Sanders Repeats Again at Marysville
Marysville, CA (July 25, 2015) – Watsonville’s Justin Sanders picked up his sixth sprint car win of the season on Saturday night at Marysville Raceway. With tonight’s win, Sanders now has 12 overall wins 2015. “It’s been an amazing year,” said Sanders. “I have great teams that support me and this year things have just really clicked.”
A stout field of 20 winged 360 sprint cars entered point race #11. The night started off with Rio Linda’s Cody Lamar capturing his fifth fast time of the season. Lamar turned a blistering 12.338 around the quarter mile dirt oval. Colfax’s Colby Wiesz secured the win in heat race one. Chico’s Brad Bumgarner led all eight laps to win the second heat race. Yuba City’s Korey Lovell won a spirited heat race three.
Bumgarner grabbed the top spot and led the first of 25 laps during the sprint car feature event. However, just two laps later, Sanders passed Bumgarner for the lead. Even though Sanders would go on to lead the next 23 laps and secure the win, the battle behind him for second was ferocious. Bumgarner held the second spot for most of the event. The biggest accident during the race took place on lap 13 when Bumgarner was trying to pass Dyllan Ogden in turn three. Ogden had just gone down one lap to race leader Sanders. Bumgarner dove to the inside of Ogden and the two made contact sending Ogden into the turn four wall. Ogden went upside down and for a brief moment a fire erupted in the engine compartment. Ogden climbed out of the car and was uninjured. Yet, during the altercation, Bumgarner broke the support braces that hold up the front nose win. When the race restarted, Bumgarner’s nose wing sheared off and the car began to mishandle. This allowed drivers behind Bumgarner to make their move.
The first driver to take advantage was seventh place starting Kenny Allen. The Chico driver was spectacular tonight and should be proud of his strong second place finish. Grass Valley’s Jeremy Burt showed why he is always a threat to win by first passing Wiesz on lap 15 then Bumgarner on lap 22. Burt finished third. On the final lap, Wiesz passed Bumgarner for the fourth spot. The hard charger of the night was Brandon Dozier. The local favorite started 17th and finished sixth.
Courtney Dozier dominated the 20 lap super stock main event tonight. During the race, Dozier extended his lead to over a half lap at the checkered flag. Mike Walko enjoyed his best finish of the season by securing the second spot. Steve Hammett, who won the eight lap heat race earlier in the night, brought his car home in the third spot. James Castleberry finished fourth. Phillip Shelby came home fifth.
Not sure if people realize this, but Misty Castleberry is good. She swept the economy sprint division tonight. Castleberry won the eight lap heat race and then went on to win the 20 lap main event. She had a good battle with Jason Holt but in the end, Castleberry was able to get the job done. Holt finished second. Cameron Haney, who led the first nine laps, drifted back to a third place finish. Kevin Dozier came home with a fourth place finish. Adam Ermolenko finished fifth.
The mini stocks provided the on track fireworks tonight. Only five cars started the 20 lap main event but in the end only one car remained. Shaun Merritt survived the wrecks, debris and finger pointing to win the main event. James Foster spun out early in the race and then came back to lead the race only to stop on the final lap and couldn’t cross the finish line. Damian Merritt finished third while Kyle Davey finished fourth. Davey had some issues with Damian as the two made heavy contact on the front straight while battling for the lead at the half way point. Jimmy Ford was credited with the fifth place finish. Davey was victorious during the eight lap heat race.
Results can be found at www.marysvilleraceway.com
