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By Rick Faeth- Pleasant fall skies led to a packed house Saturday Night as Petaluma Speedway closed out it’s 2015 racing season with the 4th Annual Adobe Cup presented by McLeas’s Tires & Automotive. A total of 21 winged 360’s timed in on the extremely hooked up 3/8’ths mile oval with Zack Lynskey besting the field with a stellar 12.615 effort. The three, ten lap heat races were captured by Roseville’s Colby Copeland, Oakdale’s Shawn Conde, and Auburn’s Andy Forsberg. The $500 ten lap dash for cash which fielded 7 guaranteed spots from the Pit Stop USA Shootout Series, plus fast timer Lynskey saw Forsberg get the better of Geoff Ensign and pocket the cash. The 30-lap main event saw Copeland lead from the front row on lap one as Conde jumped the heavy cushion and overturned slowly. On the restart it was Bradley Terrell hot on the nerf of Copeland’s potent Van Lare mount. Terrell’s night ended prematurely with overheating issues. That left Ensign to chase Copeland for a half dozen laps only to have his night also concluded with mechanical gremlins. Quietly on the move was Sean Becker from his eighth starting spot as he patiently displaced Billy Butler, Nick Ringo III, and Jake Haulot. Becker now dueled fabulously with Forsberg as he entered the top three. The last five circuits saw Copeland hit his marks and precisely deal with lapped traffic as he barely fended of the rampant last lap charge of Becker to earn the $2,000 payday. Billy Aton capped a fine night with the third podium spot, Forsberg was fourth and Butler fifth.
The Spec Sprint portion of the night was well represented with 18 non-wing open wheelers signing in. Morgan Hill’s Jim Christian was fastest in group qualifying with a 14.736 lap. Shane Myhre and newly crowned track champion Klint Simpson netted the pair of ten preliminary heats. The 30-lap main event saw popular Shayna Sylvia impressing the crowd and her competitors as she led the opening few stanzas. Ensign doing double duty augered into the turn three wall to draw a caution. Lap 11 saw Ryon Silverling and Cody Fendley collect each other in a turn four shunt. Still leading was Sylvia as a great battle behind her ensued between Jonathon Henry, John Clark, and Klint Simpson. Finding the high line to his liking was Christian as he mounted a charge to the front. As is often the case lapped traffic dealt an advantage to Henry as he made the winning pass as Sylvia was momentarily bottled up. Five laps from the end Christian started to make things interesting as he drastically cut into Henry’s advantage. However Henry was not to be bested as he parked the Jeff Lee #98 into victory lane to net the $1,000 win. Christian was second, Sylvia third. Rounding out the top five were Simpson and Myhre.
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