Henry Captures First Sprint Car Win
Marysville, CA (July 2, 2016)…Elverta driver Justin Henry shocked the winged 360 sprint car community Saturday night at Marysville Raceway by winning the 25-lap main event. Henry, driving the DP Racing #24, beat 21 other drivers to get the popular win. The win marked the first of his career in the competitive winged 360 division. Henry should be viewed as a success story because he started in the winged economy class and has worked his way into the 360 division. On this night he held of veterans of the sport like Colby Wiesz, a three-time track champion who finished second, Justin Sanders, who won 11 races at Marysville last season, and championship point leaders Jeremy Burt and Cody Lamar. It was exciting to see the emotion and relief when Henry parked the car on the front stretch and climbed to the top of his wing to salute the crowd. Henry led 24 of the 25 laps. Heath Hall took the lead on lap seven for one circuit.
Jeremy Phillips drove a good race to finish third. Mark Tabor Jr. made a rare start and took advantage of a great fourth place finish. During the race, Tabor ran in the second spot and should be commended for his night of racing. Lamar turned the fastest lap of the night with an 11.993.
Promoter Dennis Gage brought in post-race fireworks to entice fans the chance to see a great show. His effort paid off as the grandstand was nearly full and the track hosted 61 drivers amongst the four divisions of racing.
Sometimes the division with the least can offer the most. Of the four divisions tonight, the super stocks only had nine cars. However, the finish was the best of the night. Phillip Shelby and James Castleberry thrilled the almost capacity crowd with side by side racing the final two laps. It was close, intense and fun to watch and featured some good old fashion ‘rubbing is racing’ motto. In the end Shelby was able to slide around Castleberry for the exciting win. Steve Hammett finished in the third spot. Mike Walko came home fourth and Rick Dozier was fifth.
Jerry Bartlett continues to be a dominant force in sport mods at Marysville and Chico. Tonight, Bartlett was the class of the field in route to leading all 20 laps for the win. Damian Merritt ran second for a majority of the race. On lap 10 Shane Devolder made an appearance near the top. Devolder started 11th and at the half way point was running in second. What a great drive it was. But that was as far as he could get. Bartlett won the race by 0.339 seconds. Brian Cooper came home in the third spot. Raymond Benkowski had a great night of racing and finished fourth. Garrett Hamilton rounded out the top five in finishing order.
Colton Slack drove the Ted Finkenbinder #3f to a dominant win during the 20-lap wingless feature. Slack bested Timmy Sherman Jr. by nearly a half-second. Slack is a solid driver that we hope to see more of. Point leader Josh Vieira had another solid night and finished third. Peter Paulson charged towards the front to finish fourth. Bret Youngman came home in the fifth spot. Terry Schank Jr. rebounded from an on track wreck to finish in the sixth spot.
Full results can be found at http://www.marysvilleraceway.com/
