PETALUMA, Calif. – Andy Forsberg played the hare that the rest of the field failed to catch on a fast, tacky race track Saturday night, leading wire to wire to claim the 30-lap Adobe Cup at Petaluma Speedway.
From the outside front row, Forsberg won a wheel-to-wheel duel with three-time Petaluma Speedway champion Bradley Terrell through turns one and two before claiming a lead on the backstretch and pacing the field to claim his fourth Adobe Cup trophy.
Although Forsberg led from green to checkered, the opening laps were more “colorful”, with two yellows and a red in the first four laps, including a stop for Willie Croft, who climbed a wheel and ended upside down at the exit of turn two.
On the restart, D.J. Freitas slid under Terrell to claim second as both chased after Forsberg who at one point pulled out to a straightaway lead over both of them.
The fast freight train continued until lap 17 when Terrell ran out of room trying to pass a lapped car and ended up hanging upside down on the turn two fence.
After a long red flag stop to lift Terrell’s car off the fence, Forsberg ran non-stop to the race end and the win.
Fosberg acknowledged that the win was a team effort.
“It wasn’t me, it was the car,” said Forsberg, who also struggled most of the night with a temperamental motor just back from rebuild. “My crew had to play with the fuel almost every time we came off the race track. But thank God, we started up front.”
Freitas, who finished five car lengths back in second, was satisfied with his speed but conceded he had nothing for Forsberg.
“We were rolling along pretty good and thought we might have something for Andy,” said Freitas. “We waited for him to make some kind of mistake but it never came.”
Shane Hopkins, who started 13th on the grid, completed the podium.
“We were pretty solid but those two guys in front of us were just too fast,” he conceded.