By Gary Thomas
Marysville, CA…The annual Mel & Marlyn Hall Memorial provided several thrills for the Sprint Car Challenge Tour on Saturday night at Marysville Raceway. At the end it was a classic battle between Auburn’s Andy Forsberg and Fremont’s Shane Golobic, which saw the closest finish in SCCT history occur.
As the packed house came to their feet, the talented duo drag raced to the checkered flag, with Forsberg nipping Golobic at the scoring loop for an official margin of victory that read as just 0.006 seconds. With extra money raised by the Hall family and the Kyle Larson Racing Full-Time Bonus factored in, Forsberg unofficially walks out of town with $3,500 for his efforts.
With the win Forsberg matches track legend Colby Wiesz for the most victories all-time in the Mel & Marlyn Hall Memorial, having claimed his sixth career triumph at the event on Saturday. It also marked his fourth career Elk Grove Ford Sprint Car Challenge Tour presented by Abreu Vineyards win, tying him with Rico Abreu for fourth on the all-time list.
“That was a great race right there and I hope all you fans enjoyed that one,” Forsberg commented after the feature. “Mel & Marlyn Hall were two very special people that gave a lot of their lives to this racing stuff. It’s pretty awesome to get my sixth win at the Hall and tie Colby Wiesz for the most all-time. Big thanks to my team and everyone who came out to support this show at Marysville Raceway.”
The 35-lap feature started out with High Sierra Industries Dash winner Michael Faccinto leading early, until Forsberg took over the top-spot on a lap seven restart. Several cautions and a couple red flags slowed the flow of the main event and never allowed much in the way of lapped traffic. Forsberg looked solid out front, but as the race wound down Golobic found a nice line up top in turns one and two, which gave him immense momentum heading down the back stretch.
Lap after lap Golobic tried to hit it perfectly and closed right up to the rear of the Pacific Highway Rentals No. 92 machine each time. With the white flag in the air Forsberg picked his way through a couple lapped cars, but Golobic cut an excellent corner down low to get under the leader and make it a battle to checkered.
In one of the most exciting finishes we’ve ever seen with the Sprint Car Challenge Tour, Forsberg won out by inches at the scoring loop. Golobic came home in second with 15th starting and brand new SCCT point leader Justyn Cox having an outstanding run in third. Lemoore youngster Gauge Garcia looked good and came home in fourth, with Faccinto rounding out the top-five.
Placerville’s Shane Hopkins earned the Pit Stop USA Hard Charger Award with a fantastic drive from 24th to sixth in the feature. Lincoln’s Tanner Carrick went from 18th to seventh, while Kaleb Montgomery, 22nd starter Seth Standley and Dawson Hammes completed the top-10.
Suisun City’s Chance Grasty captured the night’s 15-lap B-main, with Michael Faccinto winning the High Sierra Dash as noted. The four 10-lap heat races went to Shane Golobic, Luke Hayes, Gauge Garcia and Dominic Gorden. Olivehurst’s William Fielding began the night by earning the Sierra Foothills Wine Services Fast Time Award with a lap of 10.488 around the quarter mile.
Grass Valley’s Carl Droivold claimed victory in the Crate Sprint Car main event during the night.
The Hall Family must be commended for their efforts in raising extra money for the racers on Saturday. An additional $2,350 was added to the SCCT portion of the show thanks to the Hall Family and all the generous donors.
The Elk Grove Ford Sprint Car Challenge Tour presented by Abreu Vineyards returns to action this coming Friday at Placerville Speedway to open the Dave Bradway Jr. Memorial.
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SCCT 360 Sprints Results – 29 Entries
A Main 35 Laps
1. 92-Andy Forsberg[2]; 2. 17W-Shane Golobic[3]; 3. 42X-Justyn Cox[15]; 4. 21X-Gauge Garcia[6]; 5. X1-Michael Faccinto[1]; 6. 21-Shane Hopkins[24]; 7. 83T-Tanner Carrick[18]; 8. 4SA-Kaleb Montgomery[11]; 9. 25S-Seth Standley[22]; 10. 55D-Dawson Hammes[8]; 11. 83V-Dylan Bloomfield[12]; 12. 1-Chance Grasty[21]; 13. 10-Dominic Gorden[5]; 14. 9L-Luke Hayes[4]; 15. 71L-William Fielding[23]; 16. 7C-Steven Tiner[17]; 17. 35-Sean Becker[9]; 18. 21M-Michael Ing[20]; 19. 43-Bradley Terrell[10]; 20. 7H-Jake Haulot[7]; 21. 2-Cody Spencer[19]; 22. 12R-Mitchell Faccinto[14]; 23. 115-Nick Parker[13]; 24. 7-Jake Morgan[16]
B Main 15 Laps
1. 1-Chance Grasty[6]; 2. 25S-Seth Standley[2]; 3. 71L-William Fielding[9]; 4. 21-Shane Hopkins[4]; 5. 6W-Billy Wallace[3]; 6. 54-Carson Hall[5]; 7. 15-Pat Harvey Jr[8]; 8. 61-Travis Labat[1]; 9. 54S-Drake Standley[7]
Dash 6 Laps
1. X1-Michael Faccinto[1]; 2. 92-Andy Forsberg[2]; 3. 17W-Shane Golobic[3]; 4. 9L-Luke Hayes[4]; 5. 10-Dominic Gorden[5]; 6. 21X-Gauge Garcia[7]; 7. 7H-Jake Haulot[6]; 8. 55D-Dawson Hammes[8]
Heat 1 10 Laps
1. 17W-Shane Golobic[2]; 2. 35-Sean Becker[3]; 3. 115-Nick Parker[5]; 4. X1-Michael Faccinto[1]; 5. 2-Cody Spencer[7]; 6. 61-Travis Labat[8]; 7. 54-Carson Hall[6]; 8. 71L-William Fielding[4]
Heat 2 10 Laps
1. 9L-Luke Hayes[2]; 2. 43-Bradley Terrell[1]; 3. 42X-Justyn Cox[3]; 4. 7C-Steven Tiner[6]; 5. 55D-Dawson Hammes[4]; 6. 6W-Billy Wallace[5]; 7. 1-Chance Grasty[7]
Heat 3 10 Laps
1. 21X-Gauge Garcia[2]; 2. 4SA-Kaleb Montgomery[3]; 3. 12R-Mitchell Faccinto[1]; 4. 7-Jake Morgan[5]; 5. 7H-Jake Haulot[4]; 6. 25S-Seth Standley[6]; 7. 54S-Drake Standley[7]
Heat 4 10 Laps
1. 10-Dominic Gorden[1]; 2. 83V-Dylan Bloomfield[2]; 3. 92-Andy Forsberg[4]; 4. 83T-Tanner Carrick[5]; 5. 21M-Michael Ing[3]; 6. 21-Shane Hopkins[6]; 7. 15-Pat Harvey Jr[7]
Qualifying 1
1. 71L-William Fielding, 00:12.488[3]; 2. X1-Michael Faccinto, 00:12.518[1]; 3. 17W-Shane Golobic, 00:12.616[2]; 4. 35-Sean Becker, 00:12.765[6]; 5. 115-Nick Parker, 00:12.812[5]; 6. 54-Carson Hall, 00:12.938[7]; 7. 2-Cody Spencer, 00:12.989[8]; 8. 61-Travis Labat, 00:13.000[4]
Qualifying 2
1. 55D-Dawson Hammes, 00:12.725[4]; 2. 43-Bradley Terrell, 00:12.914[6]; 3. 9L-Luke Hayes, 00:12.996[1]; 4. 42X-Justyn Cox, 00:13.058[2]; 5. 6W-Billy Wallace, 00:13.300[7]; 6. 7C-Steven Tiner, 00:13.406[5]; 7. 1-Chance Grasty, 00:13.451[3]
Qualifying 3
1. 7H-Jake Haulot, 00:12.861[1]; 2. 12R-Mitchell Faccinto, 00:12.871[2]; 3. 21X-Gauge Garcia, 00:13.105[4]; 4. 4SA-Kaleb Montgomery, 00:13.148[5]; 5. 7-Jake Morgan, 00:13.156[6]; 6. 25S-Seth Standley, 00:13.262[7]; 7. 54S-Drake Standley, 00:13.523[3]
Qualifying 4
1. 92-Andy Forsberg, 00:13.099[3]; 2. 10-Dominic Gorden, 00:13.168[4]; 3. 83V-Dylan Bloomfield, 00:13.234[1]; 4. 21M-Michael Ing, 00:13.302[2]; 5. 83T-Tanner Carrick, 00:13.444[6]; 6. 21-Shane Hopkins, 00:13.674[5]; 7. 15-Pat Harvey Jr, 00:14.204[7]