By Robert Haugh
After picking off David Prickett on Lap 26, Auburn’s Sean
Becker piloted Mile Sala’s #19w Stealth/Bob Wirth Chevy to victory lane on the
red clay of Placerville Speedway on Saturday, June 2, claiming his first-ever
Midget win in the Bay Cities Racing Association event that featured several
visiting teams and drivers.
Becker started ninth, moving into fifth on the opening lap,
benefiting from a series of early race cautions that included National Sprint
Car Hall of Famer “Buckwheat” Jimmy Sills tipping over in Turn 1 in Dave &
Wendy Thurston’s #11 Spike/Esslinger after contact with another car.
Following Sills’ tipover (minimal damage), Lonny Alton
unfurled the second of three first-lap cautions, spinning his #5a
Stealth/Gaerte in Turn 3. On the ensuing restart, Alton and second-place
BCRA pointsman Gary Conterno tangled, ending the evening for both, Alton due to
the two-spin rule, with Conterno towed off on the hook with front end damage.
After early race cautions settled down, 2000 BCRA champion
Matt Streeter of Galt cruised to the lead in his #14JR Delta Demolition-T&T
Trucking Spike/Ed Pink Chevy for the lead on the high side, pulling to a
sizeable lead until Prickett, Becker and a charging Shane Golobic of Fremont
began reeling him in.
Manning the Neverlift Motorsports/David Prickett Racing #15
Spike/Van Dyne Chevy, Fresno’s Prickett surpassed Streeter for the lead on Lap
12 as leaders began lapping slower cars. Becker displaced Streeter for second
on Lap 13, setting his sights on former BCRA champion Prickett, who had built a
steady lead.
Charging hard on the high line while getting through lapped
traffic, Becker spooled in Prickett on Lap 26, taking the lead on Lap 27 as
Prickett clung to the bottom, trapped behind a slower car, with Becker passing
Prickett and the lapped car on the high groove, going on to win by nine tenths
over Prickett.
Coming to the checkers on the final lap, Shane Golobic spun
while running third in Doug Bock’s #26 Spike/Esslinger, ending the race under
yellow-checkers after 29 completed laps. Golobic steadily marched from his
eighth starting spot up to third place on Lap 19, where he remained until the
final lap.
After getting shuffled from the Top 3, Streeter and the
lapped car of Vacaville’s Rick Holbrook made contact in Turn 3 on Lap 18, with
Streeter relegated to starting eleventh on the ensuing restart. Streeter
rebounded to claim a Top 5 finish, finishing fifth.
Following Becker to the checkers were Prickett, Scott
Pierovich in his #35 Spike/Bob Wirth Mopar, Bakersfield’s Wink Schweitzer in
Brad Dodenhoff’s #9b EMC/Fontana and Streeter rounding out the Top 5.
Oakdale’s Danny Parker claimed sixth in Bob Roza’s #21
Stealth/Esslinger followed by Howard Ferguson, Jr. in Karl Hokanson’s #98,
three-time BCRA champion Nick Foster, Jr. of San Jose in his #1
Beast/Esslinger, Atascadero’s Randi Pankratz in her #8x Edmunds
AutoResearch/Fontana and Angwin’s Britton Bock in his #67 Spike/Esslinger
rounding out the Top 10. After his spin, Golobic was scored eleventh.
Seven-time BCRA champion “Ageless Wonder” Floyd Alvis and
Holbrook rounded out the finishing order of the cars running at the finish.
Oregon’s Rob Lindsey sputtered to the pit area on the opening lap, only to
return later, battling apparent fuel-related gremlins in his #23 Lindsey
Motorsports Ellis/Pontiac.
Pankratz claimed Heat 1 over Pierovich.
Becker claimed Heat 2 over Prickett.
Golobic claimed Heat 3 over Sills, with Golobic fostering
the fastest lap of the evening, a 12.169 lap during the Heat.
Prickett was the fastest during Hot laps with a 12.796 mark
followed by Streeter, Sills, Pierovich and Cole Wood in the #17w Elk Grove Ford
Spike/Esslinger.
Notes: J.R. Williams
exited Heat 1 in his #74 Stealth/RRE Chevy EcoTec after losing a drive belt and
dropping oil.
Bill Lindsey battled mechanical gremlins in Stu Donaldson’s
#8 Stealth/Pontiac, completing just one lap in each the Heat and Main event.
Current second-place BCRA points man Gary Conterno’s #18a
Stealth/Wesmar seized during warm ups. Luckily for Conterno’s championship
hopes, Neverlift Motorsports/David Prickett Racing came through, showing great
sportsmanship, offering their #151 Spike/Van Dyne Chevy to Conterno, so as to
allow him to start the Heat and Feature to maintain points. With the Snider’s
missing the race due their unexpected and tragic shop fire on Friday evening,
the points were critical for Conterno’s championship hopes, who narrowly
trailed Alvis heading into the Placerville race.
Article on the fire and video here:
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