By Gary Thomas
Placerville, CA…Justin Sanders and car owner Dale Miller have started out the SCCT season blazing hot and on Friday night in Placerville they continued that pace, racing to their fourth victory in as many races.
It didn’t come easy for Sanders on this night however, as he battled tooth and nail with Shane Hopkins during an entertaining 35-lap Elk Grove Ford Sprint Car Challenge Tour finale. With extra money raised and the Shop Kyle Larson Bonus factored in, the Dale Miller Septic team walked away with $3,500 for their efforts on Adrian Blanco Jewelry Night.
The opening night Bradway Memorial main event came to the line with Sanders on the pole by way of winning the High Sierra Industries Dash. He jumped out to the early lead as cars raced on every inch of the quarter mile bullring.
Placerville’s own Shane Hopkins was fresh off a career night with SCCT and once again looked extremely impressive. The driver of the High Sierra Industries No. 21 ran the bottom to perfection and climbed to second on lap four, before setting his sights on the leader.
Hopkins hounded Sanders until taking the top-spot on lap 9 as the crowd came to their feet. Sanders didn’t let him get far away after that however, as the pair put on a tremendous show. Hopkins put his car exactly where it needed to be lap after lap as he started to work traffic.
A lap 25 restart set up the race changing moment though, as Sanders blasted to the outside and grabbed the lead that he would never relinquish. The pride of Aromas, California drove off to record his 12th career Elk Grove Ford Sprint Car Challenge Tour win and 25th of his 360 career at Placerville Speedway.
Fremont’s Shane Golobic was able to make the move for second on lap 28 and record his third runner up finish of the SCCT season. The driver of the Matt Wood Racing No. 17w closed in on Sanders, until getting bogged down in traffic with a couple circuits left. Hopkins put together another valiant effort to cross the stripe in third for his second straight Sprint Car Challenge Tour podium.
Hanford’s Michael Faccinto and Lemoore’s Cole Macedo rounded out the top-five. Completing the top-10 were Dylan Bloomfield, Tony Gomes, Tanner Carrick, Max Mittry and Jodie Robinson. Braden Chiaramonte earned the Pit Stop USA Hard Charger Award, driving from 21st to 13th after winning the B-main.
A strong field of 40 cars signed into the pits to help open the Dave Bradway Jr. Memorial weekend with SCCT. Heat race wins went to Sanders, Faccinto, Dominic Scelzi and Bloomfield. Tanner Carrick began the night by earning the Sierra Foothills Wine Services Fast Time Award with a lap of 10.829. He also took home an extra $100 thanks to Mancamp Motorsports.
The Nor-Cal Dwarf Cars once again brought a robust field of 29 entries on night of the Bradway. Fairfield veteran Mike “Spanky” Grenert jumped out front and led Dylan Shrum on a long green flag run to start the feature. The action was intense as always on the tight bullring, with three wide racing prevalent.
A caution with two laps remaining set up a green, white, checkered restart that Grenert hit to perfection. Shrum kept pace with him and tried to make something happen, but it Grenert crossed the stripe for victory. Shrum came home second followed by Shawn Whitney, Ben Wiesz and Danny Wagner in the top-five.
Results
Sprint Car Challenge Tour – 40 cars
Dave Bradway Jr. Memorial opening night
Placerville Speedway
May 31, 2024
A Main 35 Laps | 00:30:25.469
1. 4SA-Justin Sanders[1]; 2. 17W-Shane Golobic[7]; 3. 21S-Shane Hopkins[3]; 4. X1-Michael Faccinto[2]; 5. 21-Cole Macedo[6]; 6. 83V-Dylan Bloomfield[5]; 7. 7C-Tony Gomes[11]; 8. 83T-Tanner Carrick[4]; 9. 10-Max Mittry[10]; 10. 14W-Jodie Robinson[12]; 11. 3X-Kaleb Montgomery[13]; 12. 5V-Colby Copeland[16]; 13. 94TH-Braden Chiaramonte[21]; 14. 25S-Seth Standley[19]; 15. 94-Greg Decaires V[15]; 16. 41-Dominic Scelzi[8]; 17. 2A-Austin Wood[14]; 18. 45-Jake Morgan[23]; 19. 9L-Luke Hayes[9]; 20. 35-Sean Becker[18]; 21. 77-Ryan Lippincott[24]; 22. 61-Travis Labat[17]; 23. 92-Andy Forsberg[20]; 24. 83SA-Isaiah Vasquez[22]
B Feature 12 Laps | 00:08:17.540
1. 94TH-Braden Chiaramonte[3]; 2. 83SA-Isaiah Vasquez[1]; 3. 45-Jake Morgan[4]; 4. 77-Ryan Lippincott[2]; 5. 14-Mariah Ede[8]; 6. 93-Stephen Ingraham[6]; 7. 33T-Jimmy Trulli[5]; 8. 9-Dustin Freitas[12]; 9. 12J-John Clark[10]; 10. 88-Austin Torgerson[7]; 11. 98-Chris Masters[13]; 12. 3-Cole Schroeder[15]; 13. 97-Blaine Craft[9]; 14. 18P-Jack Phillips[14]; 15. (DNF) 25JR-Cody Johnson[11]
C Feature 10 Laps | 00:02:14.079
1. 18P-Jack Phillips[1]; 2. 3-Cole Schroeder[2]; 3. 24K-Koa Crane[5]; 4. 42X-Justyn Cox[4]; 5. 85A-AJ Alderman[3]
Dash 6 Laps | 00:01:17.947
1. 4SA-Justin Sanders[1]; 2. X1-Michael Faccinto[2]; 3. 21S-Shane Hopkins[4]; 4. 83T-Tanner Carrick[3]; 5. 83V-Dylan Bloomfield[6]; 6. 21-Cole Macedo[8]; 7. 17W-Shane Golobic[5]; 8. 41-Dominic Scelzi[7]
Heat 1 10 Laps | 00:01:54.000
1. 4SA-Justin Sanders[2]; 2. 9L-Luke Hayes[1]; 3. 7C-Tony Gomes[3]; 4. 83T-Tanner Carrick[4]; 5. 61-Travis Labat[5]; 6. 94TH-Braden Chiaramonte[7]; 7. 33T-Jimmy Trulli[8]; 8. 97-Blaine Craft[9]; 9. 77-Ryan Lippincott[6]
Heat 2 10 Laps | 00:06:13.000
1. X1-Michael Faccinto[1]; 2. 21-Cole Macedo[4]; 3. 3X-Kaleb Montgomery[5]; 4. 94-Greg Decaires V[3]; 5. 25S-Seth Standley[7]; 6. 83SA-Isaiah Vasquez[2]; 7. 88-Austin Torgerson[6]; 8. 25JR-Cody Johnson[9]; 9. 18P-Jack Phillips[8]
Heat 3 10 Laps | 00:04:54.000
1. 41-Dominic Scelzi[3]; 2. 10-Max Mittry[1]; 3. 2A-Austin Wood[2]; 4. 21S-Shane Hopkins[4]; 5. 35-Sean Becker[6]; 6. 45-Jake Morgan[7]; 7. 14-Mariah Ede[8]; 8. 9-Dustin Freitas[9]; 9. 3-Cole Schroeder[10]; 10. 42X-Justyn Cox[5]
Heat 4 10 Laps | 00:04:01.000
1. 83V-Dylan Bloomfield[1]; 2. 14W-Jodie Robinson[2]; 3. 5V-Colby Copeland[3]; 4. 17W-Shane Golobic[4]; 5. 92-Andy Forsberg[5]; 6. 93-Stephen Ingraham[6]; 7. 12J-John Clark[7]; 8. 98-Chris Masters[9]; 9. 85A-AJ Alderman[10]; 10. 24K-Koa Crane[8]
Qualifying A | 00:00:32.000
1. 83T-Tanner Carrick, 00:10.829[8]; 2. 21-Cole Macedo, 00:10.889[15]; 3. 9L-Luke Hayes, 00:10.939[6]; 4. X1-Michael Faccinto, 00:10.946[11]; 5. 4SA-Justin Sanders, 00:10.951[2]; 6. 83SA-Isaiah Vasquez, 00:10.985[12]; 7. 7C-Tony Gomes, 00:10.998[20]; 8. 94-Greg Decaires V, 00:11.011[7]; 9. 61-Travis Labat, 00:11.053[9]; 10. 3X-Kaleb Montgomery, 00:11.053[17]; 11. 77-Ryan Lippincott, 00:11.067[1]; 12. 88-Austin Torgerson, 00:11.117[5]; 13. 94TH-Braden Chiaramonte, 00:11.142[19]; 14. 25S-Seth Standley, 00:11.153[18]; 15. 33T-Jimmy Trulli, 00:11.195[10]; 16. 18P-Jack Phillips, 00:11.418[13]; 17. 97-Blaine Craft, 00:11.435[16]; 18. 25JR-Cody Johnson, 00:11.634[3]; 19. (DNS) 34-Dakota Albright; 20. (DNS) 222-Wyatt VanLare
Qualifying B | 00:00:39.000
1. 21S-Shane Hopkins, 00:10.975[16]; 2. 17W-Shane Golobic, 00:10.984[3]; 3. 10-Max Mittry, 00:10.989[13]; 4. 83V-Dylan Bloomfield, 00:11.022[18]; 5. 2A-Austin Wood, 00:11.033[10]; 6. 14W-Jodie Robinson, 00:11.049[6]; 7. 41-Dominic Scelzi, 00:11.066[14]; 8. 5V-Colby Copeland, 00:11.122[9]; 9. 42X-Justyn Cox, 00:11.213[11]; 10. 92-Andy Forsberg, 00:11.225[15]; 11. 35-Sean Becker, 00:11.239[17]; 12. 93-Stephen Ingraham, 00:11.272[12]; 13. 45-Jake Morgan, 00:11.385[7]; 14. 12J-John Clark, 00:11.429[20]; 15. 14-Mariah Ede, 00:11.440[5]; 16. 24K-Koa Crane, 00:11.479[8]; 17. 9-Dustin Freitas, 00:11.485[4]; 18. 98-Chris Masters, 00:11.825[2]; 19. 3-Cole Schroeder, 00:11.859[1]; 20. 85A-AJ Alderman, 00:11.984[19]