GUARDINO, MOLES, AND GARCIA WIN HOOSIER TIRE CALIFORNIA SPEEDWEEK

LEMOORE, CALIFORNIA (June 30, 2019) – Three features decided three proud champions during Saturday night’s conclusion to the 5th annual Hoosier Tire California Speedweek from Lemoore Raceway. Tristan Guardino, Mitchel Moles, and Gauge Garcia stood at the top after four nights of competition where 125 different Micro Sprint drivers competed.

Non Wing’s championship fight had intrigue down to the final lap, as the night started with the top-four drivers within 24 points of each other. After qualifying and heat races had concluded, three-time champion Tj Smith led Guardino by just six points entering the feature. The redraw placed them alongside each other on the second row.

The 22 car, 30 lap feature for $1000 started off with an exclamation point when Smith slid up high entering turn one, falling to 16th and yielding his championship lead to Guardino. Up front, Christian Hickman led the opening two laps of competition before Austin Stone took over. Hickman spun for a caution on lap four, however.

Smith was the focal point of exciting racing in the back half of the field as he tried to salvage the night. Contact led to trouble on the #14 car that brought the eight-time wooden bear winner to a halt at the end of the backstretch for a lap six caution. His championship chances were over.

Stone maintained the race lead with pressure from Mitchel Moles before Caden Sarale entered the picture. Sarale moved up into second with three laps to go while Moles, Guardino, and Ben Worth battled behind him. Guardino fended off Worth, then got by Moles on the final lap of the event to seal the deal.

Austin Stone grabbed his second career $1000 Speedweek main event win, while Tristan Guardino was the $2000 Hoosier Tire California Speedweek champion. Guardino got it done with two fast-times, a win at Delta Speedway, third place finishes at Lemoore and Dixon, and a sixth place effort in Visalia. He topped Sarale, Moles, Smith, and Worth as the top-five in the championship. Australian Liam Williams ranked sixth.

Moles bid to steal Non Wing went along with his solid effort for the 2019 Super 600 championship. Moles was the mark of consistency throughout the week, finishing third on three different occasions along with the exciting victory at Delta Speedway.

Michael Faccinto won two out of the first three features along with a tough 22nd place DNF at Delta. Trying to dig out of the hole, Faccinto qualified fourth and then advanced from fourth to third in his heat race. The effort was enough to make the top-four redraw where Faccinto drew the pole position.

Faccinto never wavered from the pole throughout the 30 lap main event for $1000 to win. Two of the future stars of the sport – Corey Day and Colby Thrornhill – battled for second behind Faccinto. A caution on lap 23 briefly bunched everyone up but Faccinto motored away. Faccinto won his third feature of the week and fifth career Speedweek triumph, while Day settled for his second consecutive second place finish. Moles rounded up Thornhill for third with Jake Hagopian fifth.

Moles topped Faccinto by 27 points in the championship with Day, Hagopian, and Ben Worth the top-five. Caden Sarale finished tenth but with a total of 35 feature cars passed, the Stockton driver won the Adams Performance overall speedweek hard charger.

Gauge Garcia went out on top, twice, both winning the Restricted feature on Saturday night for $1000 to win and hoisting the “Big Bear” championship trophy and $2000 cash. Garcia’s victory in the 25 lap feature came against his close friend Dalton Parreira. Parreira won his heat race and drew the second position in the redraw.

Parreira took the lead from the outside of Washington’s Jordi Meese. Garcia shot from fourth to second rather quickly as well. Meese was then passed by Jeffrey Pahule and Dawson Faria.

Garcia stayed glued to Parreira as they darted through lapped traffic. Garcia took the lead when Parriera got hung up sideways in traffic down the backstretch on lap 21. Parreira drove to Garcia’s outside with two to go but fell short. Garcia topped Parreira, Pahule, Faria, and Logan Trevino as the top-five in the race. Garcia won the championship over Trevino by 55 points with Delta winner Avedisian, Faria, and Dixon winner Timms rounding out the top-five. Garcia’s back-to-back wins to the end week joined finishes of fourth and sixth to take the title.

All told the three divisions of Micro Sprint racing competed across four races in five days for $55,600 in prize money.

California Speedweek thanks Hoosier Racing Tire, Elk Grove Ford, Bullet Impressions, Performance Electronics, Driven Performance, Keizer Wheels, CSI Shocks, Wilwood Brakes, Chalk Stix, Scribner Plastics, Adams Performance, Joe’s Racing Products, Security Race Products, MyRacePass, and Fast Four Media for their support.

Super 600 (40 cars)
Driven Performance Qualifying: #41 Corey Day
CSI Shocks Heat 1: #4 Garrett Twitty
Chalk Stix Heat 2: #10J Ben Worth
Keizer Wheels Heat 3: #19 Colby Thornhill
Chris Kenner Specialities Heat 4: #21 Raio Salmon

Feature (30 laps): 1. 19F-Michael Faccinto, 18:00.405[1]; 2. 41-Corey Day, 18:00.773[2]; 3. 01-Mitchel Moles, 18:02.307[6]; 4. 19-Colby Thornhill, 18:02.772[5]; 5. 14-Jake Hagopian, 18:03.243[10]; 6. 1-Travis Labat, 18:04.481[8]; 7. 73-Nikko Panella, 18:05.405[12]; 8. 32A-Colton Huelsmann, 18:05.617[9]; 9. 55-Brandon Carey, 18:05.886[14]; 10. 4-Garrett Twitty, 18:07.011[3]; 11. 83C-Chance Crum, 18:08.738[13]; 12. 4G-Brian Gilbert, 18:09.208[21]; 13. 22JR-Keith Day Jr., 18:09.450[11]; 14. 24-Caden Sarale, 18:09.698[17]; 15. 12-Cody Christensen, 18:10.121[18]; 16. 33-Dylan Bloomfield, 18:10.897[15]; 17. 121-Caeden Steele, 18:11.998[22]; 18. 26AU-Liam Williams, 18:07.618[16]; 19. 10J-Ben Worth, 14:45.977[4]; 20. 21-Raio Salmon, 09:19.966[7]; 21. 12A-Alex Panella, 05:25.079[20]; 22. 9-Chase Randall, 05:25.207[19]

Non Wing (35 cars)
Driven Performance Qualifying: #10JR Tristan Guardino
Chalk Stix Heat 1: #97W Christian Hickman
CSI Shocks Heat 2: #32 Caden Sarale
Keizer Wheels Heat 3: #28K Kevin Carter
Joe’s Racing Products Heat 4: #44X Austin Stone

Feature (30 laps): 1. 44X-Austin Stone, 20:33.893[2]; 2. 32-Caden Sarale, 20:34.878[5]; 3. 10JR-Tristan Guardino, 20:35.606[4]; 4. 01-Mitchel Moles, 20:35.825[7]; 5. 10J-Ben Worth, 20:36.229[14]; 6. 28K-Kevin Carter, 20:39.317[6]; 7. 26AU-Liam Williams, 20:39.505[18]; 8. 5-Chase Hyland, 20:40.044[12]; 9. 07X-Troy Morris III, 20:41.668[19]; 10. 3E-Bryce Eames, 20:42.543[16]; 11. CA88-Koen Shaw, 20:43.335[20]; 12. 3L-Jimmy Leal, 20:43.434[9]; 13. 10-Johnathon Henry, 20:43.980[13]; 14. 7-Mason Keefer, 20:44.370[17]; 15. 1C-Danny Carroll, 20:45.171[21]; 16. 44M-Carson Myrick, 20:45.182[8]; 17. 33C-Cameron Paul, 20:45.513[23]; 18. 81T-Andrew Tamariz, 20:45.895[10]; 19. 161-Tyler Hester, 19:53.132[15]; 20. 97W-Christian Hickman, 13:52.871[1]; 21. 55-Brandon Carey, 07:57.993[22]; 22. 14-Tyler Smith, 05:07.095[3]; (DNS) 51-Brody Fuson, 05:07.095

Restricted (35 cars)
Driven Performance Qualifying: #88 Matthew Tatoole
Chalk Stix Heat 1: #21 Gauge Garcia
CSI Shocks Heat 2: #24 Jordi Meese
Keizer Wheels Heat 3: #51 Dalton Parreira
Keizer Wheels Heat 4: #14 Jade Avedisian

Feature (25 laps): 1. 21-Gauge Garcia, 05:38.588[4]; 2. 51-Dalton Parreira, 05:38.835[2]; 3. 44X-Jeffery Pahule, 05:39.341[6]; 4. 12B-Dawson Faria, 05:41.129[3]; 5. 7T-Logan Trevino, 05:42.642[10]; 6. 24-Jordi Meese, 05:43.608[1]; 7. 14J-Jade Avedisian, 05:43.785[8]; 8. 88-Reilee Phillips, 05:44.872[7]; 9. 5-Mattix Salmon, 05:45.337[5]; 10. 17-Joshua Rogers, 05:45.797[12]; 11. 5R-Ryan Rocha, 05:46.727[15]; 12. 5T-Ryan Timms, 05:47.650[14]; 13. 49-Jarrett Rogers, 05:48.189[9]; 14. 00-Preston Scheulen, 05:49.008[18]; 15. 88T-Matthew Tatoole, 05:49.269[16]; 16. 4B-Brandt Twitty, 05:50.073[21]; 17. 66-Broedy Graham, 05:51.419[11]; 18. 10-Emerson Vincent, 05:38.927[17]; 19. 24S-Izaak Sharp, 05:39.618[13]; 20. 72B-Bryant Bell, 05:40.145[19]; 21. 22P-Logan Penman, 05:40.495[20]; 22. 7D-Drew Mowry, 05:43.403[22]

NON-WING: Wilwood Hard Charger – Liam Williams, Scribner Plastics Hard Luck – Dan Mognaga
RESTRICTED: Wilwood Hard Charger – Logan Trevino, Scribner Plastics Hard Luck – James Andrichuk
SUPER 600: Wilwood Hard Charger –Brian Gilbert, Scribner Plastics Hard Luck – Cody Key