Motorsports News by David Vodden
The best race event I saw last weekend took place at nearby Silver Dollar Speedway. The event honored driver David Tarter who was killed in a pit accident. The main event for winged sprint cars had everything. Top area driver Justin Sanders had to work his way around Chance Grasty to take the lead which he held until the last lap when a car spun in front of him that he could not avoid hitting. With only two laps remaining and Sanders out, Grasty zoomed to his first career win in the high-speed, dangerous form of auto racing. Track co-promoter Colby Copeland drove wildly to take second ahead of Tim Kaeding, Landon Brooks, and D. J. Netto. There was a great crowd on hand, the preliminary races were good and even the dwarf cars put on an entertaining show. Dalas Gunderson was there! The next opportunity to see a sprint car race at Silver Dollar Speedway is Wednesday July 1st. That program will include a huge fireworks show and can be seen for a special $2.50 admission price. Wow! Call the track to confirm details and come early. The fireworks show fills the fairgrounds grandstands to capacity.
The Formula One racers spent a luxurious race weekend in Monaco. Kimi Antonelli won for the fifth time in a row keeping all six F-1 races run thus far in the Mercedes camp. His closest rival and teammate, George Russell finished twelfth after two pit stop penalties. Mercedes screwed up. Lewis Hamilton took Ferrari to second place followed by Isack Hadjar – Red Bull, Oscar Piastri – Mclaren, and Liam Lawson – Racing Bulls. Notable events included pole starter Max Verstapen failing to start at the drop of the start lights. Charles Leclerc lost traction on broken asphalt and punched the tire wall, knocking him out. Reigning champion Lando Norris had a mechanical DNF for the second race in a row. More than usual, the narrowness of the streets of Monaco were cited as making passing on the track impossible. The chunking asphalt was new, at least to me. Formula One goes to Spain next weekend and stays in Europe until September.
The Indy car race in Illinois saw Josef Newgarden win for the Captain, Roger Penske, in a race that had more than one rain-delay, one big crash and saw perennial winner Alex Palou run out of gas while leading with fifty-seven laps to go. Palou ended up seventeenth. Weird! Marcus Erickson finished second, Christiam Rasmussen third, Rinus VeeKay fourth and Scott McLaughlin was fifth. For the record that is USA, Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands, and New Zealand in terms of driver country of origin. Newgarden tied Al Unser Jr for ninth place on the all-time Indy car win list with thirty-four first place finishes. Indy car racing goes to Road America on June 21st.
The National Hot Rod Association [NHRA] saw action in New Hampshire where the top fuel dragster and funny car final was rescheduled to this weekend in Bristol due to rain. Dallas Glenn took the Wally in Pro Stock over Matt Hartford before the rain came. Last weeks delayed finals between Leah Pruett and Shawn Langdon -dragsters, and Jack Beckman and Jordan Vandergriff – funny cars, will go on Friday night at Bristol.
NASCAR was in Michigan last weekend where Denny Hamlin once again qualified for the front row for the CUP race, was put to the back at the start and then drove to the win in the closing laps. You will recall that Hamlin did the same thing the weekend before and is now fifty-nine points behind leader Tyler Reddick. Reddick has been all but impossible to catch for the regular season point championship until Michigan. Reddick was involved in a major crash on lap 107 and finished thirty-fifth. It was the first DNF for the Michael Jordan owned Toyota number forty-five. Erik Jones got his best finish of the year with second. Bubba Wallace was third with Kyle Larson and exciting Carson Hocevar completing the top five. It is worth noting that catching Reddick in the CUP regular season points is more about Hamlin’s results than Reddicks. Reddick has 669 points after Michigan. Hamlin is now fifty-one behind at 618. It drops 106 points to third place Ryan Blaney who has 512 tallies. From fourth place Chase Elliott who has 482 points to tenth place Chris Bell, who has 410 the spread is a mere seventy-two points. There is clearly room for changes to take place in the final sixteen contenders with eleven-point races remaining before the playoffs begin September 6th at Darlington Raceway. At Michigan C. Bell was hit by Chase Elliott, resulting in severe wall impacts for both drivers. Elliott seemed OK after extricating himself from his Hendrick Chevy but not so Bell who is reported to be suffering post-crash injuries. Corey Heim, who was announced as the new full-time driver in the 23/11 number 35 car next year, won the Craftsman truck race by a mere .065 second over jealous teammate Kaden Honeycutt. Hocevar led the most laps but faded to third with heating problems. Layne Riggs and Chandler Smith followed. It was Heim’s third win in the class despite only being part time. The NASCAR trucks have six regular season point races left before ten drivers compete in ten races where the highest point driver will be the 2026 truck series champion.
The American Federation of Motorcycles [AFM] is on track at Thunderhill Saturday and Sunday. This is one of the best spectator-shows at the track each year as wild and crazy riders risk it all to win on the three-mile, fifteen-turn course. The two-mile track will have the Reno Region SCCA open track for street cars that you can show up and enter. There will be other activities on site at 5250 Hwy 162 just west of Wal Mart.
Willows Vice Mayor and current Rotary Club president, Rick Thomas will be feted at a dinner Thursday, June 25th at the Elk Creek Lodge. If you are a friend of Rick’s or have benefited from his years of community service, you are welcome to join the dinner group. Call David Vodden on 530-330-2186 to reserve a spot.
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