Greg Decaires picks up Thompson’s Auto Group Winged Sprint Car victory on Saturday at Placerville Speedway

Placerville, CA – Elk Grove’s Greg Decaires was able to get around Jimmy Trulli on lap 17 and go on to lead the remaining distance in the main event to score victory with the Thompson’s Auto Group Winged 360 Sprint Cars at Placerville Speedway on Saturday.

Also sharing victory lane at the third Red Hawk Casino championship point race were Ray Trimble with the Ltd. Late Models, Dan Jinkersen with the Pure Stocks, Zach Keefe with the BCRA Midget Lites and Ted Ahart with the Mini Trucks.

The night of racing was completed even despite a 30 minute delay for rain prior to the feature. Promoter Scott Russell and the track prep staff did a solid job to save the track and allow main events to be completed.

At the waving of the green flag in the 25-lap Thompson’s Auto Group Winged Sprint Car feature it was Trulli who jumped into the lead and would hold a healthy command, until a red flag waved for Kirt Organ on lap 10. On the restart Decaires attempted a slider for the lead, but couldn’t make it stick. He then hounded Trulli for the top spot for several laps until completing a turn four slide job coming to complete lap 17.

Decaires took the checkered flag over Trulli, Jake Morgan, Mike Benson and Steven Tiner. “Last year was kind of an R&D season for us and this year we got back to the basics and the car has been perfect once when it rolled out of the trailer,” Decaires commented. “I can’t thank everyone that supports this team enough.” Decaires and Tiner captured the two heat races, while Hollister’s Tony Gualda set the ADCO Driveline and Custom Exhaust Fast Time Award with a lap of 10.931.

Eight late models showed for their third round of 2017 with Mike Lightfoot and Matt Michelli setting the front row. Michelli powered out to the early lead as fourth place starter Ray Trimble would quickly fall into the second spot. The two leaders would race for 17 straight laps side by side even through a pair of restarts. The lead duo never had more than a car length on one another for the first 17 laps, in what was a thrilling feature.

One mistake would cost Michelli the top spot though, as he jumped the turn one cushion, surrendering the lead to Trimble. He could never rebuild his momentum to catch back up the remaining three laps of the main, as Trimble took the checkered flag.

“That was the most fun I’ve ever had in a race car, to run 17 laps side by side and never touch is impressive,” Trimble said. “Matt is a great guy who will race you hard and clean.”

A total of 15 Pure Stocks came out on Saturday and saw Scott Grunert and Dan Jinkerson on the front row. Jinkerson jumped to the early lead but had Jason Palmer quickly on his heels. As the race went on Jinkerson developed a big lead over the rest of the field, but the race for second was the eye candy of the main. Oroville Owens, Jason Palmer, Nick Baldwin and Scott Grunert all traded spots for several laps, until a mid race restart saw Owens tag Palmers left rear wheel spinning Owens out as Palmer carried on.