Eight is Not Enough for Sanders
(Marysville, CA 8-15-15)…Watsonville’s Justin Sanders led all 25 laps of the winged 360 sprint car main event Saturday night at Marysville Raceway. It was his eighth win of the season at his home away from home. Sanders, now has 15 total main event wins in 2015. Yet, during his post-race interview he has set a new goal for himself. “At the beginning of the year if someone told me I would get 15 wins in one season I would have been ecstatic,” said Sanders. “Don’t get me wrong, this is a dream season but I think we still have many more wins left in us and my goal would be to reach 20 victories.” He added, “I can’t thank everyone enough associated with this team. Sprint car racing is expensive and couldn’t do it without this #18 team.”
Grass Valley’s Jeremy Burt should be commended for not allowing Sanders to break away for an easy win. For the entire 25 laps, Burt shadowed Sanders but was never able to get close enough to attempt a pass. Behind the top two it was a show between Chico’s Brad Bumgarner, Marysville’s Jeremy Hawes and Chico’s Kenny Allen. All three battled the entire distance and finished third, fourth and fifth. However, after the checkered flag a mechanical issue on his car caused Hawes to slam into the turn one wall and flip violently. The car was beat up but the good thing was seeing Hawes emerge from the wreck and walk away.
Rio Linda’s Cody Lamar is a qualifying machine. Tonight, he picked up his sixth fast time award of the season and in doing so, he broke the existing track record. Lamar’s fast lap registered at a 12.189. The old track record was held by Grass Valley’s Billy Wallace at a 12.319. The eight lap heat races were won by Kevin Lovell and Burt.
The wingless sprint car main event featured 13 drivers going 20 laps. Defending track champion Tim Sherman Jr. led the majority of the race and looked like it was going to be his night. Up till a late race restart, Sherman was able to hold off San Jose driver Shawn Jones. During that restart, Sherman slipped up the track and Jones was able to driver under him and takes the lead. Once in front, Jones was a rocket ship and took off. Marysville’s Josh Vieira was also able to get around Sherman late in the race. Browns Valley driver Misty Castleberry drove a solid race and finished fourth. Grass Valley’s Brett Youngman came home in the fifth spot. Each Castleberry and Vieira won the eight lap heat races.
Bryan Bender led the first few laps of the Dwarf Car main event. Third place starting Scott Dahlgren soon moved into the lead. Unfortunately for Dahlgren his car came to stop and a mechanical issue sidelined him the rest of the night. Ryan Winter assumed the lead and went on to get the win. Winter is one of the best drivers with the Dwarf Cars and ended up back in victory lane with his brother in law Shawn Jones. Danny Wagner has been impressive at Marysville. He was fast all night and finished second. Tom Brown had a strong run all night and finished third. Bender fell back to a fourth place finish. Jeff Fitch rounded out the top five. Both Winter and Brown each won their respective heat race.
Marysville’s Courtney Dozier won his third main event of the season in the super stock division. With the win, he is now only three points behind James Castleberry. It was a strange race as both Jerry Bartlett and Castleberry had mechanical woes. First it was Castleberry who pulled to the infield. Then Bartlett came to a stop in turn two. Once Bartlett was out of the event, Castleberry came back on the track and limped around to finish ahead of Bartlett. Castleberry now holds a one-point edge over Bartlett. This now sets up a three car battle with one championship night remaining for this division on September 26th.
Results can be found at www.marysvilleraceway.com
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