PLACERVILLE – Modesto, California’s Tony Gomes dominated the 25-lap Thompson’s Winged Sprint Car feature, en route to his third victory of the season at Placerville Speedway on Independence Day.
Sharing victory lane on Tuesday were Dan Jinkerson in the Anrak Ltd. Late Model feature and Auburn’s Thomas Arbogast with the Red Hawk Casino Pure Stocks.
The Thompson’s Family of Dealerships Winged 360 Sprint Car finale came to the line with Gomes and Sebastopol’s Joel Myers Jr. on the front row. A multi car pileup in turn four brought out the red flag on the initial attempt.
All drivers were luckily okay and after cleaning up the incident things got back underway with Myers leading the opening circuit before Gomes slipped to his inside to take the point on lap two.
Gomes would dominate the main event from that point on as cars raced for position behind him. Some timely caution flags kept drivers away from lapped traffic and in the clean air, nobody had anything for the fast-moving C&M Motorsports/ Lund Construction No. 7c machine.
Current Placerville point leader Michael Faccinto jumped into second on lap seven and held strong to cross the stripe in the runner up position, followed by eighth starting Dylan Bloomfield, who made some nice moves to complete the podium. Penngrove’s Chase Johnson occupied second at times behind Gomes and came home in fourth, with Aromas racer Justin Sanders fifth.
It was an exceptionally strong rebound for Sanders, who was involved in the lap one pileup and had to visit the work area. The remainder of the top-10 was filled out by Colby Johnson, Luke Hayes, Jimmy Trulli, Shane Hopkins and Ashlyn Rodriguez. Both Trulli and Hopkins came back from the opening lap incident as well to record solid finishes.
Heat race wins went to Justin Sanders, Tony Gomes and Colby Johnson. Sanders began the night by earning the ADCO Driveline Fast Time Award with a lap of 10.832 around the quarter mile. A total of 20 cars competed on the 4th of July.
Winged Sprint Car results: 1. 7C-Tony Gomes[1]; 2. X1-Michael Faccinto[4]; 3. 83V-Dylan Bloomfield[8]; 4. 28-Chase Johnson[3]; 5. 4SA-Justin Sanders[6]; 6. 38-Colby Johnson[5]; 7. 9L-Luke Hayes[10]; 8. 33T-Jimmy Trulli[14]; 9. 21-Shane Hopkins[15]; 10. 87-Ashlyn Rodriguez[7]; 11. 94-Greg Decaires V[9]; 12. 79-Mark Hanson[20]; 13. 98-Chris Masters[19]; 14. 45-Jake Morgan[12]; 15. 25-Justin Johnson[18]; 16. 46JR-Joel Myers Jr[2]; 17. 83T-Tanner Carrick[16]; 18. 25S-Seth Standley[17]; 19. 83SA-Isaiah Vasquez[11]; 20. 34-Justin Henry[13]
Diamond Springs’ Dan Jinkerson started from the front row in the Anrak Corporation Ltd. Late Model feature and raced to his 13th career victory in the division on Tuesday. It didn’t come easy for him however, as Rod Oliver and others showed tremendous speed on this night.
Track conditions lent well to drivers in the 20-lap contest and the ground pounders put on some of the most entertaining racing of the night. Lincoln’s Dan Brown Jr. found the high side to his liking and challenged Jinkerson early on. Rod Oliver ran the bottom side to perfection though and assumed the runner up spot with seven laps complete.
Oliver hounded the rear of Jinkerson’s Lightfoot Automotive mount and gave the multi-time track champion everything he could handle. He took a few peeks to the inside, but Jinkerson held strong and fended him off to record the win. Oliver, Matt Micheli, Ray Trimble and Brown rounded out the top-five.
Late Model results: 1. 23-Dan Jinkerson[2]; 2. 57-Rod Oliver[3]; 3. 96M-Matt Micheli[4]; 4. 37-Ray Trimble[5]; 5. 15-Dan Brown Jr[1]; 6. 71-Wayne Trimble[8]; 7. 115-Chris Mcginnis[9]; 8. 23J-Tyler Lightfoot[6]; 9. 54-Matt Davis[7]
Auburn competitor Thomas Arbogast has made a triumphant return to the wheel this season and picked off his second Red Haw Casino Pure Stock win of the year on Tuesday. Starting from the pole he battled Ken Bernstein during the initial stages but then had his way with things out front.
Arbogast persevered through an inordinate amount of caution flags, which made for several key restarts. Four-time Placerville Speedway titlist Nick Baldwin executed a methodical charge forward to finish second over Bernstein, Mike Lightfoot and Bill O’Neil rounding out the top-five. The top-10 was completed by Mel Byers, Chris D’angelo, Jonny Walsh, Kevin Jinkerson and Russ Murphy.
Pure Stock results: 1. 86-Thomas Arbogast[1]; 2. 17-Nick Baldwin[10]; 3. 43-Kenny Bernstein[2]; 4. 52-Mike Lightfoot[4]; 5. 23-Bill O’Neal[8]; 6. 93-Mel Byers[11]; 7. 1-Chris D’angelo[9]; 8. 4-Jonny Walsh[12]; 9. 30-Kevin Jinkerson[6]; 10. 74-Russell Murphy[7]; 11. 47-Michael Murphy[3]; 12. 54-Vigna Anthony[5]; 13. 55-Micky Dangelo[14]; 14. 77T-Jason Armstrong[15]; 15. 27-William Upton[16]
Placerville Speedway is right back in action this Saturday July 8th with Burgers & Brew Night presented by Kings Meats and Solid Ground Brewing. On tap will be the Thompson’s Winged 360 Sprint Cars, the USAC Western States Midgets, the Red Hawk Casino Pure Stocks and BCRA Wingless Lightning Sprints.
Images courtesy of D&P Photos
