Civil War brings the boys…and girls of summer to Placerville for A&A Stepping Stone Night
By Bill Sullivan
PLACERVILLE, CA – The Hoosier Racing Tires Civil War Races Series will return to one of its action packed tracks this Saturday night, the quarter-mile bullring known as Placerville Speedway. This event will be an all open-wheel affair featuring California’s most talented drivers in the 10th round of the golden state’s most competitive series for winged sprint cars on a night bannered as “A&A Stepping Stone Night” at the El Dorado County Fairgrounds.
A& A Stepping Stone is a family-operated business dedicated to providing quality service and products to both commercial contractors and homeowners from Sacramento to Tahoe. A & A Stepping Stone was first established in 1974 when Keith Arellano started manufacturing stepping stones in his backyard in Auburn. Today, A & A has expanded to provide a full line of masonry and landscape materials including brick, block, interlocking pavers, retaining wall systems, natural flagstone, architectural veneers, tools, and much more with locations in Newcastle and Citrus Heights. In addition to their array of products and services, A&A Stepping Stone is heavily involved in auto racing, owning the #92 sprint car of Auburn racer Andy Forsberg, one of Placerville Speedway’s winningest drivers.
The Hoosier Racing Tires Civil War Race Series is California’s exclusive series for 360 cubic powered sprint cars. It takes competitors to five different tracks for 15 different races bringing record car counts to each facility it visits and treating fans to high caliber wheel to wheel racing. Saturday night the series will showcase California’s top drivers when it takes to the lighting fast 3/8 mile track located on the Sonoma-Marin County Fairgrounds.
Entering Saturday’s event, former Silver Dollar Speedway and Golden State Challenge Champion Sean Becker of Sacramento will headline the roster as he leads the point standings in the traveling series aboard his Scott Miller #2sb sprint car. This week, Becker has a job ahead of him as Elk Grove’s Kyle Larson has closed to within just four points behind Becker for the championship battle.
The Civil War Series is known for being the home to California’s “Young Guns” and Larson is undoubtedly one of them. Last year at the age of just 14, Larson won this race and became the youngest feature event winner in Placerville Speedway history. Now, he is still the youngest driver on the circuit and contending to become the youngest driver to ever lead the series standings and ultimately, win a championship.
In round nine at Petaluma Speedway, a challenging track proved for very little passing in the feature event. Larson still managed to advance from 17th to fifth in the race to rack up a number of valuable championship points, closing Becker’s once healthy advantage to single digits. Becker has had mechanical issues set him back in the last two Civil War events.
Sitting behind Larson is the defending four time Civil War Champion Andy Forsberg of Auburn. On this given night, Forsberg will be racing before some 100 associates and customers of A&A Stepping Stone, the sponsor of the race and Forsberg’s longtime car owner. Although he will have extra incentive to perform, Forsberg is not one to hold back at Placerville where he has five feature wins to his name and will look to score his first Civil War victory of the year in this event.
Sacramento’s Herman Klein is fourth in the standings. Klein has had his share of Civil War victories and will look to rally back from a crash that sidelined him in last week’s event at Petaluma. Sitting in the fifth position is Mike Benson of Calistoga. Last weekend Benson finished second at Petaluma and will be gearing up for the next Civil War event after Placerville as it takes place back at his hometown track, Calistoga Speedway.
Benson has always faired well at Placerville Speedway aboard his family owned #77 sprinter. In the current Civil War Series he has one top five finish and three top ten finishes. He currently rounds out the top five in the point standings, 34-points from the lead.
Sitting just one position out of the top five is Penngrove lady racer Alissa Geving. At just 16-years-old Geving is another of the series’youngest stars. The current Petaluma All Pro Series point leader is the youngest female sprint car winner in the nation. A third generation open wheel driver following in the footsteps of her father and grandfather, Geving is gunning for the Civil War Series Rookie of the Year award and at the same time remains in contention for the championship title aboard the Chicko Motorsports #3x Maxim, 88-points from the lead with two top five finishes and three top tens in the series.
Myles Bishop of Escalon is chasing Geving for the Rookie title this season. Bishop has spent the majority of his Saturday nights running his Velocity Motorsports #7 at Placerville and has a Civil War victory to his name this season at Quincy. Bishop trails Geving by 33-points entering Saturday’s event and has one top five finish and two top tens.
Sacramento’s Willie Croft is eighth in the standings over Placerville’s own Andy Gregg who is ninth . Rounding out the top ten is Placerville Speedway weekly point leader Colby Wiesz of Colfax who will look for his first Civil War victory of the year at the track he has dominated for the entire season driver the competitive John Taylor Motorsports #35 sprint car
The gates to Placerville Speedway will open at on Saturday with qualifying starting at 6:30 followed by an action packed racing program including four ten lap heat races, a C-feature, B-feature and the high dollar 30-lap A-feature which packs a total of 22 winged sprint cars on Placerville tight bullring Adult tickets will be $15, Juniors will be $10, children $5 and under six is admitted for free.
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