By Gary Thomas
Placerville, CA…Tony Gomes utilized a perfect restart on lap nine to grab the lead and never look back on way to his second Placerville Speedway triumph of the season on Kings Meats Burger Night Saturday.
It marked the second consecutive season that Gomes and C&M Motorsports snagged a win with the Thompson’s Winged Sprint Cars during Kings Meats Night.
It was the eighth career Placerville Speedway Winged 360 score for the Modesto driver, matching him with Tanner Carrick, Kalib Henry and Glen Boune for 21st all-time.
Sharing victory lane on Saturday were Kevin Jinkerson with both the Red Hawk Casino Pure Stocks and Mountain Democrat Mini Trucks, along with Jake Morgan with the Hunt Magnetos Wingless Tour.
At the waving of the green flag in the 25-lap Thompson’s Winged Sprint Car finale it was Aromas’ Justin Sanders who jumped out front. Auburn’s Andy Forsberg quickly moved to second and stayed within striking distance as lapped traffic came into play.
With the intensity picking up Forsberg looked to capitalize a couple of times until a wild moment occurred on lap nine. Racing in traffic Sanders and a lapped car made the slightest contact, which sent both around. Sanders was remarkably able to keep going but the yellow waved as the lapped car stalled.
Running third at the time, Tanner Carrick had nowhere to go and contacted the car, resulting in too much damage to continue. On the double file restart Tony Gomes got a great launch from the inside of row two, shooting by Forsberg and then making a bold move to drive under Sanders for the lead.
After that Gomes had his way with things up front, as timely yellows kept leaders out of traffic. He marched away to accept the Darin Stahl checkered flag over Sanders, Sacramento’s Austin Wood, Forsberg and Bozeman, Montana’s Cole Schroeder who claimed his first Placerville top five result.
Rounding out the top 10 were Chance Grasty, Steven Kent, Hard Charger Shane Hopkins, Cody Gray and Justyn Cox. Wood began the evening by blistering the quarter mile in 10.550 seconds to bring home the ADCO Driveline and Custom Exhaust Fast Time Award.
Diamond Springs Kevin Jinkerson doubled his pleasure on Kings Meats Night, racing to victory with both the Red Hawk Casino Pure Stocks and Mountain Democrat Mini Trucks.
On the Pure Stock side of things Sacramento’s Jason Palmer led the first couple circuits, before Jinkerson carved his way by to take the lead.
After that Jinkerson was oh so smooth up front and drove away to grab his first victory of the season and number 13 in his Placerville Speedway Pure Stock career. Point leader Nick Baldwin, Rio Linda’s Ryan Peter, Placerville’s Tyler Lightfoot and Auburn’s Colton Arbogast completed the top five.
With the Mini Trucks it was Howard Miller who set the pace early on. Jinkerson kept him honest though and would charge to the lead on lap six.
The remaining distance saw him once again remain calm, cool and collected to take the checkered flag and his second Kings Meats meat box of the night. Howard Miller, final starter Mike Miller, Luke Costa and Paizlee Miller followed him across the line.
In the 25-lap Joe Hunt Magnetos Wingless Tour feature it was Jake Morgan racing to his 12th career Non-Winged Sprint Car main event win at Placerville.
Marysville’s Josh Young got a tremendous start to lead the opening lap after starting from the second row. Morgan quickly moved into second after five laps and then reeled in the leader. Both Young and Morgan showed they were the class of the field on this night, pulling away from the pack.
The complexion of the race then changed on lap 13 when a spun car in turn one forced leaders to take evasive action. Morgan was able to continue, but Young sat parked off the corner, forcing him to the rear.
With Morgan out front that was all she wrote, as he pulled away to complete a clean sweep of the night’s program. Bob Newberry, Anthony Bruno, Kaden Ramos and Shannon Newton comprised the top five.
The evening began with drivers and teams honoring long time member of the racing family, Jimmy Wall, who is currently battling an illness. Promoter Scott Russell and long-time friend Andy Forsberg handled the ceremony and did a fantastic job.
Placerville Speedway returns to action with a double header on Independence Day weekend. Friday July 4th is the annual Freedom Fireworks event, while Saturday July 5th brings the all open wheel Triple Crown to the track. Tickets are available for both nights at www.placervillespeedway.com
Results
Placerville Speedway
Kings Meats Night
June 28, 2025
Thompson’s Winged 360 Sprint Cars:
1. 7C-Tony Gomes[6]; 2. 4SA-Justin Sanders[1]; 3. 2A-Austin Wood[2]; 4. 92-Andy Forsberg[3]; 5. 3-Cole Schroeder[9]; 6. X1-Chance Grasty[4]; 7. 81-Steven Kent[8]; 8. 21-Shane Hopkins[15]; 9. 4-Cody Gray[16]; 10. 42X-Justyn Cox[7]; 11. 5-Kenny Wanderstadt[14]; 12. 12J-John Clark[12]; 13. 21C-Cody Meyer[18]; 14. 25JR-Cody Johnson[20]; 15. 98-Chris Masters[17]; 16. 9-Adrianna DeMartini[13]; 17. 56-Taylor Hall[19]; 18. 17J-Josh Young[11]; 19. 83T-Tanner Carrick[5]; 20. 25-Seth Standley[10]
Red Hawk Resort + Casino Pure Stocks:
1. 30-Kevin Jinkerson[4]; 2. 17-Nick Baldwin[6]; 3. 83-Ryan Peter[3]; 4. 23-Tyler Lightfoot[5]; 5. 08-Colton Arbogast[8]; 6. 43-Kenny Bernstein[9]; 7. 16-Tommy Sturgeon[2]; 8. 12J-Jason Ramos[10]; 9. 54-Anthony Vigna[7]; 10. 64-Jeaguer Ruckman[11]; 11. 22K-Jason Palmer[1]
Mountain Democrat Mini Trucks:
1. 03-Kevin Jinkerson[4]; 2. 28-Howard Miller[1]; 3. 16-Mike Miller[12]; 4. 17-Luke Costa[6]; 5. 26-Paizlee Miller[3]; 6. 92N-Noah LaPoint[8]; 7. 07-Tyler Goggin[9]; 8. 22-Nick Perkins[11]; 9. 75-Brycen Bragg[5]; 10. 70-Austin Struthers[7]; 11. 33-Russ Murphy[10]; 12. 24K-Michael Barreno[2]
Joe Hunt Magnetos Wingless Tour:
1. 7EJ-Jake Morgan[6]; 2. 36-Bob Newberry[9]; 3. 9-Anthony Bruno[4]; 4. 28K-Kaden Ramos[5]; 5. 2N-Shannon Newton[7]; 6. 17M-Evan Gularte[12]; 7. 7D-Daniel Dekeyser[8]; 8. 31P-Eathon Lanfri[2]; 9. 18-Josh Gillis[11]; 10. 11-Matthew Haulot[13]; 11. 9P-Paul Vandenberg[10]; 12. 91-Cooper Marchant[18]; 13. 17J-Josh Young[3]; 14. 95-Joshua Wooten[21]; 15. 14M-Joe McCoy[22]; 16. 17N-MacKenzie Newton[20]; 17. 92A-Jeff Scotto[17]; 18. 1-Kris Jemmett[16]; 19. 2-Kane Jemmett[1]; 20. 22-Boy Moniz[15]; 21. (DNF) 3C-Carson Hawkins[19]; 22. (DQ) 15K-Matthew Kaiser[14]