PETALUMA, Calif. — Chance Grasty took advantage of lapped traffic late in the going to slip past Andy Forsberg and record his initial victory with the Elk Grove Ford Sprint Car Challenge Tour on Saturday.
His triumph at Petaluma Speedway came aboard the familiar Friends & Family Racing/ Bushey Financial Services X1 mount. It marked Grasty’s second career sprint car win, after claiming victory in Stockton earlier this season and allowed him to take over the SCCT point lead.
“That one got pretty exciting once we could get some green flag laps put together,” commented the 17-year-old. “I was fortunately able to get by Andy Forsberg and the lapped car with about five laps to go and just focused on hitting my marks after that. I want to thank everyone with the F&F X1 team for their support and all you fans for filling this place tonight.”
Reigning Elk Grove Ford SCCT champion Andy Forsberg claimed the High Sierra Industries Dash to earn the pole for the 35-lap feature. The Auburn veteran climbed out front at the waving of the green flag and held command for much of the race.
Numerous cautions and slowdowns were seen throughout the first part, which created a fuel stop on lap 18 and kept racers out of lapped traffic for much of it. The final half of the race then clicked off problem free though and allowed the leaders to bunch up.
Forsberg began to feel pressure from Grasty, along with Sacramento’s Austin Wood who closed in on the top two late in the going. Racing through turns one and two on lap 29, Forsberg caught a lapped car at just the wrong moment, while Grasty made a beautiful move down low to get by for the top spot.
As the white flag waved Forsberg closed back in, but Grasty hung strong and crossed under the checkered for his first Elk Grove Ford Sprint Car Challenge Tour win.
Forsberg’s strong run netted him a runner up finish, marking his third result of second or better in SCCT action.
Wood rounded out the podium to record yet another consistent finish this season and by doing so, moved to second in the series standings.
Jake Haulot Cole Schroeder both put together solid outings to finish fourth and fifth, respectively.
The finish:
Feature (35 laps): 1. X1-Chance Grasty[2]; 2. 92-Andy Forsberg[1]; 3. 2A-Austin Wood[6]; 4. 7H-Jake Haulot[5]; 5. 3-Cole Schroeder[9]; 6. 14W-Jodie Robinson[12]; 7. 3D-Caleb Debem[14]; 8. 9L-Luke Hayes[8]; 9. 61-Travis Labat[7]; 10. 43-Bradley Terrell[16]; 11. 02-Ashton Torgerson[18]; 12. 55D-Dawson Hammes[10]; 13. 46-Jeremy Wilson[17]; 14. 9-Adrianna DeMartini[19]; 15. 7DJ-Dryver Dothage[13]; 16. 76-Jennifer Osborne[3]; 17. 38-Tyler Cato[21]; 18. 1-Connor Grasty[20]; 19. 87S-David Silveria[22]; 20. 11A-Amber Fields[24]; 21. 9X-Peter Paulson[11]; 22. 3C-Bill Cornwell[23]; 23. 56C-Carson Hammes[15]; 24. 25-Seth Standley[4]
