Ray Trimble, Dan Jinkerson, Chase Majdic and Ben Wiesz claim Carnett Clash wins at Placerville Speedway
By Gary Thomas
Placerville, CA…A season-high 104 racing machines packed the Placerville Speedway pit area to honor the late Bryan Carnett during the annual “Carnett Clash” on Saturday night.
Auburn’s Ray Timble would take home the $2,500 grand prize with the Mtn. Democrat Ltd. Late Models, while Diamond Springs’ Dan Jinkerson dominated the Red Hawk Casino Pure Stock feature to claim the $1,000 victory. Redding’s Chase Majdic also earned his first career win at the track with the Thompson’s Winged Sprint Cars and Colfax racer Ben Wiesz continued his unbeaten streak with the Nor-Cal Dwarf Cars.
Saturday also doubled as Kings Meats Night at the races. Each main event winner and one lucky race fan all took home a meat box valued at $225 each courtesy of Kings Meats.
Former track champion Ray Trimble started from the front row and felt pressure from Anthony Slaney over several instances during the 25-lap contest. Jay Norton battled hard with Slaney over the early stages while Dan Brown Jr. and Rod Oliver fought it out as well.
A wide racing surface lent itself well to the Mountain Democrat Limited Late Models, who put on one of their best shows of the season on Saturday. Slaney tried to find a way past Trimble, but the Auburn veteran hit his marks and crossed under the Ron Stahl checkered flag for the massive win. It marked his 19th career Ltd. Late Model victory at the track.
Slaney came home second, followed by Norton, Brown and Oliver in the top-five. Tyler Lightfoot, Dan Jinkerson, Kiely Ricardo, Mike Lightfoot and Josh Combs rounded out the top-10. Jinkerson was involved in a wreck midway through and came back through the field in impressive fashion, consistently turning the fastest laps of the race. A total of 18 Late Models competed during the night.
Ltd. Late Model Finish: 1. 37-Ray Trimble[2]; 2. 4X-Anthony Slaney[1]; 3. 15J-Jay Norton[4]; 4. 15-Dan Brown Jr[7]; 5. 57-Rod Oliver[3]; 6. 23J-Tyler Lightfoot[5]; 7. 23-Dan Jinkerson[11]; 8. 98-Kiely Ricardo[10]; 9. 23A-Mike Lightfoot[6]; 10. 3X-Josh Combs[16]; 11. 5-Richard Vander Ploeg[9]; 12. 28G-Terrry Kuntz[13]; 13. 3-Eddie Gardner[14]; 14. 56-Brian Hubert[12]; 15. 196-Clint Reichenbach[8]; 16. 22G-Paul Gugliomoni[17]; 17. 29-Matt Davis[15]
Dan Jinkerson is routinely one of the drivers to beat whenever he straps into a Pure Stock and on Saturday night, he reminded everyone of that. The “Diamond Springs Dynamite” lined up from the pole and easily won the 25-lap main event, much of the time leading a full straightaway. The action behind him though started out hot and heavy with at least five cars racing for the runner up position.
Kevin Jinkerson, Nick Baldwin, Scott Grunert and others raced back and forth before things started to settle down over the waning circuits. Not even a couple of late restarts could slow the fast-moving D. Jinkerson though, as he raced off to record his 36th career Red Hawk Casino Pure Stock triumph at Placerville Speedway. Thanks to an extra $150 coming in from Bill O’Neil that afternoon, the win paid an even $1,000 to win.
Kevin Jinkerson, Baldwin, Grunert and Craig Nieman completed the top-five. The remainder of the top-10 was filled out by Les Friend, Jason Poppert, Jason Armstrong, Ryan Parkhurst and Jacob Bright. A stout field of 33 Pure Stocks signed into the pits at the Carnett Clash. All cars that started the A-main took home a minimum of $500.
Pure Stock Finish: 1. 23-Dan Jinkerson[1]; 2. 30-Kevin Jinkerson[5]; 3. 17-Nick Baldwin[4]; 4. 14-Scott Grunert[9]; 5. 7Z-Craig Nieman[11]; 6. 42F-Les Friend[17]; 7. 87-Jason Poppert[15]; 8. 77T-Jason Armstrong[13]; 9. 15A-Ryan Parkhurst[19]; 10. 92-Jacob Bright[12]; 11. 74-Russell Murphy[14]; 12. 47-Michael Murphy[18]; 13. 32-Ken Johns[20]; 14. 47B-Angela Brown[10]; 15. 22-Chris Mcginnis[16]; 16. 316-Ryan Murphy[6]; 17. 08-Jarred Hess[3]; 18. 68E-Wayne Trimble[7]; 19. X86-David Silvia[2]; 20. 83-Ryan Peter[8]
The 25-lap Thompson’s Winged Sprint Car feature began with rookie driver Caeden Steele snagging the lead, in what was his first career start on the red clay. The surface had slicked off nicely, which led to several back-and-forth races with plenty of slide jobs thrown in. Steele led until contacting the front stretch wall and getting into a wild 360-degree spin. Somehow, he continued in third, as Jodie Robinson now found herself out front with Chase Majdic in second.
Roseville’s Colby Copeland then made a couple of swift moves to jump into second prior to a caution waving on lap 19. On the restart Copeland shot to the lead, but was called for a jumped start and docked two positions on the ensuing attempt. When things went back green Majdic made a bold move on the outside to grab the top-spot heading into turn one.
Robinson tried a counter move through three and four, but it ultimately saw contact that flattened her left front tire, just as the red flag waved for an incident in turn two. Robinson kept the lead and continued with the flat tire, but on the restart Majdic made the move to slip underneath for the lead. The “Magic Man” then withstood a final lap charge from Copeland to record his first Placerville Speedway victory, which came during his initial start in the Vertullo Racing/ Starr Property Management No. 83v.
Copeland finished second, followed by Steele, 12th starter Justyn Cox and Michael Ing in the top-five. Completing the top-10 were Michael Pombo, 17th starter Kyle Hirst, Jimmy Trulli, Robinson and Justin Bradway. A stellar field of 36 Thompson’s Winged Sprint Cars competed on Saturday night.
Winged Sprint Car Finish: 1. 83V-Chase Majdic[1]; 2. 16A-Colby Copeland[6]; 3. 121-Caeden Steele[2]; 4. 31C-Justyn Cox[12]; 5. 21M-Michael Ing[5]; 6. 98M-Michael Pombo[3]; 7. 7C-Kyle Hirst[17]; 8. 33T-Jimmy Trulli[10]; 9. 4-Jodie Robinson[4]; 10. 20-Justin Bradway[7]; 11. 92-Andy Forsberg[14]; 12. 33-Dylan Bloomfield[16]; 13. 01-Kalib Henry[15]; 14. 6W-Billy Wallace[18]; 15. 12J-John Clark[8]; 16. 5-Kenny Wanderstadt[13]; 17. 38-Colby Johnson[19]; 18. 18P-Jack Phillips[11]; 19. 94-Greg Decaires V[9]; 20. 43-Bradley Terrell[20]
So far this year the Nor-Cal Dwarf Car Association has made three appearances at Placerville Speedway and all three have been captured by Ben Wiesz. The Colfax racer dominated much of Saturday and weathered a closing Dylan Shrum at the end for the triumph. Shawn Whitney, Corey Eaton and Josh Wiesz finished third through fifth respectively. Rounding out the top-10 were Kevin Bender, Isaak Geil, Brian Quilty, Dan Geil and Tom VanTuyl.
Dwarf Car Finish: 1. 57N-Ben Wiesz[1]; 2. 31N-Dylan Shrum[4]; 3. 15N-Shawn Whitney[3]; 4. 29N-Corey Eaton[2]; 5. 2N-Josh Wiesz[5]; 6. 9N-Kevin Bender[16]; 7. 42N-Isaak Geil[6]; 8. 16N-Brian Quilty[11]; 9. 32N-Dan Geil[9]; 10. 111DD-Tom VanTuyl[13]; 11. 69N-Cody Shrum[15]; 12. 30N-April Halliday[10]; 13. 7N-Jace Badecker[7]; 14. 616N-Tyler Quilty[17]; 15. 59N-Austin Struthers[12]
Placerville Speedway returns to action on Monday July 4th with the annual Independence Day “Freedom Fireworks” event.
Images courtesy of Pat Brandon
Comments