CALISTOGA, Calif. — Calistoga Speedway is where Logan Seavey says he learned as a kid that he wanted to be a race car driver.
On Sunday night, he celebrated a homecoming of sorts, winning the USAC/CRA portion of the Louie Vermeil Classic.
Originally from the small town of Sutter, about 100 miles from Calistoga, Seavey learned his early racing skills in outlaw winged karts at Northern California tracks such as Cycle Land near Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico. But despite a career in which he has won races throughout the country and USAC national champions, Seavey had never raced at Calistoga Speedway until this weekend.
On Sunday, he bettered his third-place finish from Saturday winning a duel with Ryan Bernal, who started on the pole and paced the early laps. Behind Bernal, Seavey methodically picked off RJ Johnson and J.J. Yeley to get to second, setting up a two-man race for the lead over the last 15 laps.
For several laps, the pair diced several car lengths ahead of the field, with Bernal relying on the momentum of the high groove to counter Seavey’s attacks from the inside racing groove, while they often came off the corners nearly side by side.
With four laps to go, Seavey followed Bernal to the high side of turn two, gained a head of steam on the backstretch and dove into the lead in turn three before driving off to the win.
“I found a bit of moisture on the backstretch, and he caught a lapped car at a bad time,” said Seavey in describing the winning move.
Despite leading the most laps, Bernal acknowledged that defending against Seavey’s inside game was difficult. “I knew he was pretty good.”
The finish:
Logan Seavey (5); 2 Ryan Bernal (1); 3-JJ Yeley (3); 4-RJ Johnson (4); 5-Max Adams (8); 6- Tommy Malcolm (10); 7-Kaleb Montgomery (2); 8-Logn Calderwood (11); 9-AJ Bender (13); 10-Austin Williams (8); 11-Connor Lundy (12); 12-Geoff Ensign (14); 13-Jacob Tuttle (21); 14-Connor Speir (24); 15-Mark Hanson (16); 16-Blake Bower; 17-Brecken Guerrero; 18-Marty Hawkins (23); 19-Cody Williams (9); 20-Eddie Tafoya, Jr (17); 21-Charles Davis, Jr. (7); 22-Andrew Sweeney (19); 23-Nate Shank (15); 25-Ricky Lewis (12).
