Jodie Robinson is a Placerville Speedway winner at last By Gary Thomas Images courtesy of Chris Silva and Pat Brandon
Placerville, CA…After being within reach several times before Roseville’s Jodie Robinson finally had it all come together on Saturday to record her first career Placerville Speedway Winged Sprint Car victory. By way of her triumph the 19-year-old reigning Knoxville Nationals Queen joins her father David and brother Ryan on the all-time Placerville Speedway Winged 360 Sprint Car win list. David, a three-time track champion on the red clay, earned 23 career wins at the track, while Ryan claimed his initial victory last season.
Sharing victory lane with Robinson on Saturday were Fair Oaks’ Jake Morgan with the Joe Hunt Magnetos Wingless Tour, Diamond Springs’ Kevin Jinkerson with the Red Hawk Casino Pure Stocks and Mike Miller with the Mountain Democrat Mini Trucks.
The 25-lap Thompson’s Family of Dealerships Winged Sprint Car feature began with eight-time track champ Andy Forsberg charging into the lead ahead of Dylan Bloomfield and Robinson. Jodie immediately found the high side to her liking and would move past both Bloomfield and Forsberg to snatch the lead on lap three.
Once traffic came into play Forsberg closed to her rear tail tank but banged the cushion extremely hard at one point, allowing Bloomfield the chance to sneak by. With heavy duty lapped traffic it kept things entertaining as Robinson had to pick her spots wisely to fend off the 16-year-old racer from Oakley. Bloomfield was all over her during the waning laps, but Robinson hung tough and crossed the Darin Stahl checkered flag for the big win.
After recording a runner up finish with the USAC Western States Midgets in May Bloomfield came back Saturday to pick up a career best Placerville Winged Sprint Car result of second. The youngster was impressive all night and came close to victory at the end. Hanford’s Michael Faccinto was also strong for the second straight week, earning the ADCO Driveline Fast Time Award, followed by a third-place effort in the feature. Forsberg and 2017 track titlist Steven Tiner completed the top-five.
Rounding out the top-10 in the main event were Justyn Cox, Shane Hopkins, Gauge Garcia, Andy Gregg and Justin Bradway.
Winged Sprint Car finish: 1. 4-Jodie Robinson[3]; 2. 33-Dylan Bloomfield[1]; 3. X1-Michael Faccinto[4]; 4. 92-Andy Forsberg[2]; 5. 7C-Steven Tiner[7]; 6. 31C-Justyn Cox[8]; 7. 21-Shane Hopkins[11]; 8. 21X-Gauge Garcia[5]; 9. 34-Andy Gregg[6]; 10. 20-Justin Bradway[14]; 11. 94-Greg Decaires V[9]; 12. 93-Stephen Ingraham[17]; 13. 33T-Jimmy Trulli[13]; 14. 9L-Luke Hayes[15]; 15. 2-Cody Spencer[18]; 16. 85-CJ Humphreys[16]; 17. 98-Chris Masters[19]; 18. 12J-John Clark[10]; 19. 2S-Jayce Steinberg[20]; 20. 21M-Michael Ing[12]
The Joe Hunt Magnetos Wingless Tour also brought the action to Placerville Speedway on Saturday. Early on a torrid battle up front was seen between Placerville’s Shane Hopkins, Jake Morgan and San Jose throttle-masher Shawn Jones. The wingless warriors attacked the cushion with reckless abandon, especially in turn one where it became very technical. At one point Jones looked like he would be the man to beat, until showing Morgan the high-side of the speedway.
Once Morgan went upstairs that was all she wrote for the rest of the field. He charged around both Jones and Hopkins to scoop up the lead, before carving his way through traffic like a hot knife through butter. Morgan went to on claim his ninth career Wingless Sprint Car victory at the El Dorado County Fairgrounds venue. Hopkins, Jones, point leader Josh Young and Shawn Arriaga rounded out the top-five.
The remainder of the top-10 in the 25-lap contest was filled out by Jarrett Soares, Daniel Whitley, Nick Robfogel, Grasen Ternora and Nick Larson. Another stout field of 30 Hunt Magnetos Wingless Tour competitors were on hand at the event.
Hunt Magnetos Wingless Tour finish: 1. 7M-Jake Morgan[3]; 2. 51-Shane Hopkins[1]; 3. 14-Shawn Jones[4]; 4. 7EJ-Josh Young[2]; 5. 32-Shawn Arriaga[10]; 6. 12-Jarrett Soares[5]; 7. 3T-Daniel Whitley[17]; 8. 3-Nick Robfogel[6]; 9. 17T-Grasen Ternora[7]; 10. 24N-Nick Larson[11]; 11. 63-Dylan Newberry[8]; 12. 2STX-Brent Steck[14]; 13. 33-Heath Holdsclaw[19]; 14. 79-Mark Hanson[18]; 15. 7-Trey Walters[15]; 16. 16-Nathan Johnson[12]; 17. X-Jerry Kobza[13]; 18. 23-George Nielson[20]; 19. 60-Scott Clough[16]; 20. 17-Anthony Snow[9]
The Red Hawk Casino Pure Stock feature was an exciting race up front for the second consecutive week. The previous event saw Kevin Jinkerson being the chaser but this time around he found himself up front. Sacramento’s Jason Poppert, a winner in May, hounded the rear bumper of Jinkerson for virtually the entire main event. He was able to get alongside at one point, but Jinkerson fended off every attempt to earn his first victory of the season.
It marked Jinkerson’s sixth career Red Hawk Casino Pure Stock victory at the track. Poppert, Michael Murphy, Russell Murphy and Nick Baldwin rounded out the top-five.
Pure Stock finish: 1. 30-Kevin Jinkerson[3]; 2. 87-Jason Poppert[4]; 3. 47-Michael Murphy[2]; 4. 74-Russell Murphy[6]; 5. 17-Nick Baldwin[5]; 6. 4-Jonny Walsh[1]; 7. 316-Ryan Murphy[7]; 8. 23-Tom Tilford[8]; 9. 93-Mel Byers[9]; 10. 83-Ryan Peter[10]
The 20-lap Mountain Democrat Mini Truck main event was all about Mike Miller, who dominated the contest for his second victory of the season. Point leader Thomas Jensen came home in second, followed by Paizlee Miller, Ted Ahart and Howard Miller.
Mini Truck finish: 1. 16-Mike Miller[1]; 2. 08JR-Thomas Jensen[5]; 3. 61-Paizlee Miller[7]; 4. 12-Ted Ahart[2]; 5. 28-Howard Miller[4]; 6. 04-Wyatt Lakin[8]; 7. 75-Brycen Bragg[6]; 8. 07-Page Miller[9]; 9. 70-Austin Struthers[3]
Full results from the night can be seen at https://speedhive.mylaps.com/Events/2017940?fbclid=IwAR2vkWXMuzr44qfdC7YTzIw-wk4IKOZ4gU_A_9jwBXTKV0170ZC5Xxo-S7A
The Placerville Speedway now gets set to host the 17th annual Mark Forni Classic this coming Saturday July 23rd. Divisions in action will include the Thompson’s Winged 360 Sprint Cars, Mtn. Democrat Ltd. Late Models, Red Hawk Casino Pure Stocks and Dwarf Cars.