By Gary Thomas
Merced, CA…Aromas driver Justin Sanders raced to his 10th career Sprint Car Challenge Tour victory on Saturday at Merced Speedway, moving into sole possession of second all-time.
“I want to thank Dale and Tara Miller for all the support and giving me a great opportunity to drive this race car,” Sanders said in victory lane. “We’ve had a strong start to the season and hopefully we can keep it up as the week’s go on.”
Sanders jumped into the lead at the waving of the green flag and had his way with things out front. Early on things were exciting as cars ran high and low on the quarter mile bullring. Heavy daytime winds created a drying surface however, as rubber became prevalent towards the later stages.
Sanders ultimately led flag to flag in the 35-lap contest to bring home victory over Fremont’s Shane Golobic, Penngrove’s Chase Johnson, Clovis’ Dominic Gorden and Mesa, Arizona’s Corbin Rueschenberg. Kaleb Montgomery, Ashton Torgerson, Isaiah Vasquez, DJ Netto and Tony Gomes rounded out the top-10. Netto earned the Pit Stop USA Hard Charger Award with his drive from 17th to ninth.
Next up for the Elk Grove Ford Sprint Car Challenge Tour is the Mel & Marlyn Hall Memorial at Marysville Raceway on Saturday May 25th.
Results
Sprint Car Challenge Tour
Merced Speedway
April 20, 2024
A Feature 35 Laps
1. 4SA-Justin Sanders[1]; 2. 17W-Shane Golobic[3]; 3. 28-Chase Johnson[7]; 4. 10-Dominic Gorden[9]; 5. 94-Corbin Rueschenberg[4]; 6. 3-Kaleb Montgomery[8]; 7. 02-Ashton Torgerson[13]; 8. 83-Isaiah Vasquez[12]; 9. 88N-DJ Netto[17]; 10. 7C-Tony Gomes[14]; 11. 21-Shane Hopkins[15]; 12. X1-Michael Faccinto[10]; 13. 83V-Dylan Bloomfield[16]; 14. 14-Mariah Ede[18]; 15. 94TH-Braden Chiaramonte[2]; 16. 5R-Ryan Rocha[21]; 17. 92-Andy Forsberg[22]; 18. 9-Dustin Freitas[24]; 19. 83T-Tanner Carrick[5]; 20. 5V-Sean Becker[20]; 21. 67-Grant Duinkerken[11]; 22. 28X-Gauge Garcia[6]; 23. 14W-Jodie Robinson[23]; 24. 21W-Josh Wiesz[19]
B Feature 12 Laps
1. 5R-Ryan Rocha[1]; 2. 92-Andy Forsberg[7]; 3. 14W-Jodie Robinson[3]; 4. 9-Dustin Freitas[5]; 5. 2A-Austin Wood[8]; 6. 7H-Jake Haulot[2]; 7. 12J-John Clark[4]; 8. 2-Brooklyn Holland[12]; 9. 61-Travis Labat[9]; 10. 34-Dakota Albright[10]; 11. 38-Colby Johnson[6]; 12. 222-Wyatt VanLare[14]; 13. 9L-Luke Hayes[11]; 14. 10X-Mauro Simone[13]
C Feature 10 Laps
1. 10X-Mauro Simone[1]; 2. 222-Wyatt VanLare[4]; 3. 31H-Phil Heynen[2]; 4. 76-Jennifer Osborne[5]; 5. 75-Bill Smith[3]; 6. 15-Nick Parker[6]
Dash 6 Laps
1. 4SA-Justin Sanders[2]; 2. 94TH-Braden Chiaramonte[1]; 3. 17W-Shane Golobic[4]; 4. 94-Corbin Rueschenberg[8]; 5. 83T-Tanner Carrick[6]; 6. 28X-Gauge Garcia[3]; 7. 28-Chase Johnson[7]; 8. 3-Kaleb Montgomery[5]
Heat 1 10 Laps
1. 28-Chase Johnson[1]; 2. 4SA-Justin Sanders[4]; 3. 67-Grant Duinkerken[3]; 4. 7C-Tony Gomes[10]; 5. 14-Mariah Ede[5]; 6. 5R-Ryan Rocha[2]; 7. 9-Dustin Freitas[7]; 8. 61-Travis Labat[9]; 9. 10X-Mauro Simone[6]; 10. 222-Wyatt VanLare[8]
Heat 2 10 Laps
1. 3-Kaleb Montgomery[1]; 2. 10-Dominic Gorden[2]; 3. 83T-Tanner Carrick[4]; 4. 21-Shane Hopkins[3]; 5. 21W-Josh Wiesz[8]; 6. 7H-Jake Haulot[6]; 7. 38-Colby Johnson[5]; 8. 34-Dakota Albright[7]; 9. 31H-Phil Heynen[9]
Heat 3 10 Laps
1. 28X-Gauge Garcia[1]; 2. X1-Michael Faccinto[3]; 3. 83-Isaiah Vasquez[2]; 4. 83V-Dylan Bloomfield[7]; 5. 94-Corbin Rueschenberg[4]; 6. 14W-Jodie Robinson[5]; 7. 92-Andy Forsberg[6]; 8. 9L-Luke Hayes[8]; 9. 75-Bill Smith[10]; 10. 76-Jennifer Osborne[9]
Heat 4 10 Laps
1. 94TH-Braden Chiaramonte[2]; 2. 17W-Shane Golobic[4]; 3. 02-Ashton Torgerson[6]; 4. 88N-DJ Netto[3]; 5. 5V-Sean Becker[7]; 6. 12J-John Clark[8]; 7. 2A-Austin Wood[9]; 8. 2-Brooklyn Holland[5]; 9. 15-Nick Parker[1]
Qualifying A 2
1. 4SA-Justin Sanders, 00:11.136[3]; 2. 83T-Tanner Carrick, 00:11.193[7]; 3. 28-Chase Johnson, 00:11.388[12]; 4. 3-Kaleb Montgomery, 00:11.391[13]; 5. 5R-Ryan Rocha, 00:11.395[5]; 6. 10-Dominic Gorden, 00:11.504[4]; 7. 67-Grant Duinkerken, 00:11.533[11]; 8. 21-Shane Hopkins, 00:11.536[10]; 9. 14-Mariah Ede, 00:11.556[1]; 10. 38-Colby Johnson, 00:11.680[8]; 11. 10X-Mauro Simone, 00:11.682[2]; 12. 7H-Jake Haulot, 00:11.828[15]; 13. 9-Dustin Freitas, 00:11.951[18]; 14. 34-Dakota Albright, 00:12.014[14]; 15. 222-Wyatt VanLare, 00:12.100[6]; 16. 21W-Josh Wiesz, 00:12.106[16]; 17. 61-Travis Labat, 00:12.298[19]; 18. 31H-Phil Heynen, 00:12.643[9]; 19. 7C-Tony Gomes, 00:15.105[17]
Qualifying B
1. 94-Corbin Rueschenberg[2]; 2. 17W-Shane Golobic[1]; 3. 28X-Gauge Garcia[4]; 4. 15-Nick Parker[3]; 5. 83-Isaiah Vasquez[10]; 6. 94TH-Braden Chiaramonte[16]; 7. X1-Michael Faccinto[8]; 8. 88N-DJ Netto[7]; 9. 14W-Jodie Robinson[6]; 10. 2-Brooklyn Holland[9]; 11. 92-Andy Forsberg[15]; 12. 02-Ashton Torgerson[14]; 13. 83V-Dylan Bloomfield[12]; 14. 5V-Sean Becker[18]; 15. 9L-Luke Hayes[5]; 16. 12J-John Clark[13]; 17. 76-Jennifer Osborne[11]; 18. 2A-Austin Wood[17]; 19. 75-Bill Smith[19]