Glendale, Arizona’s Ashton Torgerson showed his mettle on Saturday night at Placerville Speedway, making a move by Tanner Carrick with less than 10-laps remaining to secure his first career Winged 360 Sprint Car triumph.
Sharing victory lane with the youngster on Saturday were Placerville’s Shane Hopkins with the Hunt Magnetos Wingless Tour, Lincoln’s Dan Brown Jr. with the Anrak Late Models and Auburn veteran Thomas Arbogast with the Red Hawk Casino Pure Stocks. Copious amounts of children and families were on hand Saturday for the annual John Padjen Kids Bike Night presented by the Pizza Factory.
Torgerson has returned from the well documented incident during the Chili Bowl to snag multiple wins in the Micro ranks, but Saturday’s score was his very first aboard a Sprint Car, which came in just his 13th career start. The first couple circuits in the 25-lap Thompson’s Winged 360 finale saw Luke Hayes and Stephen Ingraham battle it out, before contact between the pair on lap three brought out a caution.
Lincoln’s Tanner Carrick inherited the lead and most people likely thought that it would be game over in the feature, however, Torgerson proved that certainly was not the case. When the green flag waved again, he hounded the rear tail tank of Carrick’s machine, as the pair put on an entertaining show for the fans in the stands. Both drivers ran two distinct lines and when lapped traffic came into play, things got interesting.
Torgerson finally got the run he wanted up high off turn two with 17-laps complete and drove by for the top-spot that he never relinquished. The 16-year-old went on to accept Ron Stahl’s checkered flag for victory at the helm of his Rowdy Energy Drink No. 02 machine. Carrick came home second, followed by 15th starting Shane Hopkins, who made several beautiful passes in the main event. Elk Grove’s Bubba Decaires and 13th starter Michael Faccinto of Hanford rounded out the top-five.
Completing the top-10 were 16th starting Jake Haulot, 17th starter Michael Ing, 18th starting Austin Torgerson, Dominic Gorden and Hayes. Carrick began the evening by earning the ADCO Driveline and Custom Exhaust Fast Time Award with a lap of 10.985 around the quarter mile. A total of 21 cars competed on John Padjen Kids Bike Night.
Thompson’s Winged Sprint Car results: 1. 02-Ashton Torgerson[2]; 2. 83T-Tanner Carrick[5]; 3. 21-Shane Hopkins[15]; 4. 94-Greg Decaires V[6]; 5. X1-Michael Faccinto[13]; 6. 7H-Jake Haulot[16]; 7. 21M-Michael Ing[17]; 8. 88-Austin Torgerson[18]; 9. 10-Dominic Gorden[8]; 10. 9L-Luke Hayes[4]; 11. 32-Caden Sarale[19]; 12. 1F-DJ Freitas[10]; 13. 93-Stephen Ingraham[1]; 14. 54S-Drake Standley[11]; 15. 25S-Seth Standley[21]; 16. 87-Ashlyn Rodriguez[7]; 17. 98-Chris Masters[12]; 18. 7C-Tony Gomes[14]; 19. 15-Michael Sellers[20]; 20. 7-Jake Morgan[3]; 21. 25-Justin Johnson[9]
Story by Gary Thomas. Images courtesy of Tim Holland Photography
