Zach Zimmerly garners first career Placerville Speedway top-five finish as Western Speedweek gets underway this coming weekend
By Gary Thomas
Placerville, CA – June 6, 2010…Going back to the challenging and tight high-banks of Placerville Speedway for the second time this season on Saturday night 16-year-old Zach Zimmerly raced to his best ever result at the El Dorado County Fairgrounds track by scoring a fifth place finish after 30-laps of exciting racing.
It marked the second week in a row that Zimmerly has finished among the top-five with the Golden State Challenge 410 Sprint Car Series and improved upon a 12th place finish from the season-opener in March at Placerville.
This past Saturday’s event at the famous Northern California red clay quarter-mile was the 13th round of competition for the traveling 410 sprint car series and the final event prior to this coming week’s Western Speedweek. A 20-car field checked into the back gate and Zimmerly began the evening by cutting the seventh fastest lap of the night in qualifying aboard the Christian Stover Foundation, Level One Concrete, McMillen Motorsports No. 94 sprinter.
With the track being lightning fast in the early parts of the event the Vancouver, Washington gasser brought home a third place finish in his heat race, prior to scoring seventh in the dash to put him in the fourth row for the main event. When flagman Ed Entz waved the green Zimmerly hung around the cusp of the top-five as the track surface had slicked off in spots and allowed for some exciting and close-quarter racing on the high-banks. The youngster was able to make progress getting by 13-time King of California Brent Kaeding and Elk Grove's Bobby McMahan to move up to fourth by the time a red flag occurred with eight-laps remaining.
When the race got underway for the final time Zimmerly hoped to charge his way even further up the order, but would get slowed by a lapped car just enough to let Kaeding back by and relegate him to fifth, where he would eventually finish at the waving of the checkered flag. “It was fun night, but it was a bit disappointing to lose the spot on that restart late in the race because we worked hard to get up to fourth,” said Zimmerly. “We fought some issues there in the dash, but got those corrected for the feature and were pretty good overall so we can’t complain and will look forward to Speedweek.”
Following the night of racing Zimmerly was able to maintain his current fifth place ranking in the Golden State Challenge 410 Sprint Car Series points going into the inaugural running of “Western Speedweek- The Road to Dirt Cup” that will bring the Northwest native back to his home territory for the first time this year.
The exciting week of racing all kicks off this coming Friday night with the 27th annual Tribute to Gary Patterson at the Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico, which will be the 14th race of the 2010 GSC season. So far this year Zimmerly has been very quick at the Chico quarter-mile, but has been plagued by bad luck at the track and he’ll look to change that up on Friday. Then on Saturday the Miller&Zimmerly Holdings, Fire-Down Graphics, Douglas Wheel Technologies No. 94 A.R.T. will head for the Southern Oregon Speedway in Medford, Oregon for the second round of Western Speedweek.
A day off will be seen on Sunday before Speedweek kicks back into gear on Monday June 14 at the beautiful Cottage Grove Speedway in Cottage Grove, Oregon for the second ever appearance by the Golden State Challenge Series to the quarter-mile clay oval. The final Oregon event and final GSC point-paying show of Western Speedweek will then take place on Tuesday night with the initial series visit to the long and narrow Willamette Speedway in Lebanon, Oregon. The first four night's of Speedweek is all a lead-up to the $25,000-to-win 39th annual Jim Raper Memorial Dirt Cup at the Skagit Speedway in Alger, Washington on June 17, 18 and 19.
The Dirt Cup will get a kick start as always with the annual Haggen Dirt Cup Party held on Wednesday June 16 at the Haggen Food and Pharmacy in Burlington, Washington. The party is held from 4pm to 7pm and features a live band, as well as sprint cars on display, vendor booths, driver interviews, autographs, local radio stations broadcasting live and more. Zimmerly is scheduled to be on hand at the party with hero cards to give out and merchandise for sale so please stop by the McMillen Motorsports No. 94 sprint car to say hi.
Zimmerly is also looking for additional sponsors to help support his racing endeavors and for anyone that would like to get on board please contact Zach at zachzimmerlyracing94@gmail.com
For more news and info on 16-year-old Zach Zimmerly please visit http://www.zachzimmerly.com and don't forget to follow us on twitter at http://twitter.com/ZZR94
“Western Speedweek- The Road to Dirt Cup” Schedule
Friday June 11 GSC Round 14: 27th annual Tribute to Gary Patterson at Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico, California- Information on the track can be found at http://www.silverdollarspeedway.com
Saturday June 12 GSC Round 15: Southern Oregon Speedway in Medford, Oregon. Information on the track can be found http://www.sospeedway.com/
Monday June 14 GSC Round 16: Cottage Grove Speedway in Cottage Grove, Oregon. Information on the track can be found at http://www.cottagegrovespeedway.com/
Tuesday June 15 GSC Round 17: Willamette Speedway in Lebanon, Oregon. Information on the track can be found at http://www.trophymotorsports.com/willamettespeedway.htm
Thursday June 17, Friday June 18 and Saturday June 19: 39th annual Jim Raper Memorial Dirt Cup at Skagit Speedway in Alger, Washington. $25,000-to-win Saturday night. Information on the track can be found at http://www.skagitspeedway.com
Young Zach Zimmerly brought home a fifth place finish in the main event at the Placerville Speedway on Saturday night and will look to keep his name at the front of the order during the upcoming Western Speedweek, which kicks off this Friday in Chico. The big week of racing will be culminated with the $25,000-to-win Jim Raper Memorial Dirt Cup at the Skagit Speedway in Alger, Washington. Photo by Steve Lamothe of http://www.stevesracingphotos.com
- Gary Thomas on Jun 06, 2010
- Article Date: 6/6/2010