By Gary Thomas
Placerville, CA…The Easter Eggstravaganza provided several thrills on Saturday night for the solid crowd on hand at Placerville Speedway. In the end it was Modesto’s Tony Gomes occupying victory lane, after claiming his second career Thompson’s Family of Dealerships Winged Sprint Car victory.
The second Hoosier Tires championship point race of the season saw outstanding racing in all four divisions, with wins also picked off by defending track titlist Nick Baldwin in the Red Hawk Casino Pure Stocks, Wyatt Lakin with the Mini Trucks and Shawn Whitney with the Dwarf Cars.
The 25-lap Thompson’s Sprint Car finale began with Indiana native Brinton Marvel duking it out with Chico’s Michael Ing on the start. Ing ended up leading the opening lap and set the early pace in impressive fashion. Tony Gomes showed his strength right off the bat, jumping into the second spot, before looking to track down the leader. Piloting the familiar C&M Motorsports No. 7c machine, the 23-year-old quickly found his way to the rear of Ing.
With eight laps complete, Gomes drove to his inside, looking to grab the point. Contact ensued between the pair, which ended with Ing sitting parked off turn four to draw the caution. Gomes officially led for the remainder of the race, but the action behind him remained hot and heavy. Rio Oso’s Landon Brooks put on a thrilling charge from the 12th starting spot, moving up as high as second at one point. Brooks, Andy Forsberg, Caeden Steele and others raced high and low on the red clay bullring.
Steele overtook Brooks for the runner up spot with four laps remaining, but couldn’t quite catch the fast-moving Gomes, who accepted the Ron Stahl checkered flag. Steele, Forsberg, Brooks and Marvel completed the top-five. It was an especially strong night for Marvel, who earned his first career ADCO Driveline Fast Time Award and captured the opening heat race. Michael Faccinto, Luke Hays, Chance Grasty, Shane Hopkins and Bubba Decaires rounded out the top-10.
A solid field of 35 Winged Sprint Cars competed on Saturday.
Winged Sprint Car Results: 1. 7C-Tony Gomes[4]; 2. 121-Caeden Steele[8]; 3. 92-Andy Forsberg[7]; 4. 94TH-Landon Brooks[12]; 5. 5H-Brinton Marvel[2]; 6. X1-Michael Faccinto[3]; 7. 9L-Luke Hayes[6]; 8. 1-Chance Grasty[9]; 9. 21-Shane Hopkins[15]; 10. 94-Greg Decaires V[18]; 11. 87-Ashlyn Rodriguez[20]; 12. 93-Stephen Ingraham[19]; 13. 12J-John Clark[17]; 14. 9-Dustin Freitas[11]; 15. 9T-Tyler Brown[16]; 16. 21M-Michael Ing[1]; 17. 7H-Jake Haulot[5]; 18. 14-Mariah Ede[13]; 19. 10-Dominic Gorden[14]; 20. 21X-Gauge Garcia[10]