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Robinson returns to victory in most heroic fashion, winning the Tribute to Al Hinds
Fifth annual event draws record, standing room only crowd to El Dorado Fairground
by Bill Sullivan

Saturday, May 3, 2008 Results
Qualifying 360 Sprints Results Contingency Awards

David Robison Jr. celebrates in victory lane after winning the Tribute to Al Hinds Civil War event at Placerville Speedway. JPM Photo by Donna Peter

PLACERVILLE, CA (5-3-08) - Since the start of the 2008 racing season, David Robinson Jr. of Foresthill has been eager to return to the victory circle at Placerville Speedway. The former two time Civil War and Placerville Speedway track champion has led a number of events but victory continued to elude him as he returned from a two-year hiatus from the sport.

Saturday night at Placerville Speedway Robinson returned to victory lane in a very big way, winning the prestigious fifth annual Family Chevrolet Tribute to Al Hinds Civil War event, a race that his F&F Racing team was instrumental in creating five years ago and has been trying to win from that day.

“This feels so great to be standing right here tonight, what an incredible race this has become,” said Robinson, who spent the afternoon meeting fans at Family Chevrolet’s inaugural Al Hinds race car show and bbq. “I just want to thank everyone that is involved with putting this together, especially Family Chevrolet and all of you fans. I’ve been trying to get back here all season long and I couldn’t have asked to do it on a better night. This team is the greatest and I am so happy to be back.”

Prior to qualifying on Saturday night, the grandstands at Placerville Speedway were nearly filled to capacity and later went into a standing room only status, producing the largest turn out at the El Dorado County Fairgrounds track in recent years, even exceeding the attendance for the annual fourth of July event. The record attendance is attributed to a recent promotional partnership with Family Chevrolet of Shingle Springs. For the past two weeks, dealership owner Tony Montalbano and John Padjen Motorsports worked together on advertising and added public relations within the community, utilizing one of the theories that the late Al Hinds believed in, “If you build it, they will come.” Saturday night, they came by the thousands and at the end of the night Montalbano, Padjen and Robinson and some 2000 race fans and team members were all enjoying the event’s success.

“It is an honor for us to be involved with this great event, said Montalbano, who purchased over 400 tickets for customers and associates in addition to adding the $1000 bonus to the event. “Since we started doing this five years ago this event has continued to grow and this year it has hit a whole new level, it is such a pleasure to see this great crowd. Al Hinds was a great man in this community and that is what this event is all about, honoring him for his contribution to this town and this race track. We want to thank all the drivers and fans that came to the dealership today for a great afternoon. We’re already making plans to make the event even bigger next year.”

Saturday night started with qualifying where former Al Hinds’ champion Andy Forsberg of Auburn turned the fastest lap of the night. Forsberg picked up an extra $100 for the effort courtesy of Dan Ramey’s DSR Graphics and Signs of Cameron Park. Ramey has been involved with local motor sports for decades and has contributed to the event since its start in 2004.

David Robison Jr. (x1) and Richard Bailey (01). JPM Photo by Donna Peter

The 30-lap feature event started on Saturday night with an impressive combination of the four abreast salute and missing man formation in honor of Hinds, with defending race champion Kyle Hirst of Elk Grove carrying the checkered flag at the front of the field. The event brought the capacity crowd to their feet as they saluted their heroes on a night when a special energy could be felt at 43 year old dirt track in the heart of Placerville.

“I have never seen a crowd like this anywhere I have been and I have been to a lot of tracks,” said musician and speedway guest Ron Pestana, who’s father operated Altamont Raceway in its beginning “There is an energy at this place tonight that is just incredible, you can feel it in the air and it’s great to be here for this event.”

When the green flag waved in the feature event, Robinson powered out of the second place starting position into the lead, overtaking Hirst who started on the pole position. Once in front, Robinson never relinquished the lead for the entire 30-lap affair but the race was far from any cake walk.

For the first nine laps Robinson was pressured by Hirst who was attempting to become just the second driver to win two Tribute to Al Hinds’ events. With 10 laps in the book Colby Wiesz of Colfax moved into the second position and began to close in on Robinson for the lead. The battle between Robinson and Wiesz continued up until the 26th lap when Wiesz lost slid sideways in the fourth turn and tipped over on his side to draw a red flag. Wiesz was one of several drivers to bring out the red flag Saturday night, Chad Compton of Fair Oaks suffered a damaging crash on the front stretch as did Mason Moore of Princeton, Kyle Larson of Elk Grove and Placerville’s Scott Russell and Andy Gregg.

With little damage, Wiesz returned to the event at the rear of the field which placed Hirst back on the rear bumper of Robinson for the lead. In the final four laps of the race, Hirst gave it everything he had to try and pass Robinson on the low side but finished second ahead of Sean Becker of Sacramento, Brad Furr of Pleasanton and Scott Kinney of Citrus Heights.

“I did everything I could to try and catch him tonight,” said Hirst. “He was running the top really well and we were better on the bottom tonight. I would like to thank Family Chevy for putting this event on and all the fans for coming out and supporting us.”

While much of the attention was on Robinson’s return to victory lane, another notable driver Saturday night was Larson. After a low qualifying time, Larson was forced to compete in Saturday’s C-main event where he finished second to transfer in the B-feature and then drove his way to a sixth place finish and transferred into the A-feature. Despite a damaging crash early in the feature, Larson returned after repairs to finish 19th. Driving through all three feature events in a Civil War event is a rarely accomplished feat.

Andy Forsberg won the B-feature, Troy Machado won the C-feature. Heat races were claimed by Mason Moore, Justin Johnson, Richard Bailey and Willie Croft. A total of 39 cars turned out for Saturday’s event presented by Family Chevrolet of Shingle Springs.

The next Civil War event will bring auto racing together with the annual Silver Dollar Fair on Sunday, May 25th at Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico. For further information on this event check out www.johnpadjenmotorsports.com. Next Saturday, championship racing returns to Placerville Speedway with Cold Springs Community Church Night. The 360 sprint car feature will pay $2000 to win, courtesy of the local church that is one of the only known faith based organizations to partner with auto racing. The Pure Stocks and Pro Stocks will each feature a $200 bonus to the winner as well.