This message was edited on
October 28, 2012 at
02:17:53 PM by stevenblakesley
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
BECKER WINS 75TH ANNIVERSARY RACE OVERSHADOWED BY TRAGEDY
CALISTOGA, CALIFORNIA (October 28,
2012) – Roseville's Sean "The Shark" Becker led only the final lap to
claim Saturday's $15,000 to win "75th Anniversary Commemorative Race"
at Calistoga Speedway in a night marred by a crash involving 2011
Silver Dollar Speedway champion Tyler Wolf of Redding.
The race celebrated
Calistoga Speedway's 75 years of racing history with one of the richest
purses for Winged 360 Sprint Cars on the West Coast, attracting an
all-star turnout of 39 entries to the half-mile dirt oval.
24 cars started the
30 lap feature with 16 year-old rookie Carson Macedo of Lemoore taking
the lead from Becker to lead lap one. Racing was slowed on
back-to-back cautions when Auburn's Andy Forsberg suffered a flat tire
and Sebastopol's Bradley Terrell spun.
The red flag came
out on lap three when Wolf made hard contact with the turn two wall and
came to a stop just a few feet later. Wolf was transported to St.
Helena Hospital where he succumbed to injuries shortly after the
feature had concluded.
With heavy hearts and after grading the track at the point of impact, the green flag came back out with still 27 laps to go.
St. Helena's Rico
Abreu moved past Becker for the second position on the restart and
challenged Macedo. Abreu went side-by-side with Macedo into turn one
but Macedo maintained the top spot. The battling between the two
allowed Becker to close in for a three car fight.
After a brief yellow
on lap six for Chico's Mason Moore stalling in turn four, the red flag
came out again on a restart when Sacramento's Herman Klein did a
helicopter-like spin on his front tires in turn one.
Restart action
included Placerville's Andy Gregg getting overhauled by fast-time
qualifier Jason Meyers of Clovis and Oregon's Roger Crockett. The lead
pack went single file until the caution on lap 12 for Clarksburg's
Justyn Cox slowing on the front stretch.
A back-and-forth
battle for fourth continued on the restart with Tim Kaeding and Grass
Valley's Brad Sweet trading blows. By lap 19, Macedo, Abreu, and Becker
hit lapped traffic and Abreu capitalized. On lap 21, Abreu swept by
Macedo on the outside in turn two to take the lead.
Abreu pulled away to
a straightaway advantage while Becker chased down Macedo. Sweet fell
out of the race with engine problems on lap 24 but the contest stayed
under green. After clearing Calistoga's Mike Benson to put him a lap
down, Becker drove up under Macedo to pass him for second on lap 27 in
turn two.
Macedo's Cinderella
night ended on the next turn when a broken heim joint sent the Lemoore
racer into the turn three wall and upside down. He was uninjured but
out of the race.
Abreu got himself a
great restart over Becker for the three lap shootout. At the white
flag, Abreu had a five car length advantage but it quickly evaporated
as the Abreu Vineyards entry starved for fuel. Becker charged past
Abreu to the disbelief of the fans for the lead and the $15,000
victory. Kaeding and Meyers also worked past Abreu at the checkered
flag with Sacramento's Kyle Hirst rounding out the top-five.
"There were a lot of
fast young kids up front. Carson did an excellent job," Becker said.
"Rico got him in lapped traffic and Rico was just lightning fast. It
was very unfortunate for him because I know he had this race won."
The $5,000 second
place finish for Tim Kaeding gave him the 2012 Calistoga Speedway track
championship unofficially. Heat race wins on the night went to Ocean
Sprints champion Shane Golobic, Klein, Becker, and Cox. The 12 lap
semi was won by Hirst. Fast-time went to 2011 World of Outlaws
champion Meyers, with an 18.753 second lap.
"It's been a long
time coming for me and I wanted to win here so bad," Becker said. "We
finally did it tonight and I'm just overwhelmed right now! Dan
Monhoff was born and raised here at Calistoga so he's been coming to
this track for a long time. We blew up a motor last week at Trophy
Cup. We got some great help from Joe Vonschriltz loaning us a motor
and we won the damn thing! I can't believe it!"
"You know we just
ran out of fuel. It started sputtering with a few to go and there was
nothing we could do. It's unfortunate but it happens to the best of
us," Abreu said. "They opened up the red early in the race and we
topped the car off or we would have ran out on lap 20. Calistoga
really put on a good race and this is really the best I've seen this
track."
October 27, 2012 75th Anniversary Commemorative Race Calistoga, California
QUALIFYING: 0 Jason Meyers 18.753
HEAT 1: 22k Shane Golobic
HEAT 2: 91 Herman Klein
HEAT 3: 35 Sean Becker
HEAT 4: 31c Justyn Cox
12 LAP SEMI: 57 Kyle Hirst
30 LAP FEATURE: 1) 35 Sean Becker, 2) 83 Tim
Kaeding, 3) 0 Jason Meyers, 4) 89 Rico Abreu, 5) 57 Kyle Hirst, 6) 53
Andy Gregg, 7) 3c Stephen Allard, 8) 5h Logan Forler, 9) 29 Zach
Zimmerly, 10) 11 Roger Crockett, 11) 92 Andy Forsberg, 12) 3 Craig
Stidham, 13) 77 Mike Benson, 14) 22k Shane Golobic, 15) 43 Bradley
Terrell, 16) 21x Carson Macedo, 17) 83t Brad Sweet, 18) 18 Greg
Decaires, 19) 33t Jimmy Trulli, 20) 31c Justyn Cox, 21) 91 Herman
Klein, 22) 22 Mason Moore, 23) 19 Tyler Wolf, 24) 5v Geoff Ensign
LAP LEADERS: 21x Carson Macedo 1-20, 89 Rico Abreu 21-29, 35 Sean Becker 30
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