PETALUMA, Calif. — The 12th annual Adobe Cup featured a little bit of everything on Saturday night and in the end, it was Colby Copeland standing in victory lane for the second straight SCCT event at Petaluma Speedway.
The $5,000 triumph marked Copeland’s third career Elk Grove Ford Sprint Car Challenge Tour presented by Abreu Vineyards victory and came aboard the familiar Van Lare Steering Repair/ Bianchi Farms No. 5v machine.
“It feels great to be up here in victory lane at Petaluma Speedway again with the Sprint Car Challenge Tour,” Copeland said on the front stretch. “Justyn Cox was up front and had the fastest car so that was a tough break to see him slow near the end. That’s how racing works at times though and I really have to thank Jim and Annette Van Lare along with this entire 5v team.”
Current SCCT point leader Justyn Cox jumped into the lead at the waving of the Scott Erwin green flag in the 35-lap Adobe Cup finale. The opening lap saw drama in the championship chase when Templeton’s Kaleb Montgomery got upside down. Montgomery had closed to within two-points of Cox for the top-spot going into the feature, but damage was too severe and forced him out of the race.
A lightning-fast surface kept competitors on their toes and created some hectic racing once lapped traffic came into play. Ryan Robinson was making his season debut and hounded the rear tail tank of Cox as they weaved through the slower cars. A caution on lap 15 set up a double file restart that saw Robinson blast into the lead, with Dylan Bloomfield following along for second.
Lap 21 saw another dramatic moment in the race occur when Robinson caught traffic at the wrong moment and was forced to take evasive action, shooting way up high in turn one. Bloomfield took advantage to scoop up the lead but would encounter issues in the next corner when he also caught traffic in turn three. Contact ensued and resulted in Bloomfield spinning to a stop in heartbreaking fashion.
At the same time Robinson had a tire going down and lost the lead on the restart, only to see the red flag wave for Chance Grasty, who got upside down in turn two. Robinson then headed for the work area, which gave Cox the top-spot once again. After going back green Cox rocketed out to a sizable lead and looked to be on way to victory until encountering fuel pick up issues with less than five laps remaining.
As Cox was losing power Copeland charged hard after him and the pair battled tooth and nail over a pair of laps. Copeland assumed the point on lap 32 and led the remainder for the $5,000 win. Andy Forsberg carved his way from 15th starting to make a thrilling final corner pass of Willie Croft to cross the stripe in second. Forsberg also earned the Pit Stop USA Hard Charger Award in the main event.
Croft, a rebounding Robinson and Sean Becker rounded out the top five.
Feature Finish (35 Laps)
1. 5V-Colby Copeland[1]; 2. 92-Andy Forsberg[15]; 3. 4SA-Willie Croft[5]; 4. 14W-Ryan Robinson[3]; 5. 7B-Sean Becker[8]; 6. 7H-Jake Haulot[9]; 7. 42X-Justyn Cox[2]; 8. 12J-John Clark[14]; 9. 38-Colby Johnson[18]; 10. 1F-DJ Freitas[12]; 11. 83V-Dylan Bloomfield[4]; 12. 10-Dominic Gorden[10]; 13. 9L-Luke Hayes[21]; 14. 61-Travis Labat[11]; 15. 57N-Cody Gray[20]; 16. 75-Dalton Smith[22]; 17. 222-Wyatt VanLare[16]; 18. 1-Chance Grasty[7]; 19. 8-William Fielding[13]; 20. 12R-Mitchell Faccinto[19]; 21. 43-Bradley Terrell[17]; 22. 3-Kaleb Montgomery[6]; 23. 25S-Seth Standley[23]; 24. 7DJ-Dryver Dothage[24]