PLACERVILLE, Calif. — A green-white-checkered restart set up a classic finish at the Nor*Cal Posse Shootout on Saturday, where Joel Myers Jr. blasted around race long leader Ryan Bernal off the final corner to claim the $8,000 top prize.
Myers Jr. finished runner up in the Placerville Speedway standings back in 2021 and had been oh-so-close to a victory at the track before. The Sebastopol driver made his initial win on the red clay pay off in dramatic fashion aboard the All About Fire Protection/ Dirt Dude’s Excavating No. 46jr.
“This is really a testament to my team who have worked their tails off,” Myers Jr. said. “Ivan Worden and my guys gave me a great car. I could get the middle going and pace off Ryan’s right rear to stay close. I thought I may have something if I ripped the top and luckily it worked out for us.”
The initial 27 laps in the feature clicked off caution free and provided some intense racing up front. Ryan Bernal jumped out to the lead and led a very fast Chance Grasty, who stayed glued to his tail tank.
The duo kept fans on the edge of their seats and when lapped traffic came into play, things got hectic. With Bernal and Grasty fighting for the top spot, Myers Jr. then inched in on them and made it a three-car battle for the lead.
The long green flag run came to a halt however, when Grasty hopped over the cushion in three and four. As he came back down onto the track, he unfortunately met with Austin Wood at just the wrong moment, which sent him down into the K-rail for a caution.
When going back green Bernal fended off Myers Jr. until a red flag appeared with just two circuits remaining. During the final dash to the finish, it was Bernal, Myers Jr. and Shane Golobic who pleased the fans with an exhilarating tussle to the end.
Heading down the backstretch for the final time and entering turn three, Bernal went low, while Myers Jr. rocketed to the top. Bernal didn’t get off turn four as smoothly as he wanted, while Myers hit it perfectly to shoot past and score the thrilling triumph.
Bernal crossed the stripe in second to cap a strong weekend that saw him sweep both nights with USCS and earn a third-place result in the winged sprint car opener.
Golobic, Wood and Justyn Cox completed the top five.
The Ultimate Sprint Car Series, as noted, saw Ryan Bernal claim a clean sweep of the weekend after he tallied another win on Saturday. The feature was plagued by several hard crashes, but fortunately all drivers walked away unscathed.
Early on it was Braden Chiaramonte and Jacob Tuttle racing up front for the lead. Chiaramonte eventually edged ahead and led the field until Tanner Carrick had a monster run off turn two with 12 laps complete.
Just as Carrick was looking to shoot underneath, Chiaramonte had issues on the cushion that sent him sideways. The pair met up, resulting in Carrick suffering a wicked flip down the backstretch.
Both drivers were done for the program, and it gave Bernal the top spot that he would never relinquish. Due to time, the main event was checkered flagged at lap 20 and Bernal brought home the win over Carson Short, Josh Young, Tuttle and Austin Wood.
The finish:
Feature (35 laps): 1. 46JR-Joel Myers Jr[4]; 2. 73-Ryan Bernal[2]; 3. 17W-Shane Golobic[13]; 4. 2A-Austin Wood[6]; 5. 42X-Justyn Cox[3]; 6. 10-Dominic Gorden[8]; 7. 92-Andy Forsberg[5]; 8. 83T-Tanner Carrick[10]; 9. 4SA-Justin Sanders[9]; 10. 41-Dominic Scelzi[14]; 11. 7C-Tony Gomes[20]; 12. 25-Seth Standley[11]; 13. 2XM-Max Mittry[22]; 14. 21L-Landon Brooks[7]; 15. 83V-Dylan Bloomfield[16]; 16. 35KM-Tyler Thompson[17]; 17. 9L-Luke Hayes[15]; 18. 14W-Jodie Robinson[12]; 19. 7P-Jake Andreotti[21]; 20. 21-Shane Hopkins[18]; 21. 28-Gauge Garcia[19]; 22. 94TH-Braden Chiaramonte[23]; 23. X1-Chance Grasty[1]; 24. 3-Cole Schroeder[24]
