CALISTOGA, Calif. — James McFadden knows how to make a first impression. He had never raced on the Calistoga Speedway half mile. But swept Saturday night’s NARC winged sprint car portion of the Louie Vermeil Classic.
The win was a sudden change of fortune in just 24 hours.
“I just capitalized on a situation,” he said in calmly in describing how he dominated the winged sprint car portion of the Louie Vermeil Classic Saturday night at Calistoga Speedway.
After two nights of preliminary action at the Skagit Nationals, James McFadden found himself buried so deep in the point standings that the Saturday main event was a mere mirage in the distance. He needed a re-set, a change of fortune.
Leaving Skagit in the rear-view mirror, McFadden and the rest of the Tarleton Racing crew drove all night to try their luck at the Louie Vermeil Classic in Calistoga, where their fortune-hunting paid off in spades. Despite never having raced on the Napa Valley half mile, McFadden set quick time in the NARC-sanctioned portion of the program to set an encouraging tone for the night.
His good fortune grew even larger when officials changed the format to ensure that the racing program would meet a curfew. Heat races were scratched for the 19 winged cars.
The main event would be a straight up grid by qualifying time, except for the top six, which would be inverted by a pill draw.
Pulling a zero was as good for McFadden as hitting a payout on a roulette wheel, putting him on the pole. The stat sheet will show that McFadden led all 25 laps. It almost wasn’t that easy.
Sharing the front row, Sean Becker nearly won the drag race to turn one but eventually had to chase Mcfadden for the first dozen laps, while being hounded by Spencer Bayston. Bayston took over the runner-up spot just before a yellow caution flag re-grouped the field on lap 13.
On the restart, Bayston hung close for a few laps before retiring with engine problems on lap 17. Ryan Bernal was the next driver to challenge McFadden, only to fall out of the race.
In the closing laps, McFadden continued to build a lead and crossed the finish line several car lengths ahead of runner-up Shane Golobic.
“Because of the time problem, the format change was the fairest way to do it,” said McFadden, in describing the “situation” he capitalized on. “But I felt the car was good and getting better as the race wound down.”
The driver most on the move was Logan Seavey, who mowed through the field to finish on the podium after starting 19th.
“I was just zigging and zagging,” said the two-time USAC National Midget champion. “I went to the top in turns one and two when everybody else went to the bottom,” said Seavey, who had marched up to seventh in just six laps.
For Seavey, native of Ione, Calif., a small town about 100 miles north of Calistoga, racing in the Louie Vermeil Classic was a bit of a homecoming. “I came here and watched races as a kid and Calistoga is the first place I ever saw a sprint car go fast,” he said.
The finish:
1.(21) James McFadden (1); 2. (17w) Shane Golobic (8); 3. (88N) D.J. Netto (4); 4. ( 7b) Sean Becker (2); 5. (17) Colby Copeland,(11); 6 (83T) Tanner Carrick(7); 5 (10) Dominic Gordon (13); 8 (29) Bud Kaeding (12); 9. (x1) Chance Grasty (9); 10 (92) Andy Forsberg (18); 11 (26) Billy Aton (14); 12 (12J) John Clark (15); 13 (12) Jarrett Soares (17); 14 (73) Ryan Bernal (6); 15 (w) Spencer Bayston (3); 16 (83V) Dylan Bloomfield ((5); 17 (121) Caeden Steele (16); 18 (14) Mariah Ede (10); (11) Cooper Marchant DNS.
