MERCED, Calif. – Saturday night was a night of firsts at Merced Speedway.
The track hosted the Sprint Car Challenge Tour for the first time and Jodie Robinson became the first female to win a SCCT main event.
The winged 360 sprint show drew 34 teams to the reshaped quarter mile, much wider than in the past with more than double the banking.
A quartet of invert-four, transfer-five heats – followed by a dash for the heat winners plus fastest four qualifiers – then added four B-main transfers to create the 24 car field.
Robinson won the dash to earn the pole position and took the lead at the start of the 35-lap finale. A flurry of yellows plagued the event much of the way, giving Robinson many opportunities to keep her challengers in check.
D.J. Netto and Justyn Cox put early-race pressure on Robinson, with a three-wide trip through turn two after a lap-five restart displaying the track’s racy condition for the early portion of the main.
That did not last too long, as the track began to take rubber and Robinson moved to the top of the high banks as the halfway point approached.
A mid-race restart led to point leader Tim Kaeding, getting collected in a frontstretch tangle. Kaeding was able to make repairs and restart, but finished 13th and lost the point lead to Kyle Hirst, the series champion its first two years.
Hirst used a turn-two slider on lap 21 to take third and raced Cox for the runner-up finish the remaining laps, all while Robinson maintained her impressive lead.
As the lap count moved toward the 35 total, the track locked down and traffic presented a challenge for the 16-year-old leader, but Robinson withstood pressure from Cox and Hirst over the last few laps to collect the historic win.
Cox took second ahead of Hirst, with Netto settling for fourth. Kaleb Montgomery finished fifth in the end.
Support division racing saw Timmy Crews win the mini late model main, while Shawn DePriest took the mini stock race.