Bobby Butler Earns First Career Win at Marysville
Marysville, CA (April 29, 2017) – Sacramento’s Bobby Butler accomplished something that he has been searching for since 2013, a winged 360 sprint car main event victory. After 25 laps this past Saturday night, Butler can now be called a main event winner. Butler led all 25-laps in earning is first career sprint car win. “It probably won’t set in until I get home but right now it just seems so unreal,” Butler said in a post-race interview.
Butler was only slowed down by a few cautions but to his credit, they never seemed to disrupt his rhythm and he cruised to the win. In fact, he held a 3.112 second advantage over Heath Hall at the finish line. Hall drove a good race to pass a few cars and get the second-place finish. Jeremy Hawes, still in search of his first career win, put together another strong night to finish in third. Tyler Seavey continues to gain valuable experience and gets closer towards the front. Tonight, he finished in the fourth spot. Fast time qualifier for the second week in a row was Woodland’s Peter Paulson. During qualifying he turned a 12.652. During the feature, he was very competitive and came home in the fifth spot.
One of the bright surprises this season has been Emily Williams. In only her third career winged 360 sprint car start, she led all eight laps to win the first heat race. Mike Monahan, last Saturday’s main event winner, crossed the finish line first to win heat two.
Defending track champion Brian Cooper returned to his home track and won the 20-lap Sport Modified feature. Cooper was back up front and looked comfortable in leading the field. It was a strange championship point night. Phillip Shelby had mechanical and tire issues in the main event and finished ninth. Howard Law was second in points and unable to attend. With those two struggling the door was left wide open for other drivers to try and capitalize. Mike Smith is right there in the battle and finished fifth tonight. Mike Merritt was over two seconds behind Cooper at the finish but comfortably ahead of third place finishing Willie Horn Jr. In fact, Horn led the early part of the race until Cooper made his presence known. Shelby and Horn each won their heat race.
Mike Walko led all 20 laps to capture the Super Stocks main event. He beat James Castleberry to the checkered flag by 2.244 seconds. Walko thanked his long-time wife for all her support while talking on the microphone in victory lane. Brad Magenheimer won the lone heat race.
As always, the Hobby Stock main event featured lots of close racing and entertaining action. In the end, it was Brad Magenheimer who ended up in victory lane. Mel Byers drove a great race and was close enough at the end to give Magenheimer a run for the win. Kyle Cheney led a bit of the race and ultimately finished third. Cy Cooper came home fourth. Magenheimer clean swept the night of racing by winning the only heat race of the evening.
Racing will return in two weeks at Marysville Raceway on May 13th point race #5.
Results can be found at www.marysvilleraceway.com
