Michael Faccinto dominates for first career Winged Sprint Car win on Saturday at Placerville By Gary Thomas
Image courtesy of Chris Silva
Placerville, CA…Michael Faccinto has proven to be one of the more versatile drivers in the Golden State and on Saturday night he checked another box off his resume, by putting together a dominating run for his initial Winged Sprint Car victory.
Fellow winners on Red Hawk Casino Night at Placerville Speedway were Nick Baldwin with the Red Hawk Pure Stocks, Thomas Jensen with the Mountain Democrat Mini Trucks and Josef Ferolito with the BCRA Lightning Sprints.
Faccinto had captured a USAC Western States Midget triumph on the red clay in early May, prior to jumping aboard the Friends & Family Racing X1 Sprint Car later that month. The 25-lap Thompson’s Family of Dealerships Winged Sprint Car feature had a particularly tough time getting underway, taking four attempts to get one lap scored. Once that happened however, things went green to checkered in no time.
Once out front Faccinto easily pulled away from the rest of the pack and worked traffic to perfection. The 32-year-old was never seriously threatened and controlled the main event with ease on way to his first career Winged Sprint Car victory. It was a terrific rebound for Faccinto and the Bushey Financial/ Geico sponsored X1 team, who failed to qualify for the feature just two races back.
The final laps saw an excellent race between Michael Pombo, Andy Forsberg and Willie Croft. The trio fought it out tooth and nail, with Pombo claiming the runner up spot, which marked a best ever Placerville result for the Easton driver. Pombo has been impressive in limited starts at the track, also earning a podium this past Monday.
Forsberg, Croft and Landon Brooks completed the top-five. The remainder of the top-10 was filled out by Colby Johnson, Chase Johnson, Jodie Robinson, 17th starter Kalib Henry and Justin Henry. Faccinto also began the evening by bringing home the ADCO Driveline and Custom Exhaust Fast Time Award, touring the quarter-mile in 10.909 seconds. A total of 34 Thompson’s Winged Sprint Cars competed on Saturday.
Winged Sprint Car finish: 1. X1-Michael Faccinto[1]; 2. 98M-Michael Pombo[3]; 3. 92-Andy Forsberg[4]; 4. 5H-Willie Croft[2]; 5. 5V-Landon Brooks[8]; 6. 38-Colby Johnson[6]; 7. 28-Chase Johnson[12]; 8. 4-Jodie Robinson[7]; 9. 17-Kalib Henry[17]; 10. 24-Justin Henry[14]; 11. 21-Shane Hopkins[15]; 12. 94-Greg Decaires V[18]; 13. 21M-Michael Ing[19]; 14. 25-Justin Johnson[16]; 15. 87-Ashlyn Rodriguez[13]; 16. 12J-John Clark[9]; 17. 3-Kaleb Montgomery[5]; 18. 21X-Gauge Garcia[10]; 19. 18P-Jack Phillips[20]; 20. 7C-Tony Gomes[11]
The Red Hawk Casino Pure Stocks once again provided an entertaining 20-lap main event. Oakley’s Nick Baldwin was involved in a collision at Placerville Speedway on Monday and suffered a torn-up race car, but he found redemption on Saturday. The defending track champion and current point leader set the pace up front, but it never came easy over the course on the contest.
Diamond Springs’ Kevin Jinkerson sat on the rear bumper of the No. 17 machine for much of the main event and kept Baldwin honest up front. The top-two finishers in the Pure Stock standings last season were glued together, but at the Darin Stahl checkered flag it was Baldwin coming out on top over Jinkerson, Ryan Peter, Russ Murphy and Jason Poppert. Rounding out the top-10 were Mike Lightfoot, Jason Armstrong, Jonny Walsh, Michael Murphy and Ryan Murphy.
The triumph marked Baldwin’s 17th career Placerville Speedway victory.
Pure Stock finish: 1. 17-Nick Baldwin[2]; 2. 30-Kevin Jinkerson[4]; 3. 83-Ryan Peter[5]; 4. 74-Russell Murphy[3]; 5. 87-Jason Poppert[1]; 6. 23-Mike Lightfoot[12]; 7. 77T-Jason Armstrong[8]; 8. 4-Jonny Walsh[7]; 9. 47-Michael Murphy[9]; 10. 316-Ryan Murphy[13]; 11. 1-Chris D'angelo[15]; 12. 62B-Beau Chandler[14]; 13. 93-Mel Byers[11]; 14. 08-Oroville Owens[6]; 15. 64-Thomas Jensen[10]
The 20-lap Mountain Democrat Mini Truck finale started out with rookie driver Brycen Bragg and Paizlee Miller racing up front. Part time security guard Thomas Jensen would soon find himself out front however, after Austin Struthers found issues, as the feature was back and forth with several movers and shakers.
Miller did not make things easy on Jensen though, as the pair stayed locked onto each other right down to the finish. Jensen ended up claiming the checkered flag for his third career Mini Truck victory in Old Hangtown. Paizlee Miller, Bragg, Page Miller and Wyatt Lakin rounded out the top-five.
Mini Truck finish: 1. 08JR-Thomas Jensen[7]; 2. 61-Paizlee Miller[2]; 3. 75-Brycen Bragg[1]; 4. 07-Page Miller[9]; 5. 04-Wyatt Lakin[5]; 6. 28-Howard Miller[6]; 7. 65X-Brian Tremblay[10]; 8. 70-Austin Struthers[4]; 9. 12-Kaele Ahart[11]; 10. 4-Ray Bunn[3]; 11. 16-Mike Miller[8]
Modesto’s Josef Ferolito earned his first Placerville Speedway BCRA Lightning Sprint main event victory one year ago. That came without the wing, however. This time around Ferolito added a triumph with the wing atop the car by capturing the 20-lap feature on Saturday. Reigning series champ Dakota Albright came home in second, with Brandon Leedy, Greg Denett and Matt Land completing the top-five.
BCRA Lightning Sprint finish: 1. 18-Josef Ferolito[2]; 2. 35JR-Dakota Albright[5]; 3. 3F-Brandon Leedy[4]; 4. 47-Greg Dennett[6]; 5. 91-Matt Land[3]; 6. 17F-Harlee Aguilera[8]; 7. 21C-Cody Meyer[7]; 8. 21J-Jayden Meyer[1]; 9. 11S-Danielle Clauson Sevo[9]; 10. 28K-Kaden Ramos[10]
Full results from Red Hawk Casino Night can be found at https://speedhive.mylaps.com/Events/2012409?fbclid=IwAR3x5PUerYpY1Q2J1gjTKbp4EnnHxsO6eAEegsbrWrZ4zMsn_IC3u15qaOc
The Placerville Speedway returns to action this coming Saturday July 16th with the Thompson’s Winged 360 Sprint Cars, Red Hawk Casino Pure Stocks, Mtn. Democrat Mini Trucks and the Joe Hunt Magnetos Wingless Sprints.