Justyn Cox captures Placerville victory at Carnett Clash

By Gary Thomas

Placerville, CA…Race fans were treated to a tremendous night of competition at Placerville Speedway on Saturday during the annual Carnett Clash presented by Country Lube Automotive. In the end it was Clarksburg’s Justyn Cox standing in victory lane after claiming an entertaining Thompson’s Winged Sprint Car feature.

Joining Cox as Carnett Clash victors on Saturday evening were Paul Gugliomoni with the Anrak Late Models, Nick Baldwin with the Red Hawk Casino Pure Stocks and Mike Grenert with the Nor-Cal Dwarf Car Association.

The 25-lap Thompson’s Family of Dealerships Winged 360 Sprint Car feature started off with Placerville’s Shane Hopkins setting the pace up front. Justyn Cox assumed the runner up spot on the opening lap and hounded the rear tail tank of Hopkins’ machine, as last week’s winner Landon Brooks also joined the party.

Cox would then charge into the top-spot with 10 circuits complete, prior to a caution waving shortly after, which let everyone catch their breath. During the slowdown Brooks also had a right rear tire go flat that forced him into the work area. On the ensuing restart nine-time track champ Andy Forsberg blasted into second and came hard after the leader.

The duo of Cox and Forsberg proceeded to put on the best show we’ve seen all season long at Placerville Speedway, with both drivers battling back and forth for the top spot. With six laps remaining however, Forsberg got crossed up on the cushion off turn four it appeared, which sent him around for a spin. Tony Gomes had raced from 12^th to third, but was also caught up in the incident, along with Shane Hopkins, who was running in sixth.

On the restart Cox held strong with 10^th starting Dylan Bloomfield trying to keep him within sight. Coming to the white flag Bloomfield looked to close the gap, but the yellow lights flashed on for a stalled car in turns one and two.

The green, white, checkered restart saw Cox hit his marks to bring home the victory aboard the Bates-Hamilton Racing No. 42x entry. Bloomfield put together a stellar run for the second straight week and came home in second at the helm of the Vertullo Racing No. 83v.

Clovis youngster Dominic Gorden earned his first Placerville Speedway podium in third, with point leader Michael Faccinto in fourth and Wilton’s Ashlyn Rodriguez rounding out the top-five. The remainder of the top-10 was comprised of 17^th starting Ashton Torgerson, 20^th starter Gauge Garcia, Michael Pombo, Bubba Decaires and 18^th starter Stephen Ingraham.

A total of 27 Thompson’s Winged Sprint Cars were on hand Saturday night. Faccinto began the evening by earning the ADCO Driveline Fast Time Award with a lap of 11.085.

Winged Sprint Car results: 1. 42X-Justyn Cox[3]; 2. 83V-Dylan Bloomfield[10]; 3. 10-Dominic Gorden[9]; 4. X1-Michael Faccinto[7]; 5. 87-Ashlyn Rodriguez[4]; 6. 88-Ashton Torgerson[17]; 7. 21X-Gauge Garcia[20]; 8. 37-Michael Pombo[8]; 9. 94-Greg Decaires V[5]; 10. 93-Stephen Ingraham[18]; 11. 45-Jake Morgan[19]; 12. 9L-Luke Hayes[16]; 13. 98-Chris Masters[14]; 14. 12J-John Clark[13]; 15. 3C-Casey Schmitz[11]; 16. 94X-Landon Brooks[2]; 17. 92-Andy Forsberg[6]; 18. 7C-Tony Gomes[12]; 19. 21-Shane Hopkins[1]; 20. 5H-Josh Wiesz[15]

The 20-lap Carnett Clash feature for the Anrak Ltd. Late Models saw Vacaville, CA driver Paul Gugliomoni race to the $1,000 Bonus by way of victory.

The ground pounders made their first Placerville Speedway appearance since July 4^th and put on some solid action in the main event. Lincoln’s Dan Brown Jr. fought his way forward to challenge the leader over the waning stages, but Gugliomoni was too strong up front and crossed under the Ron Stahl checkered flag.

Brown, Dan Jinkerson, Clark Gugliomoni and Ray Trimble completed the top-five. C. Gugliomoni also gave the leader everything he could handle at times in the race.

Late Model results: 1. 22G-Paul Gugliomoni[1]; 2. 15-Dan Brown Jr[7]; 3. 23-Dan Jinkerson[8]; 4. 28G-Clark Gougliomani[5]; 5. 37-Ray Trimble[6]; 6. 23J-Tyler Lightfoot[9]; 7. 115-Chris Mcginnis[12]; 8. 23A-Mike Lightfoot[10]; 9. 777-Michael Anderson[11]; 10. 57-Rod Oliver[3]; 11. 71-Wayne Trimble[2]; 12. 96M-Matt Micheli[4]

The Red Hawk Casino Pure Stocks also threw it down in Old Hangtown on Saturday night with an epic 20-lap showcase. Race fans were on the edge of their seats from start to finish. Kenny Bernstein led the first few laps, before Tom Arbogast was able to slice his way by for the point on lap four.

While Arbogast led the way he had a hungry pack of Kevin Jinkerson, Nick Baldwin and Dan Jinkerson duking it out for the runner up spot.

Lapped traffic created some hectic action on the tight bullring, as drivers raced tooth and nail to the finish. Arbogast had been smoking heavily and slowed just prior to the conclusion, which saw Baldwin shoot to the lead. Baldwin ended up taking the checkered flag in wild fashion over Dan Jinkerson, Arbogast, Kevin Jinkerson and Michael Murphy.

Pure Stocks results: 1. 17-Nick Baldwin[6]; 2. 23-Dan Jinkerson[7]; 3. 86-Thomas Arbogast[4]; 4. 30-Kevin Jinkerson[3]; 5. 47-Michael Murphy[1]; 6. 29-Tyler Lightfoot[11]; 7. 14-Rick Grennert[5]; 8. 43-Kenny Bernstein[2]; 9. 1-Chris D’angelo[10]; 10. 93-Mel Byers[8]; 11. 55-Micky Dangelo[9]

The Nor-Cal Dwarf Car Association once again brought out an impressive 27-car field and put together fantastic racing during the night. Fairfield’s Mike “Spanky” Grenert had his way with things out front and drove a phenomenal race to keep the rest of the field at bay.

Lots of moving and shaking was seen behind him however, as drivers raced high and low on the Placerville Speedway bullring. As Grenert took the checkered flag he was followed across the line by Shawn Whitney, Mike Reeder, Ben Wiesz and Cody Shrum in the top-five.

Rounding out the top-10 in the 20-lap contest were Dylan Shrum, Kevin “Hollywood” Bender, Gage Meyers, Dan Geil and Kinser Endicott.

Dwarf Car results: 1. 12N-Mike Grenert[3]; 2. 15N-Shawn Whitney[4]; 3. 72N-Mike Reeder[9]; 4. 57N-Ben Wiesz[6]; 5. 69N-Cody Shrum[11]; 6. 31N-Dylan Shrum[7]; 7. 9N-Kevin Bender[2]; 8. 99N-Gage Meyers[8]; 9. 32N-Dan Geil[5]; 10. 381-Kinser Endicott[1]; 11. 50N-Brenden Shrum[16]; 12. 29N-Corey Eaton[10]; 13. 8N-Aron Mosier[15]; 14. 42N-Isaak Geil[12]; 15. 41N-Brandon Aylesworth[13]; 16. 616N-Tyler Quilty[19]; 17. 30N-Gene Herndon[20]; 18. 59N-Austin Struthers[14]; 19. 36N-Jameson Sole[17]; 20. (DNS) 22N-Joe Halter

Placerville Speedway returns to action this coming Saturday August 12^th with Coors Light Big Trophy Night.