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PRESS RELEASE, PLACERVILLE SPEEDWAY, PLACERVILLE, CALIFORNIA
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, SUNDAY, JULY 20, 2008
MEDIA CONTACT: BILL SULLIVAN [email protected]
Colfax comet continues to shine at Placerville; Wiesz scores fourth season win
By Bill Sullivan
PLACERVILLE – The 12th Hoosier Racing Tires Championship point race of the season produced four repeat winners at Placerville Speedway Saturday night as the championship season begins to wind down to its final weeks, nearing the crowning of the 2008 season champions.
In the sprint car division, Colby Wiesz won his 4th feature event of the year aboard his John Taylor Motorsports #35 sprint car that continues to lead the point standings here. Wiesz celebrated in victory lane Saturday night with Tom Tilford who won his seventh victory in the Pure Stock division, Dan Brown Jr. of Nevada City who posted his 11th win in the Pro Stock class and Keith Bloom who won his second event in as many weeks in the wingless sprint cars.
In the sprint car division, Wiesz started the 25-lap feature event in the fifth position. The green flag was first seen by polesitter Kyle Larson of Elk Grove and second place started Scott Russell of Placerville along with Placerville’s Jimmy Trulli. Larson shot into the immediate lead down the front stretch until Russell powered off the high side to take over the front spot just before Larson saved himself from a near spin but lost several positions.
Once in front Russell pulled to a lead of several lengths over Trulli while Justin Johnson of Shingle Springs worked the third position, fighting off the efforts of Wiesz. Wiesz took over the third position from John on the ninth lap. Four laps later Johnson fell out of contention and Cameron Mendes of Rohnert Park moved into the top four. On lap 15 Mendes fell out of the hunt and Trent Canales of Roseville moved into the fourth position and began driving in Wiesz’s wake as he charged to the front, overtaking Trulli on lap 16 and then, one lap later took over the front spot when he went below Russell in urns one and two just as Russell suffered a flat right rear tired after striking the large cushion of track material that had built up on the high line.
Once in front Wiesz held off the charges of Turlli to the line. Canales, in his first year of full size racing, finshed a season best third position followed by Placerville’s C.J. Humphreys and Greg DeCaires of Elk Grove.
“Scott (Russell) was running really well up there tonight,” said Wiesz. “I am not sure I would have been able to get him if he had not had the tire go down. I just have John Taylor, my car owner and his entire crew. They do a great job on this car each week. Tonight it was perfect, the track was really fast and everything went our way.”
In the Pro Stock division, Brown’s victory didn’t come easy. He charged to the front of the field at the waving of the green flag and was immediately challenged by Thomas Arbogast of Auburn. Brown has won all but one event this season, the only other feature was claimed by Geoff Arbogast earlier in the year.
Throughout the 15 lap affair, Arbogast continued to pull beneath Brown in an effort to steal the lead in the event that saw very few yellow flags, one of which flew when Arbogast’s roof flew off. At the finish line it was Brown picking up his 11th win which be celebrated by pulling on the front stretch and standing on top of his to greet the crowd. Arobogast finished in second followed by Dennis Armstrong of El Dorado and Mike Lightfoot of Placerville.
“This year has just been incredible for us, I have to thank my whole family, especially my dad for everything they have done to make this happen,” said Brown. “I have a new baby on the way, probably due in the next couple of weeks so pretty soon I’ll be a new dad and we’ll hopefully be taking home a championship too.”
The Pure Stock division saw Tilford start on the outside of the front row. At the waving of the green flag, Tilford took the lead from polesitte Ryan Stanley and was followed in the efforts by defending track champion Jason Englund of Citrus Heights and Les Friend of Galt. For the entire event, this trio raced in the top three positions, Friend overtook second place from Englund on the 19th lap. At the finish line Tilford picked up the win that he dedicated to his grandfather. Englund redeemed the second spot from Friend while Stanley finished in fourth followed by Jared Vilt of Cameron Park.
“Earlier this week my grandfather went in for heart surgery, he asked if Tommy could win for him tonight so this one goes out to him,” said Tilford. “Its good to be back, last week I took off and my brother Jon drove and I hadn’t really prepared the car too well for him and it broke so I am glad we bounced back tonight. It’s been a good year for us racing part time like we have.”
In the wingless spring cars, Bloom started in the fourth position. The intial start saw Mason Myers of Brown’s Valley charge into the lead followed by his brother Cody Myers and Marc Ziezke of West Sacramento. Zieske moved into second place on the second lap and overtook the lead one lap later to begin pulling away from the field as Bloom worked the third position.
On lap five, Bloom overtook Cody Myers for the second position and set his sights on Zieske as they approached lapped traffic exiting the second turn. When Zieske became boxed in in the traffic, Bloom capitalized, driving high and taking the lead on the backstretch. At the finish line Bloom was followed by Zieski, Cody Myers, Mason Myers and Taylor Simas of Chico.
“My car was pretty good today,” said Bloom. “ I tried it on the high side and it was pretty fast. The car has been really good here and I’d like to thank my Mom and Dad for setting it up so good for me each week.”
Placerville Speedway will go dark this Saturday night for a special fairgrounds event that is taking place over the upcoming weekend. Racing will move to Petaluma Speedway and the Civil War Series heads to the North Bay to compete on the ever fast 3/8 mile flat track. Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico will also be in action next Friday and Saturday, hosting the Golden State Challenge Series.
Photo by Donna Peter
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