By Andrew Kunas
Antioch, CA … D.J. Netto had a big night in his quest for his second NARC sprint car championship when he took Saturday’s feature at Antioch Speedway and added to his points lead, and also ended an extended winless streak in the process.
Netto led all 30 laps for his ninth career NARC victory and was rarely challenged throughout. At one point Netto did get passed by Dominic Scelzi for the lead on an early restart that was called back for another car stopping. Netto took advantage of that break and mastered his remaining restarts, and there were several of them as there were four red flags for cars going upside down on a challenging night.
Scelzi continued trying to go after Netto, but eventually suffered a mishap on another restart and flipped his car upside down. That handed the second position over to Dominic Gorden. Netto entered traffic in the closing laps as Gorden tried to close in along with Jesse Schlotfeldt but they eventually ran out of time before they could take any shot at Netto for the win.
The win was Netto’s third on the season aboard the Penny Newman Grain-sponsored Netto Ag No. 88n Rider-powered KPC, and it came five months after Netto’s second win, which also came at Antioch Speedway in May. Happy to end the drought, Netto popped a wheelie on the front stretch and then climbed atop his car to celebrate with the fans. Netto increased his narrow lead to 12 points over Sean Becker, who finished fourth.
Gorden, who set fast time in qualifying earlier in the evening, settled for second aboard the Silva’s All Natural Beef-sponsored Fortitude Driver Development No. 10 Rider-powered Maxim. Schlotfeldt, visiting from Washington, earned the Williams Roofing Hard Charger nod, coming from 13th to get on the podium in his first visit to Antioch Speedway aboard the Grinder’s Automotive & Marine-sponsored JRS Motorsports No. 21 Shark-powered Triple X.
Becker maintained his second place points standing with his fourth place finish aboard the D&J Construction Rental Equipment-sponsored Bjork Construction No. 7b Shaver-powered Maxim. Max Mittry recovered from a mishap of his own on the initial start and came back to finish fifth aboard the Shasta Realty Group-sponsored Mittry Construction No. 19 Shark-powered KPC. Mittry changed the car number to 19 for the night to honor Chuck Wolf, who had recently passed away. Cannon McIntosh, Tim Kaeding, Dylan Bloomfield, Jake Andreotti and Billy Aton rounded out the Top 10.
Heat races earlier in the evening were won by Mittry, Netto and Scelzi. Netto topped Scelzi in the Beacon Wealth Strategies – Raymond James Trophy Dash to secure the pole position for the main event.
Gorden paced the 18-car field in Automotive Racing Products Qualifying with a time of 12.142 seconds around the 3/8-mile clay oval.
Hooser Racing Tires Feature (30 laps): 1. 88N-DJ Netto[1]; 2. 10-Dominic Gorden[3]; 3. 21-Jesse Schlotfeldt[13]; 4. 7B-Sean Becker[8]; 5. 19-Max Mittry[4]; 6. 83-Cannon McIntosh[5]; 7. 0-Tim Kaeding[9]; 8. 33-Dylan Bloomfield[11]; 9. 7P-Jake Andreotti[12]; 10. 26-Billy Aton[14]; 11. 12J-John Clark[15]; 12. 41-Dominic Scelzi[2]; 13. 17W-Shane Golobic[10]; 14. 17-Kalib Henry[16]; 15. 12-Jarrett Soares[17]; 16. 14-Mariah Ede[6]; 17. 29-Bud Kaeding[7]; 18. 88A-Joey Ancona[18].
METTEC Titanium Lap Leaders: 88n D.J. Netto 1-30
Williams Roofing Hard Charger: 21 Jesse Schlotfeldt, 13th to 3rd (+10)
Brown & Miller Racing Solutions Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 19-Max Mittry[1]; 2. 7B-Sean Becker[2]; 3. 17W-Shane Golobic[3]; 4. 10-Dominic Gorden[4]; 5. 26-Billy Aton[5]; 6. 17-Kalib Henry[6].
Kimo’s Tropical Car Wash Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 88N-DJ Netto[1]; 2. 0-Tim Kaeding[2]; 3. 33-Dylan Bloomfield[3]; 4. 83-Cannon McIntosh[4]; 5. 12J-John Clark[5]; 6. 12-Jarrett Soares[6].
WEDG High Performance Karts Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 41-Dominic Scelzi[2]; 2. 29-Bud Kaeding[1]; 3. 7P-Jake Andreotti[5]; 4. 21-Jesse Schlotfeldt[6]; 5. 14-Mariah Ede[4]; 6. (DNS) 88A-Joey Ancona.
Beacon Wealth Strategies – Raymond James Trophy Dash (6 laps): 1. 88N-DJ Netto[2]; 2. 41-Dominic Scelzi[1]; 3. 10-Dominic Gorden[6]; 4. 19-Max Mittry[3]; 5. 83-Cannon McIntosh[5]; 6. 14-Mariah Ede.