Carrick Wins; Van Roekel Hobby Stock Champ

Carrick Rules Marysville

(Marysville, CA 8/12/20)…Blake Carrick earned a hard fought win Wednesday night at the Marysville Raceway.  Carrick won his first winged 360 sprint car race of the season at Marysville.  For most of the race he held off his older brother Tanner Carrick.  Andy Forsberg was also in the mix until a flat tire sidelined his charge.  Sean Becker brought out a late yellow when is No. 35 machine bicycled in turn three and came to a stop in turn four.  This allowed a hard charging Colby Wiesz to move from fourth into second on the final two laps.  Tanner lined up behind his brother on the restart, but Blake had a great restart and was able to hold off all comers.  Michael Ing drove another solid race to finish fourth.  Brad Bumgarner earned another hard fought fifth place finish.  Nick Larson finished sixth and earned an extra $100 from Paul Olmsted Plastering.   Forsberg tuned the fastest lap in qualifying at a 13.106.  A nice total of 25 cars showed up for the Wednesday night show.

Jacob Johnson was spectacular in winning the 20-lap Hobby Stock feature.  Johnson redeemed himself from an incident a few weeks back to solidify himself as one of the top drivers in the division.  While Johnson was the nights winner, Jesse Van Roekel won his second consecutive track title!  What a two-year run it has been for Van Roekel.  He should be given all the credit in the world.  The Hobby Stock division boast the most cars on a nightly basis and to be that consistent and fast over the past two year is impressive.  As always, Kyle Cheney and Zach Lindgren were near the top.  They finished second and third.  Jim Brookshire finished fourth tonight.  It was a great season for Jim.  He picked up a main event win and finished second in the points to Van Roekel by just two-points.  Maurice Merrill rounded out the top five.  Van Roekel finished sixth but it was good enough to win the Championship.

Late race contact changed the outcome of the IMCA Sport Mods main event.  Mike Merritt held the lead late in the race.  Slight contact from second place Justin Funkhouser spun Merritt.  The yellow was needed.  Under the caution officials ruled Funkhouser to be a little aggressive and sent him back to third on the restart.  Merritt could go back as the leader.  Yet, Timothy Allerdings was in second and ready to pounce.  Allerdings passed Merritt and went on to win the race.  Merritt was second.  Funkhouser was third.  Scott Savell ran fourth.  Fifth went to Shaun Merritt.

Drake Standley was impressive tonight.  The youngster took his first career win in the Crate Sprints tonight.  He passed cars like a veteran and earned a hard-fought win over Brett Youngman.  David Sims ran third.  Dusty Barton came home in fourth.  Cameron Haney Jr. rounded out the top five.  Mike Ballentine did a good job as the early race leader but ultimately finished seventh.

Full results https://speedhive.mylaps.com/Events/1792095

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