Forsberg returns to his Mr. Excitement nature in fifth Placerville point race
By Bill Sullivan
PLACERVILLE, CA – Auburn’s Andy Forsberg returned to his Mr. Excitement nature Saturday night for the fifth New Car Dealers of El Dorado County, Hoosier Racing Tires, Coors Light Championship event of the season. Forsberg returned to victory lane at the track he calls home for the second time this season and shared victory lane with Pure Stock driver Dan Brown Jr. of NevadaCity, Pure Stock racer Tom Tilford of Folsom and Jeremy Blackshire of the Nor Cal Dwarf Cars
A total of 30 sprint cars entered Saturday’s event, many of them preparing for the upcoming Family Chevrolet Tribute to Al Hinds Civil War event next week. In qualifying, Justin Johnson of Shingle Springs turned the fastest lap of 10:727 on the quarter mile. In preliminary competition, Cameron Mendes of Rohnert Park, James Sweeney of Placerville, ShannonNewton of Elk Grove and Jason Botsford took home heat race victories. Forsberg won the 12-lap B-feature which advanced him into the A-feature.
The feature event started with Johnson on the pole from which he took the initial lead until a first lap spin and stall sent him to the rear of the field for the restart that placed Elk Grove’s Greg DeCaires on the pole position with Scott Kinney of Citrus Heights on the outside.
With the waving of the green flag DeCaires took command of the field with Kinney in hot pursuit while Forsberg maintained the fourth position. With just four laps down Forsberg drew a gasp from the crown with an incredible pass out of turn four that placed him in second place. Two laps later Forsberg used the high side of the track or,”The Fonz” as he likes to call it, to overtake DeCaires in the fourth turn.
Once in front, Forsberg distanced himself from the field and was followed across the line by David Robinson Jr. of Foresthill who started in fourth, DeCaires, Colby Wiesz who charged from deep in the field and Kinney who rounded out the top ten.
“After the way things started tonight I’m really happy to be standing here,” said Forsberg in victory lane. “We really stunk things up in the heat race tonight and it took us half the night to figure it all out. We’re looking forward to carrying this momentum into next week for the Al Hinds Memorial here.”
In the Pure Stock division Tom Tilford of Citrus Heights returned to the podium for the first time in two years. Tilford won the 2006 track championship and took a season-long break from the sport to assist his brothers John and Matt with their race cars throughout the year.
After leading the event last week and falling victim to a flat tire, Tilford returned to take care of unfinished business this week. Starting the in the fourth position, at the waving of the green flag Tilford began pressing towards the front and took the second position by lap two behind leader Kevin Wirth of Garden Valley.
For the entire race, Wirth and Tilford raced side by side for the lead, Wirth high and Tilford low. It wasn’t until the final turn of the final lap that Tilford was able to inch beside Wirth and the two raced side by side and rubbed doors to the finish line where Tilford finished just inches ahead of Wirth. Mike McClure of NevadaCity finished in the third position ahead of El Dorado’s Tim Mack and Brian Stevens of Pollock Pines.
“It feels good to be standing down here again,” said Tilford. “It was great helping my brothers last year but I missed being behind the wheel. I just want to thank my dad and my whole family for working hard to get us out here again and for all there support, without them we wouldn’t be able to do this. We’ll be back in a couple of weeks to try and win that bonus.”
Dan Brown Jr. of NevadaCity continued his winning ways in the Pro Stock division. Saturday’s event saw the season’s highest car count in this class with 11 high powered late model style machines. Brown started the feature event in the fourth position and moved into second on the opening lap.
With two laps down a yellow flag flew and the restart had leader Jeff Arbogast of Auburn fall victim to a loss of traction in the first and second turns. Brown was able to capitalize on Arbogast’s situation, moving in and working his way beneath the leader exiting the second turn and down the back stretch. Once he was in the lead, Brown distanced himself from the field to claim his fourth season win over Arbogast, Ray Trimble of Auburn, Forryst Carnett of Placerville and Dennis Armstrong of El Dorado.
“It was great to see a few more cars here tonight, more competition is always better,” said Brown. “Hopefully we can get a few more out here and get our winnings higher, more cars should get us more money. We’re looking forward to the race in two weeks with the added bonus money as well.”
In the Nor-Cal Dwarf Cars Jeremy Blackshire took home the victory in the 20-lap feature event. Blackshire started sixth in the race and used patience and poise to work his way to the front of the field. At the finish line Blackshire was followed by previous leader Mike Grenert, Neil Stinson finished in third followed by Brett Barstow and Kevin Bender.
“This was wild race tonight, I’m glad I was up towards the front and out of all of it,” said Blackshire, referring to a number of caution periods including a roll over by Scott Dahlgren. “We love coming to this place, its one of the best tracks for us and we look forward to coming back in a few weeks.”
Next Saturday night Placerville Speedway will host a special night of racing at the El Dorado County Fairgrounds with the fifth annual “Family Chevrolet Tribute to Al Hinds” Civil War event. This event will pay $3,000 to the winner in honor of the late speedway promoter who was a friend to the racer and a friend to the community. Prior to the event, Family Chevrolet will host a sprint car show and bbq that will be free to race fans, drivers and their crews that are participating. The event takes place from to at 4050 Motherlode Drive in Shingle Springs, just off Highway 50 at the Ponderosa Road exit. Come out and show your support!
