PLACERVILLE, Calif. — Tony Gomes utilized a perfect restart on lap nine to grab the lead and never look back on way to his second Placerville Speedway triumph of the season on Kings Meats Burger Night Saturday.
It marked the second consecutive season that Gomes and C&M Motorsports snagged a win with the Thompson’s Winged Sprint Cars during Kings Meats Night.
It was the eighth career Placerville Speedway Winged 360 score for the Modesto driver, matching him with Tanner Carrick, Kalib Henry and Glen Boune for 21st all-time.
Sharing victory lane on Saturday were Kevin Jinkerson with both the Red Hawk Casino Pure Stocks and Mountain Democrat Mini Trucks, along with Jake Morgan with the Hunt Magnetos Wingless Tour.
At the waving of the green flag in the 25-lap Thompson’s Winged Sprint Car finale it was Aromas’ Justin Sanders who jumped out front. Auburn’s Andy Forsberg quickly moved to second and stayed within striking distance as lapped traffic came into play.
With the intensity picking up Forsberg looked to capitalize a couple of times until a wild moment occurred on lap nine. Racing in traffic Sanders and a lapped car made the slightest contact, which sent both around. Sanders was remarkably able to keep going but the yellow waved as the lapped car stalled.
Running third at the time, Tanner Carrick had nowhere to go and contacted the car, resulting in too much damage to continue. On the double file restart Tony Gomes got a great launch from the inside of row two, shooting by Forsberg and then making a bold move to drive under Sanders for the lead.
After that Gomes had his way with things up front, as timely yellows kept leaders out of traffic. He marched away to accept the Darin Stahl checkered flag over Sanders, Sacramento’s Austin Wood, Forsberg and Bozeman, Montana’s Cole Schroeder who claimed his first Placerville top five result.
