DD-Danny Wagner[4]; 3. 2N-Josh Wiesz[16]; 4. 29N-Corey Eaton[5]; 5. 12N-Mike Grenert[8]; 6. 72N-Mike Reeder[14]; 7. 31N-Dylan Shrum[1]; 8. 15N-Shawn Whitney[23]; 9. 7N-Jace Badecker[9]; 10. 32N-Dan Geil[21]; 11. 69N-Cody Shrum[20]; 12. 50N-Brenden Shrum[22]; 13. 99N-gage meyers[24]; 14. 36N-Jameson Sole[19]; 15. 31DD-Ellie Russo[6]; 16. 52N-Chuck Conover[18]; 17. 6N-Austin Quilty[12]; 18. 30N-April Halliday[13]; 19. 10N-Carl Droivold[3]; 20. 10B-Barry Waddell[2]; 21. 9N-Kevin Bender[11]; 22. 59N-Austin Struthers[17]; 23. 616N-Tyler Quilty[10]
Full results from Saturday can be found at https://speedhive.mylaps.com/Events/1974537?fbclid=IwAR3TiJ5TEmB0R4pEAY_IXhOGr_c3j25IRVMTnDbYUJyItA8Wc0RUV9OfZaQ
Images courtesy of Pat Brandon and Tim Holland