Shane Golobic and Darren Brown share victory lane at the Nor*Cal Posse Shootout in Placerville
By Gary Thomas
Placerville, CA – June 27, 2020…The fourth annual Nor*Cal Posse Shootout provided immense excitement once again on Saturday night and when all was said and done it was Fremont, California’s Shane Golobic who stood in victory lane at the Placerville Speedway.
It marked Golobic’s eighth career Winged 360 Sprint Car triumph at the quarter-mile and came during an entertaining main event that saw several drivers battle their way towards the front. The companion Nor-Cal Dwarf Car Association feature also showcased some tremendous wheel-to-to-wheel racing that culminated in San Diego competitor Darren Brown picking up the win to sweep the shootout weekend for the division.
Golobic was fresh off a trip to the Midwest and had already captured victories this week previously at Marysville Raceway on Wednesday and Ocean Speedway on Thursday. “I can’t say enough about this Matt Wood Racing team and how hard they work,” Golobic commented to infield announcer Troy Hennig. “My brother Dustin and everyone with this team makes it seamless to transition from the Midget to the Sprint Car whenever we have the opportunity to do so. That was definitely a fun race tonight and what a track we had. I couldn’t be happier to win the Nor*Cal Posse Shootout in Placerville.”
The early stages saw Friday night winner Sean Becker lead laps until banging the cushion hard enough to send him bicycling and over the edge of turns one and two. The “Shark” made a wonderful save however and continued to fight his way around the top-five. Sixteen-year-old phenom Blake Carrick then found himself in the lead until Golobic was able to snag the top-spot that he would never relinquish. Auburn’s Andy Forsberg looked strong carving his way to second at one point, before he attempted to close in on the leader.
The action remained hot and heavy on the tight red clay bulling as Golobic began to gap the field over the closing stages. A yellow flag on the final lap brought about a green-white-checkered restart though and during it all eyes were on Roseville’s Colby Copeland, who ran the high-side to perfection. Copeland blasted around the outside and jumped into second, but didn’t quite have enough for Golobic as the Matt Wood Racing/ Elk Grove Ford No. 17W crossed under the stripe for the $2,500 victory.
Copeland had a solid run from the 12th starting spot to finish second, while Blake Carrick was impressive once again rounding out the podium. Forsberg and Becker completed the top-five. Paradise, CA’s Kyle Hirst started 13th and drove up to sixth, with Placerville’s Shane Hopkins, Hanford’s Michael Faccinto, Rio Linda’s Cody Lamar and 20th starter Kalib Henry rounding out the top-10. A healthy field of 38 Winged Sprint Cars competed on night two of the Nor*Cal Posse Shootout.
A-main finish: 1. 17W-Shane Golobic[3]; 2. 5C-Colby Copeland[12]; 3. 38B-Blake Carrick[2]; 4. X1-Andy Forsberg[6]; 5. 88N-Sean Becker[1]; 6. 14-Kyle Hirst[13]; 7. 21-Shane Hopkins[9]; 8. 5H-Michael Faccinto[14]; 9. 9L-Cody Lamar[4]; 10. 75-Kalib Henry[20]; 11. 34-Jodie Robinson[10]; 12. 83T-Tanner Carrick[24]; 13. 46JR-Joel Myers Jr[11]; 14. 93-Stephen Ingraham[22]; 15. 5T-Trent Canales[17]; 16. 12J-John Clark[15]; 17. 14W-Ryan Robinson[18]; 18. 56-Willie Croft[21]; 19. 88-Kyle Offill[16]; 20. 94-Greg Decaires V[19]; 21. 23R-Tony Gualda[8]; 22. 45-Jake Morgan[7]; 23. 7C-Justyn Cox[5]; 24. 80N-Justin Bradway[23]
The 20-lap Nor-Cal Dwarf Car Association finale saw Colfax driver Ben Wiesz and Fairfield’s Mike “Spanky” Grenert bring the field down to green. The ultra-wide racing surface lent itself to some phenomenal action and the Dwarf Cars put on a breathtaking show over the course of their contest. Much of the feature presented four or five cars running closely together at the front with previous night’s winner Darren Brown, as well as Shawn Whitney, Ryan Winter and Shawn Jones joining the party.
Brown eventually sliced his way to the front and began to put some distance between himself and the rest of the pack, which continued to race side-by-side at both ends of the speedway. Things tightened up towards the end however, as Jones, Winter and Wiesz tried their hardest to dispatch of the leader. At the checkered flag it was Brown who crossed under it first, with the top-four cars all separated by less than one second. Jones, Winter, Wiesz and Grenert completed the top-five. The Dwarf Car teams should be commended for putting on a great show all weekend long.
Completing the top-10 in the main event were Shawn Whitney, Zack Albers, Buddy Olschowka, Tommy Velasquez III and Nick Velasquez. A strong field of 28 Dwarf Cars signed into the pit area with the night’s B-main captured by Vernon Hubbard and the four heat races picked off by Kevin Bender, Ryan Winter, Shawn Whitney and Darren Brown.
Full results from the Nor*Cal Posse Shootout finale can be viewed at https://speedhive.mylaps.com/Events/1775607?fbclid=IwAR3Z8sePIK7jJtHyJZlD_8av4sxjRlOLFHaxzyDpjqu-BvbyfjQW402mMcg
Racing returns to Placerville Speedway next Saturday July 4th with a four-division program comprised of the Thompson’s Family of Dealerships Winged 360 Sprint Cars, Ltd. Late Models, Pure Stocks and Mini Trucks. The Independence Day event will unfortunately have no fireworks and the grandstands will once again be closed. All the action can be seen from the comfort of your home or at the lake via pay-per-view on Speed Shift TV and Flo Racing.
- Gary Thomas on Jun 28, 2020
- Article Date: 6/28/2020 by Gary Thomas