By Gary Thomas
Images courtesy of Devin M Photography
Tulare, CA…Fremont’s Shane Golobic withstood the pressure of Fresno’s Dominic Scelzi at various times in the feature to tally his all-time leading ninth Sprint Car Challenge Tour presented by Elk Grove Ford and Abreu Vineyards victory on Friday at Thunderbowl Raceway.
The triumph for Golobic occurred on opening night of the annual “Peter Murphy Classic” and came at the helm of the Matt Wood Racing/ Elk Grove Ford/ NOS Energy Drink No. 17w Sprinter. For his efforts the 30-year-old walked away with $3,500 thanks to the Shop Kyle Larson Bonus, along with extra money from Hot Dogs on the Run.
“It feels good to get another win here at Thunderbowl Raceway,” Golobic said on the victory podium. “We let one get away in the NARC feature when we caught traffic at a bad time, so we will take this one with SCCT and celebrate a little, before getting back at it tomorrow in Hanford. I want to thank Matt Wood and everyone that supports our race team.”
Golobic immediately shot to the lead, but behind him it was hot and heavy with Colby Copeland, Dominic Scelzi, Justin Sanders and Tony Gomes going at it for second. Things came to a halt on lap nine however, when Chase Majdic hopped a right rear and went for a nasty ride in turn two, which also collected a few other competitors. Luckily everyone emerged from the incident okay. During the red flag second running Copeland also exited back to the pit area.
A long green flag run was then seen with Golobic continuing to set the pace out front, as Scelzi jumped into second, before closing in on the MWR 17w mount. With seven circuits remaining Scelzi pulled even with the leader off turn four, but Golobic was able to fend him off, just prior to the caution waving for a spun car in turn two.
The remaining laps saw Golobic hit his marks to cross under the Ed Entz checkered flag for the win over Scelzi, Sanders, Pit Stop USA Hard Charger DJ Netto and Roseville’s Sean Becker. It was a strong run for Becker, who made his first start in the Bjork Construction No. 7b machine. Rounding out the top-10 were Tony Gomes, Chase Johnson, Joey Ancona, rookie driver Caeden Steele and Kaleb Montgomery.
Tiner-Hirst Ent. heat race one was captured by Tony Gomes, with BR Motorsports heat two won by Dominic Scelzi, King Racing Products heat three went to Justin Sanders and A.R.T. Speed Equipment heat four was claimed by Kyle Hirst. The B-main went to Ryan Robinson, while the High Sierra Industries Dash was pocketed by Shane Golobic.
Auburn’s Andy Forsberg earned the Bianchi Farms Fast Time Award by outpacing the 37-car field in qualifying with a lap of 13.948. He also took home an extra $300 from Norm Martin Motorsports. The Quick Time Mortgage first non-transfer award went to Shane Hopkins, with the D&D Roofing final finisher in the semi being Alex Pettas.
The annual Peter Murphy Classic finishes up tonight at Keller Auto Speedway in Hanford. ….. Peter Murphy Classic Friday night results- Sprint Car Challenge Tour at Thunderbowl Raceway A-main: 1. 17W-Shane Golobic[1]; 2. 41-Dominic Scelzi[2]; 3. 4SA-Justin Sanders[5]; 4. 88N-DJ Netto[15]; 5. 7B-Sean Becker[6]; 6. 75-Tony Gomes[4]; 7. 28-Chase Johnson[9]; 8. 88A-Joey Ancona[12]; 9. 121-Caeden Steele[18]; 10. X1-Kaleb Montgomery[10]; 11. 94TH-Kyle Hirst[8]; 12. 19-Colby Thornhill[22]; 13. 98-Michael Pombo[13]; 14. 92-Andy Forsberg[7]; 15. 21X-Gauge Garcia[23]; 16. 94-Greg Decaires V[17]; 17. 34-Landon Brooks[11]; 18. 83SA-Isaiah Vasquez[19]; 19. 2K-JJ Ringo[24]; 20. 10F-Jared Faria[20]; 21. 5V-Colby Copeland[3]; 22. 35M-Chase Majdic[14]; 23. 14W-Ryan Robinson[21]; 24. 4-Jodie Robinson[16]
B Feature 1 15 Laps 1. 14W-Ryan Robinson[1]; 2. 19-Colby Thornhill[11]; 3. 21X-Gauge Garcia[7]; 4. 2K-JJ Ringo[2]; 5. 21-Shane Hopkins[6]; 6. 67G-Grant Duinkerken[5]; 7. 5R-Ryan Rocha[8]; 8. 33X-Dylan Bloomfield[13]; 9. 9T-Camden Robustelli[4]; 10. 87-Ashlyn Rodriguez[12]; 11. 12B-Dawson Faria[15]; 12. 6C-Travis Coelho[14]; 13. 21S-Jesse Schlotfeldt[9]; 14. 15-Cody Key[3]; 15. 2-Alex Pettas[10]
Dash 1 6 Laps 1. 17W-Shane Golobic[2]; 2. 41-Dominic Scelzi[4]; 3. 5V-Colby Copeland[1]; 4. 75-Tony Gomes[3]; 5. 4SA-Justin Sanders[5]; 6. 7B-Sean Becker[8]; 7. 92-Andy Forsberg[6]; 8. 94TH-Kyle Hirst[7]
Heat 1 8 Laps 1. 75-Tony Gomes[1]; 2. 88A-Joey Ancona[3]; 3. 17W-Shane Golobic[4]; 4. 35M-Chase Majdic[5]; 5. 94-Greg Decaires V[2]; 6. 9T-Camden Robustelli[10]; 7. 21X-Gauge Garcia[9]; 8. 21S-Jesse Schlotfeldt[7]; 9. 6C-Travis Coelho[8]; 10. (DNS) 22-Keith Day Jr
Heat 2 8 Laps 1. 41-Dominic Scelzi[1]; 2. 28-Chase Johnson[2]; 3. 92-Andy Forsberg[4]; 4. 98-Michael Pombo[3]; 5. 83SA-Isaiah Vasquez[6]; 6. 2K-JJ Ringo[5]; 7. 67G-Grant Duinkerken[7]; 8. 19-Colby Thornhill[9]; 9. 33X-Dylan Bloomfield[8]
Heat 3 8 Laps 1. 4SA-Justin Sanders[1]; 2. X1-Kaleb Montgomery[2]; 3. 7B-Sean Becker[4]; 4. 88N-DJ Netto[6]; 5. 121-Caeden Steele[3]; 6. 14W-Ryan Robinson[5]; 7. 21-Shane Hopkins[7]; 8. 2-Alex Pettas[8]; 9. 12B-Dawson Faria[9]
Heat 4 8 Laps 1. 94TH-Kyle Hirst[2]; 2. 34-Landon Brooks[1]; 3. 5V-Colby Copeland[4]; 4. 4-Jodie Robinson[3]; 5. 10F-Jared Faria[5]; 6. 15-Cody Key[6]; 7. 5R-Ryan Rocha[8]; 8. 87-Ashlyn Rodriguez[7]; 9. (DNS) 33H-Eric Humphries
Qualifying 1 2 Laps 1. 17W-Shane Golobic, 00:14.257[8]; 2. 75-Tony Gomes, 00:14.318[6]; 3. 94-Greg Decaires V, 00:14.478[7]; 4. 88A-Joey Ancona, 00:14.504[1]; 5. 35M-Chase Majdic, 00:14.515[5]; 6. 22-Keith Day Jr, 00:14.525[4]; 7. 21S-Jesse Schlotfeldt, 00:14.717[9]; 8. 6C-Travis Coelho, 00:14.842[3]; 9. 21X-Gauge Garcia, 00:15.057[10]; 10. 9T-Camden Robustelli, 00:15.114[2]
Qualifying 2 2 Laps 1. 92-Andy Forsberg, 00:13.984[2]; 2. 41-Dominic Scelzi, 00:14.252[5]; 3. 28-Chase Johnson, 00:14.284[8]; 4. 98-Michael Pombo, 00:14.366[3]; 5. 2K-JJ Ringo, 00:14.554[9]; 6. 83SA-Isaiah Vasquez, 00:14.621[7]; 7. 67G-Grant Duinkerken, 00:14.660[4]; 8. 33X-Dylan Bloomfield, 00:14.678[1]; 9. 19-Colby Thornhill, 00:14.872[6]
Qualifying 3 2 Laps 1. 7B-Sean Becker, 00:14.321[5]; 2. 4SA-Justin Sanders, 00:14.412[3]; 3. X1-Kaleb Montgomery, 00:14.424[6]; 4. 121-Caeden Steele, 00:14.487[8]; 5. 14W-Ryan Robinson, 00:14.500[7]; 6. 88N-DJ Netto, 00:14.676[9]; 7. 21-Shane Hopkins, 00:14.798[1]; 8. 2-Alex Pettas, 00:14.857[2]; 9. 12B-Dawson Faria, 00:15.420[4]
Qualifying 4 2 Laps 1. 5V-Colby Copeland, 00:14.184[4]; 2. 34-Landon Brooks, 00:14.469[8]; 3. 94TH-Kyle Hirst, 00:14.500[9]; 4. 4-Jodie Robinson, 00:14.704[2]; 5. 10F-Jared Faria, 00:15.003[6]; 6. 15-Cody Key, 00:15.043[3]; 7. 87-Ashlyn Rodriguez, 00:15.282[7]; 8. 5R-Ryan Rocha, 00:15.285[1]; 9. (DNS) 33H-Eric Humphries, 00:15.285