DIXON, Calif. — Michael Faccinto and Jake Hagopian picked up where they left off in 2018, dueling tooth and nail to the checkered flag in Tuesday’s Hoosier Tire California Speedweek opener at Dixon Speedway.
Faccinto topped Hagopian in a thrilling drag race to the finish in the 30-lap, $1,000-to-win Super 600 feature to start the four races in five days jaunt.
Hagopian topped Faccinto at Dixon in 2018 en route to the 2019 championship. Faccinto is the 2015 champion of the series and Tuesday’s victory was his third career win.
Multi-time King of California Jake Andreotti led from the pole position after persevering over a three-wide challenge. Ben Worth emerged in second while outside polesitter Brad Hannum stopped in turn one to draw a caution on lap two.
Faccinto worked inside Worth on the restart for second while Cody Christensen and Australian Liam Williams fought for fourth as well. Mitchel Moles used an impressive maneuver to pass both Christensen and Williams on lap five.
Texan Chase Randall spun in turn three for a lap six caution. Faccinto slid past Worth on the restart to advance into the second position. On lap eight, Andreotti banged the turn one cushion which placed Faccinto into the lead with Andreotti facing off with both Worth and Moles. Faccinto took advantage of the situation to throttle out for a commanding lead just before halfway.
Andreotti eventually pulled away from the pair of Ten-J chassis and tried to close on Faccinto. Andreotti ended up engaging in a back and forth duel while trying to lap Noah Key. The battle went on for several laps before Key spun out in turn two on lap 17. Hagopian raced side-by-side with Moles for fourth on the restart and cleared him exiting turn two on lap 19. He looked poised to attack the leaders before a caution for Christensen spinning in turn one. Hagopian continued his opportune moves to take third from Worth and Moles nabbed fourth in the process.
Williams spun from seventh position to set up a thrilling finish between Faccinto, Andreotti, and Hagopian. Hagopian set up Andreotti and took over second while Faccinto built a five-car-length advantage. Moles took third from Andreotti a few laps later.
With three laps to go, Hagopian had cut the lead down to just a few feet They raced tooth and nail to the finish with Hagopian going over the cushion coming to the finish line and Faccinto narrowly edging him from the inside. Andreotti fell back to sixth behind Moles, Worth and Caden Sarale who started 19th.
The Non Wing activities were no less exciting with Sarale managing to pull ahead of 2018 champion T.J. Smith on the way to his fourth career Speedweek bear.
The field fanned out three- and four-wide at the start of the feature before Ben Worth of Coalinga spun in turn three and collected Brody Fuson. Under caution, James Ringo slowed and pulled into the pits. He joined fellow former Speedweek race winner Austin Stone who broke during the pace laps.
Troy Morris III dove into turn one right alongside Sarale and moved past him down the backstretch. Coming to complete lap one, Jimmy Leal spun from tenth position and collected Nick Robfogel. Morris was credited with the lap one lead with the race restarting with 29 to go.
Sarale tried to slide Morris on the restart and surrendered second to Smith as a result. Sarale then passed him Smith one lap later. Sarale challenged Morris and they nearly ran up into the wall in turn two, giving Sarale the lead on lap six and dropping Morris to third.
Morris then jumped the cushion again the next lap to lose another position to fast-timer Tristan Guardino. Johnathon Henry came to a stop in turn four for a caution on lap eight. Mitchel Moles had advanced from 18th to eighth by that point while Danny Carroll had driven from 19th to 11th.
Guardino slid Smith on the restart for second, bringing Smith to a near stop in turn two. Morris nearly stopped as well, which briefly bottled up the back half of the field. The race stayed green with Sarale leading Guardino, Carey, Smith, and Morris.
Sarale encountered lapped traffic with Guardino all over the back of him at the halfway point.
Carey bobbled on the restart, entering into a strong battle with Smith for third. Mognaga challenged Moles for fifth before a yellow with four laps to go for Kelvin Lewis stopped in turn two. A wild skirmish developed on the restart when Smith dove underneath Guardino in turn three, with Mognaga slamming into Guardino and then tipping over on the frontstretch wall.
The restart went perfectly for Sarale as he pulled away from Smith but an incident involving Christian Hickman and Brody Fuson brought out the caution with two to go. Sarale duplicated the successful restart and dashed to the $1,000 victory over Smith, Guardino, Carey and Morris.
James Andrichuk led the opening lap of Restricted competition with the field running closely behind him. Dawson Faria made a Hollywood Danny Faria-style move to use the outside to lead lap three, bringing Logan Trevino and Oklahoma’s Ryan Timms with him. Jade Avedisian anchored fifth with close quarters racing behind her as well.
The leaders nearly went three-wide as they completed lap eight with Timms jockeying high and low to try to overhaul Trevino for second. The battling allowed Faria to build a slight cushion with Timms going around the outside to grab second on lap 10. Timms clawed toward Faria with lapped traffic in their midst just past halfway.
Faria opened up the bottom in turn two on lap 16 and Timms led lap 17 before Faria took it back on lap 18. Timms then led lap 19. Faria went upstairs and got up alongside Timms the next go around but couldn’t complete a pass.
Ryan Timms drove to his first career Speedweek victory followed by Faria, Trevino, Lane Taylor and Andrichuk.