Forum: Northern California Sprint Car (go)
Moderators: StuDeedooo

Kyle Larson captured the 25 lap 360 winged sprint car A-Main at Petaluma Speedway Saturday night 8/18. Larson was brilliant in lapped traffic to grab the lead and take the win.

20 cars, cool weather, breezy. Track was fast and smooth. Also appearing were 22 BCRA midgets and 12 midget lites.

Visitors: Richard Brace, Jr in #2R. 1st local appearance of the season, Paul Pedrocelli, Jr. in the #7P

#3x Allissa Geving topped all qualifiers followed by the #48K of Kirk SImpson, #43 of Bradley Terrel, #83v of Kyle Larson, and the #14 of Scott Merrel. Times posted on the board could not be verified due to missing bulbs distoritng true numbers and times not announced after qualifying was completed.

4 heats, 5 cars each, 6 laps ( running late, so I am gussing this why they were not 8 laps) -Scheduled dash after completion of heats, also was not run.

Heat 1 - finish, car #, name,(started)

1. #25B, Dustin Baxter(1) 2. #33, Jason Macintosh(2) 3. #19, Art McCarthy(4) 4. #3x, Geving (5) 5. #14, Merrel (3) - Baxter jumped to the lead from his pole starting spot.McCarthy to 3rd exiting turn 2 on lap 1. Geving gets sideways coming out of turn 2 on lap 2 and slides into the wall to bring out the only yellow.. She is able to restart. Restart sees Merrel pressuring McCarthy but cannot make the pass. Geving joins the fray on lap 4 and dives under Merrel entering turn 3 and takes over 4th. No change over the final 2 laps.

Heat 2 - finish, car#, name, (started)

1. #29, Cameron Mendes (2) 2. #96, Arvo Backholm (1) 3. #48k, Simpson (5) 4, #35, Rickey Wright, Jr. (4) 5. #10x, Roberto Kirby (3) - Mendes grabs the lead from his outside front row start with Backholm in tow.. Wright, Jr. to 3rd. Simpson all over Kirby for 3rd and passes at the flagstand to finish lap 1. Simpson now after Wright, Jr. Final lap sees Simpson pull alongside Wright, Jr. down the backstretch and dvie under the #35 in turn to take the show spot at the checkered flag.

Heat 3 - finish, car #, name, (started) - Pedrocelli orignally slated to start outside row 1 decides to tag the rear

1. #2R, Brace, Jr. (1) 2. #56, Shawn Arriaga (2) 3. #43, Terrel (4) 4. #7P, Pedrocelli (5) 5. #4, Adam McCarthy (3-DNF) - Brace leads this one from start to finish. Terrel tries in vain to pass Arriaga. McCarthy running 4th spins in turn 3 on the final lap and ends up parked next to the inside berm. Pedrocelli running the low line sees McCarthy late; spins, does a 360 and keeps it going to the chekered flag to take 4th.

Heat 4 - finish, car #, name, (started)

1. #56F, Fred Arriaga (1) 2. #2, Mike Learn (2) 3. #83v, Larson (3) 4. #6c, Jeff Parady (4) 5. #3, Bill Cornwell (DNF-5) - Arriaga and Learn 1st attempt at the start is called back as Arriaga gets pushed up to the wall and start is uneven. Complete restart sees Arriaga take the lead followed by Learn. Parady and Larson bang wheels in turn 1 and Parady falls back to 5th while Larson keeps 3rd. Parady spins in turn 3 to bring out the yellow. Cornwell stops on the backstretch and goes to the pits and does not return. Restart on lap 3 and Larson is all over Learn trying to take 2nd. Learnn holds him off. Larson tries a high move in turn 4, loses speed and falls back. Single file the last 2 laps to the finish.

A- Main, 25 laps finish, car #, anme, (started) Results past 4th palce are unofficial, Final finishing order not announced and not posted on the pit board, so I might have a few positions after 4th wrong.

1. #83v, Larson, (3) 2. #43, Terrel (4) 3. #48k, Simpson (5) 4. #56, S. Arriaga (7) 5. #6c, Parady (8) 6. #25B, Baxter,

(9) 7. #35, Wright, Jr. (1) 8. #4, Ad. McCarthy (18) 9. #56F, F. Arriaga (12) 10. #29, Mendes (14) 11. #2R, Brace, Jr. (11) 12. #96, Backholm (10) 13. #14, Merrel (16) 14. #7P, Pedrocelli (19) 15. #10x, Kirby (15) 16. #33, Macintosh (13-DNF) 17. #2, Learn (20-DNF) 18. #3, Cornwell (17-DNF) 19. #19, Art McCarthy (2-DNF) 20. #3x, Geving (6-DNF) - At the drop of the green Art McCarthy is posiitoned high up the track and bangs the wall just past the flagstand. He hammers down and powers to the lead anyway followed by Wright, Jr. and Terrel.. Larson is also right there looking to apply pressure on Terrel. Geving does a wheelstand coming out of turn 4 and lands awkwardly ripping her fron end sideways and flipping the car. Red flag. Geving is OK. As soonas the light goes yellow for cars to be pushed off the #19 of McCarthy goes to the pits. Apparently the incident with the wheel damaged the sprinter enough he could not continue. With 1 lap scored, Wright, Jr. leads the field to the green flag. 2nd running Terrel goes to the high side of turn 1 and makes a nifty pass of Wright, Jr. exiting turn 2. Larson grabs 2nd on lpa with an inside move on Wright,Jr. in turn 4 and beings to chase Terrel. The #48k of Simpson takes 3rd from Wright, Jr. with an outside pass in turn 1 - lap 4. Lap 5 and Terrel is entering lapped traffic with Larson right on his rear nerf. Lap 10 and LArson takes advantage of some lappers and a better line to grab the lead from Terrel going down the backstrectch. Cornwell pulls off mid race. Larson is now weaving through heavy traffic patiently and with authority and Terrel cannot get close. Lap 21 sees the final yellow as Macintosh stops in turn 1 and exits the race. Single file restart and Larson pulls away to take a commanding lead and is never threatened to take the checkered flag on lap 25.

Hard Charger - Adam McCarthy 18th to 8th

The #57 of Brain Gard won a thrilling BCRA midget main coming from mid pack to take the win in a 22 car field.. The #35 of Scott Pierovich was holding Gard off for the last 7 laps until Pierovich lost control going into 3 and ran into another midget. It looked as if Pierovich might have started having some handling issues a few laps earlier. John Sarale took 2nd. The midgets were great to see on the 3/8".

The #27B of Nick Shivello won the midget lite race that alos ended with the leader and 2nd place car spinning at the end.(lap 18 of the 20 lap distance). 3rd running Shivello took the lead and led the final 2 laps. I thinnk this might be Shivello's 1st win.

Good job Kyle!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's two wins in a month for the youngster! Congrats! Can't wait to see how he does at the Gold Cup Civil War Wednesday...

How bad was the damage on the #3x, hopefully you guys will be back out on the track next week...

- Chris

Congrats to the 83V team!

Does anyone know if there is a way to listen in to the race on Wed, via the internet.

I'd like to listen in from Iowa.

Thanks.

R

Just caught this Sacramento Bee piece on Larson from right after his big Placerville Civil War win:

http://www.sacbee.com/100/story/318487.html

I wish their Motor Sports Beat would cover all of the local sprint action, but having a few articles out there is better than nothing, of course...

- Chris

Congrats to Kyle and the 83V team.

Good article on Kyle.  I e-mailed the Sacramento Bee earlier this year to see if they would cover the local sprint car racing (especially Placerville and the race we raised money for Billy Sellers who is a Sacramento driver) and I was told there were too many forms of racing to really cover sprint cars.  I even offered to send them articles but they weren't interested.  I guess we should appreciate when we do have an article in the paper.

Does the Bee's motorsports beat even have that many articles to begin with though? Honestly, I'd think it'd make sense for them to cover the local scene, given how much of it was originally rooted at West Cap and how many from the region fill the grids at Chico, Marysville, and Placerville (and though not sprints, All-American).

I wonder how hard it'd be to get on that beat ourselves, that'd be a really fun task, and there are a lot of great people in this sport whose accomplishments need to be highlighted in this region.

- Chris

Official Finish (from Petaluma Speedway website)

1. #83v, Larson (3) 2. #43, Terrel (4) 3. #48k, Simpson (5) 4. #56, S.Arriaga (7) 5. #4, Ad. McCarthy (18) 6. #6c, Parady (8) 7. #35, Wright,Jr. (1) 8. #25B, Baxter (9) 9. #29, Mendes (14) 10. #2R, Brace,Jr. (11) 11. #96, BNackholm (10) 12. #14, Merrel (16) 13. #56F, F.Arruiaga (12) 14. #33F, Macintosh (13-DNF) 15. #2, Learn (20-DNF) 16. #3, Cornwell (17-DNF) 17. #10x, Kirby(15) 18. #7, Pedrocelli (19-DNF) 19. #19, Ar. McCarthy (2-DNF) 20. #3x, Geving (6-DNF)

This Saturday night is the final points show for the 360 sprints. Looking at the points Jef Parady has a 3 point lead over Shawn Arriaga heading into the final event.

Saturday, September 1 is the 360 non wing open - $2,500 to win.