VISALIA, Calif. — Caden Sarale prevailed in Friday night’s thrilling opener for the Hoosier Tire California Speedweek at the Keller Auto Raceway at Visalia’s Plaza Park.
50 Non-Wing entries in the pits. 13-year-old Eric Botelho led Hyper Racing time trials before five heat races and three B-Mains narrowed the field to 22 starters. Heat race action included a photo finish between Austin Torgerson and Mattix Salmon.
Jett Yantis was high points driver for the night and drew a two invert, lining up alongside Salmon for the 30-lap grind worth $1,000 and the coveted carved wooden bear trophies.
Sarale marched from fourth on the grid, driving around the outside of Salmon to lead lap three. A caution flew on lap nine. Ashton Torgerson had advanced from 18th to ninth by that stage of the race while Yantis had backpedaled from second to eighth.
Salmon and Sarale traded slide jobs with Salmon officially leading lap 11. Taylor Mayhew and Yantis collided for the next caution.
Sarale seized the lead back from Salmon on lap 26 with a slider in turn four and brought a hard-charging Cash Lovenburg with him. Torgerson slid past Lovenburg for second on lap 28 but his luck ran out. Torgerson dove inside Sarale for the win coming to the checkered flag, bouncing off Sarale’s left rear wheel to spin out in turn four.
Sarale grabbed his fifth career Speedweek win and second in Non-Wing, followed by Lovenburg, Salmon, Austin Torgerson and 2022 Delta champion Nikko Panella. Ashton Torgerson was scored 14th.
Jake Smith won the Super 600 feature while Lucas Mauldin capped off the evening with a Restricted victory.
Feature Finish (30 Laps)
1. 32-Caden Sarale[4]; 2. 21-Cash Lovenburg[10]; 3. 5X-Mattix Salmon[1]; 4. 88-Austin Torgerson[3]; 5. 73-Nikko Panella[6]; 6. 55B-Jett Barnes[13]; 7. 2-Caden Stoll[7]; 8. 3-Cole Schroeder[9]; 9. 3AZ-Drake Edwards[20]; 10. 24S-Izaak Sharp[21]; 11. 55-Brandon Carey[11]; 12. 2T-Taylor Mayhew[19]; 13. 4K-Khloe Cotton[15]; 14. 02-Ashton Torgerson[18]; 15. 20Q-Brecken Reese[22]; 16. 4-Garrett Twitty[17]; 17. 2B-Eric Botelho[8]; 18. 4J-Jett Yantis[2]; 19. 69-Cameron Paul[5]; 20. 2A-Austin Wood[12]; 21. 73KK-Katey Syra[14]; 22. (DNS) 4B-Brandt Twitty