Corey Day (Photo by Joe Shivak)
HANFORD, Calif. – 17-year-old Corey Day beat race director Justin Sanders in a fun NARC 410 Sprint Car Series season opener during the NAPA Auto Parts Anthony Simone Classic over 30 laps at King Speedway.
It was Day’s seventh career win and was worth $10,000.
The day started aboard the potent Meyers Constructors No. 14 sprint car sixth on the 25 car grid and wasted no time in pushing its way forward. Sanders, who started from pole in the Mittry Family Sprinter, quickly built up a comfortable gap to the rest of the field before the first stop on lap four.
However, he would have his hands full at the restart with a Day already moving up to second place.
Day passed Sanders, who came to the line on lap seven. Before the circuit was complete, however, another warning flag appeared and Sanders retook the lead. The feature’s third and final incident was with six rounds completed. From there it would be a bitter twenty-four click dogfight without incident.
As lapped traffic became a significant factor, Sanders had to make critical overtakes with the back end of the field. Day also quickly finished off the slower cars and kept Sanders in his crosshairs. Because the laps were fast, Day made his winning run on the 23rd lap.
From there, the Clovis teenager was dominant, building a significant lead as he raced to the chessboard.
“That was probably the best thing we’ve ever experienced here in Hanford; We were without lights,” Day said. “I had a feeling we were going to have a long green flag run there.
“I have to give Shane (Bowers) a huge amount of respect,” Day continued. “It was on rails and we struggled with car speed all night. I had to ride it hard to keep up with the pace they set.”
Sanders had to settle for second place, followed by the Works Limited machine ridden by Shane Golobic. Chase Johnson moved up from 14th to fourth while series champion Dominic Scelzi rounded out the top five.
At the very end of the night, a non-winged feature was performed with no points. It is the second time since 1985 that NARC has sanctioned a wingless event. Ryan Bernal dominated the topless 15 lapper for his first-ever NARC win. Bernal, who ran for car owner Keith Day, would field the full distance to win his first NARC sanctioned event.
“I felt so at home in a car without wings,” commented Ryan, “Hats to Peter[Murphy, promoter at Kings Speedway]for changing things up. It’s great to add something extra for the fans to see.”
Corey Day and Chase Johnson crossed the finish line in second and third place respectively.
The end:
Feature (30 rounds): 1. 14-Corey Day[6]; 2. 2X-Justin Sanders[1]; 3. 57 Shane Pigeon[3]; 4. 24-hunt Johnson[14]; 5. 41-Dominic Scelzi[5]; 6. 0-Tim Kaeding[9]; 7. 42X-Justyn Cox[8]; 8. 18T Tanner Holmes[4]; 9. 69-Bud Kaeding[18]; 10. 2K-Kaleb Montgomery[12]; 11. 21-Sean Becker[24]; 12. 22-Ryan Bernal[7]; 13. 88A-Joey Ancona[11]; 14. 12B-Dawson Faria[22]; 15. 10-Mauro Simone[25]; 16. 37-Michael Pombo[21]; 17. 4-Jake Hodges[23]; 18. (DNF) 83V-Dylan Bloomfield[19]; 19. (DNF) 36-Craig Stidham[16]; 20. (DNF) 115-Nick Parker[20]; 21. (DNF) 83-Mitchell Facing[13]; 22. (DNF) 29-Willie Croft[2]; 23. (DNF) 17-Calib Henry[17]; 24. (DNF) 88N-DJ network[15]; 25. (DNF) 2XM-Max Mittry[10]
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