(Upland, CA, November 19, 2021) USAC racing star Logan Seavey made a cameo appearance in the California Lightning Sprint Car Series/Bay Cities Racing Association co-sanctioned “Hangtown 100” and won the 25-lap main event Thursday night at the Placerville Speedway. The win was his first ever in the CLS.
The fastest 12 qualifiers garnered points. The heat races used an ASCS formula that distributed points by combining finishing positions and passing points. When those points were tallied up after the heats, the top sixteen drivers went straight into the main event. Drivers that did not accumulate enough points to get into the top sixteen ran a twelve lap B main. The top four finishers in the B earned the final spots for the main event.
Seavey began the evening on the right foot by being the fastest of 34-qualifiers with a time of 12.558 on the quarter-mile oval. San Diego’s A.J. Bender, winner of the “5th Annual Western States Lightning Sprint Car Championship” at the Bakersfield Speedway on Tuesday night, was second fastest with a lap of 12.624. Alex Lewis, who travelled south from Bellingham, Washington for the race, was third best in time trials with a 12.663.
Placerville regular Scott Kinney of Citrus Heights, El Cajon 14-year-old Braden Chiaramonte, Lakeside teen Grant Sexton and Bender captured the four, eight lap heat races.
Modesto’s Jozef Ferolito, Placerville local Brandon Leedy, Gardena’s Dominic Del Monte and Fargo, North Dakota’s Cody Meyer took the four transfers in the hotly contested B main.
For the main event, Lewis was on the pole, and he had Seavey alongside. Row two was made up of Sexton Gatlin teammates Sexton and Bender. The third row featured Chiaramonte on the inside with Levi Klatt from Langley, British Columbia Canada next to him. CLS teens David Gasper of Santa Barbara and Palmdale’s Eric Greco, who were still battling for the series championship, staffed row four.
Seavey leapt into the lead when the green light flashed to start the main event, but the proceedings did not get far. Mid-pack starters Brent Sexton, and the Citrus Heights duo of Hunter Kinney and Scott Kinney got together on the front straight. Hunter and Sexton flipped, and the red flag immediately replaced the green. Except for hurt feelings, the drivers suffered no injuries. However, all three of their cars suffered too much damage to continue and they were done for the night.
Once the three wrecked cars were towed off the track, 17 cars raced to the green flag. Seavey jumped into the lead, in the Bullet Motorsports/El Dorado Landscaped/Adco Driveline and Custom Exhaust/Jack Morgan Graphics/T&G Racing #51, at the beginning over Lewis and Bender.
Grant Sexton was fifth at the outset and moved up to fourth on lap six. Unfortunately, his race began to unravel on lap ten when he bicycled going into one and slid off the track. That resulted in a yellow flag that sent him to the back of the pack.
The lap ten restart saw Seavey at the point with Lewis, second and Bender in third. Chiaramonte assumed the fourth-place spot with Klatt in fifth. The race went four more laps before Sexton again slid off the track in the same spot bringing out another yellow. The top four was the same for the restart, but the race only got to the 15th circuit when Sexton got upside down halting the action once more. That proved to be the end of a very uncharacteristic night for the driver who leads the POWRi Southwest Lightning Series championship standings.
After the race restarted, Bender began to attack second-place Lewis and coming off turn two on the sixteenth go around, he used the outside line to race by the Pacific Northwest driver and set his sights on Seavey. However, the race would not stay green for long. For the second time in 48-hours, disaster struck for fourth place running Chiaramonte on lap 18. Tuesday at Bakersfield, he was a full straight ahead of the competition when his engine exploded in a spectacular ball of flames. This time, on the same lap and nearly the same spot on the track, the teen caught a piece of the inside berm in turn one and flipped wildly bringing out a red flag. Fortunately, he was uninjured, but his car needed major physical attention.
After the cleanup from Chiaramonte’s aeronautics, Bender hung close to Seavey for three laps, but the race long leader eventually pulled away and as the checkered waved over the field, he had an eight-length advantage over Bender. Pole sitter Lewis was third with Klatt fourth. Yucca Valley’s Jeff Dyer came all the way from 12th to finish fifth. B main winner Ferolito was the race “Hard Charger” finishing seventh after starting 17th.
With two races to go in the season, Gasper increased his point lead from 13-points to 65 over Turnbull. Greco, after his Bakersfield fiasco, recovered with a ninth-place finish and was just four-point shy of Turnbull. Dyer and Bender stayed fourth and fifth.
Fans can witness Saturday’s finale at the Placerville Speedway which is located at 100 Placerville Drive in Placerville (95667). The grandstands will open at 3:00 PM with racing at 6:30. The website for the track is at the following link https://www.placervillespeedway.com/. The office phone is (530) 344-7592.
Fans around the world who cannot attend the races, will be able to watch all four live on The Flo Racing PPV site at https://www.floracing.com/
The CLS would like to thank 2021 series sponsors Hoosier Tires, T Shirts by Timeless, TJ Forged Racing Wheels, and Walker Performance Filtration. If you or your company would like to become part of the series, please call Alex Grigoreas at (909) 437-3170.
To keep up with the CLS online, please visit the website at http://racecls.com/ or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/californialightningsprints
Bakersfield Speedway 25-Lap Main Event Finish (with starting positions)
1. Logan Seavey – Sutter, CA – 2nd
2. A.J. Bender – San Diego, CA – 4th
3. Alex Lewis – Bellingham, WA – 1st
4. Levi Klatt – Langley, BC, Canada – 6th
5. Jeff Dyer – Yucca Valley, CA – 12th
6. David Gasper – Santa Barbara, CA – 7th
7. Joseph Ferolito – Modesto, CA – 17th
8. Dakota Albright – Rutherford, CA – 16th
9. Eric Greco – Palmdale, CA – 8th
10. Brandon Leedy – Placerville, CA – 18th
11. Dominic Del Monte – Gardena, CA – 19th
12. Chris Crowder – Colorado Springs, CO – 13th
13. Greg Dennett – Fremont, CA – 14th
14. Cody Meyer – Fargo, ND – 20th
15. Braden Chiaramonte – El Cajon, CA – 5th
16. Grant Sexton – Lakeside, CA – 3rd
17. James Turnbull – Indio, CA – 15th
18 Brent Sexton – Lakeside, CA – 9th
19. Hunter Kinney – Citrus Heights, CA – 10th
20. Scott Kinney – Citrus Heights, CA – 11th
Lap Leaders: Seavey 1-25
Hard Charger: Josef Ferolito: 17th – Finish 7th
Lightning Sprint Car Series Points
1. David Gasper ® – Santa Barbara, CA – 1662
2. James Turnbull – Indio – 1597
3. Eric Greco – Palmdale, CA – 1593
4. Jeff Dyer – Yucca Valley, CA – 1487
5. A.J. Bender – San Diego, CA – 1225
6. Dominic Del Monte – Gardena, CA – 1160
7. Jon Robertson – Torrance, CA – 1046
8. Pat Kelley – Chino, CA – 871
9. Aiden Lange – Lakewood, CA – 815
10. Bobby Michnowicz – Oak Hills, CA – 807
CLS/BCRA Civil War Series Point Standings
1. Dave Gasper – CLS – 461
2. James Turnbull – CLS – 410
3. Eric Greco – CLS – 391
4. Brandon Leedy – BCRA – 372
5. Jeff Dyer – CLS – 337
6. Terry Bergstrom – BCRA – 331
7. Dominic Del Monte – CLS – 312
8. Dakota Albright – BCRA – 306
8. Bobby Michnowicz – CLS – 276
10. Aiden Lange – CLS – 235
2021 California Lightning Sprint Car Series Schedule
March 13 Bakersfield Speedway – Eric Greco
April 10 Bakersfield Speedway – Bobby Michnowicz
April 24 Merced Speedway (Wayne Albright Memorial – Round #1 of the Civil War Series with BCRA – Wingless) – James Turnbull
May 15 Bakersfield Speedway – A.J. Bender
June 5 Ventura Raceway – A.J. Bender
June 19 Keller Auto Speedway (Hanford) – Postponed due to heat.
July 3 Santa Maria Speedway – Eric Greco
July 24 Santa Maria Speedway (Wing Madness #1) Santa Maria – A.J. Bender
August 7 Merced Speedway (Civil War Series #2 with BCRA – Winged) – Dave Gasper
August 28 Ventura Raceway – Eric Greco
September 18 Bakersfield Speedway (Civil War #3 with BCRA – Winged) – Kevin Michnowicz
September 19 The Dirt Track at Kern County Raceway Park – David Gasper
October 2 Ventura Raceway – Eric Greco
October 30 Ventura Raceway – Jeff Dyer
November 16 Bakersfield Speedway (Civil War #4 with BCRA – Winged – Western States Lightning Sprint Car Championship) – A.J. Bender
November 18 Placerville Speedway Hangtown 100 – (Co sanctioned with BCRA and in companion with the USAC National Midgets)
November 19 Placerville Speedway Hangtown 100 – (Co sanctioned with BCRA and in companion with the USAC National Midgets)
November 20 Placerville Speedway Hangtown 100 – (Co sanctioned with BCRA and in companion with the USAC National Midgets)
PAST CALIFORNIA LIGHTNING SPRINT CAR CHAMPIONS
1994 Tony Everhart
1995 Gary Sexton
1996 Rob Sczymczak
1997 Jon Rahe
1998 Chris Rahe
1999 Brent Sexton
2000 Greg Bragg
2001 Greg Bragg
2002 Greg Bragg
2003 David Cardey
2004 Keith Janca
2005 Johnny Bates
2006 Donny Gansen
2007 Shane Rossen
2008 Brent Sexton
2009 Stuart Hielschier Sr.
2010 Jarrett Kramer
2011 Tim Brown
2012 Bobby Michnowicz
2013 Stephen Limon
2014 Bobby Michnowicz
2015 Bobby Michnowicz
2016 Bobby Michnowicz
2017 Bobby Michnowicz
2018 Jarrett Kramer
2019 Jarrett Kramer
