Thunderbowl Trophy Cup Night #2 Results and Stories

10/22/21

Tulare Thunderbowl
Tulare, CA

Trophy Cup Night #2

84 cars

Time Trial order from Night #1 was reversed, as group B took the honors first in reverse order, followed by Group A.  150 points were awarded for quick time, 149 for second quick, 148 for third quick and so on.

Buddy Kofoid (38th car out to time) set the standard for Group B on the quarter-mile with a lap of 14.090 seconds.  DJ Netto (33rd car out) was second quick, followed by Rico Abreu (10th), Mitchell Faccinto (6th), Joel Myers Jr. (5th), Justin Peck (19th), Corey Day (3rd), Colby Copeland (29th), Tanner Carrick (21st) and Michael Faccinto (12th).  It was a tough night for the McCarl brothers.  Carson got upside down in qualifying, and Austin suffered a fire incident that left him with minor burns.  Both scratched for the night.

Cory Eliason (43rd and last car out) set quick time for the second night in a row for group A at 14.382 seconds.  Tim Kaeding (13th) was second quick, followed by Steven Kent (24th), Bud Kaeding (7th), Blake Carrick (38th), Shane Golobic (28th), Devon Borden (18th), Kyle Hirst (20th), Tyler Courtney (15th) and Kaleb Montgomery (29th).  Michael Ing was a scratch for the night.

Group B Heat one (started): 1. T. Carrick 83T (4) 2. Kofoid 57 (6) 3. Brock Lemley 10L (2) 4. Ryan Robinson 56 (1) 5. Kalib Henry 5J (3) 6. Myers 46JR (5) 7. Conn Danell 5D (8) 8. Craig Stidham 36 (7) 9. Tanner Holmes 18T (10) 10. Nick Larsen 01 (9)

8-lap heats inverted six by time, and took the winner and the high point driver (combined time trials and heat finish) to the A.  36 points were awarded for the win, 33 points for second, and so on.  Carrick led the distance in a mostly single-file affair.  Kofoid was the high point getter.

Group A Heat one (started): 1. Courtney 83 (4) 2. Eliason 26 (6) 3. B. Carrick 38B (5) 4. Mitchel Moles 83JR (2) 5. Kurt Nelson 72w (8) 6. Jared Faria 10F (7) 7. Grant Duinkerken 67G (9) 8. Chris Bullock 17c (10) 9. Justin Sanders 4SA (1) 10. Colton Heath 33c (3)

Courtney used a great start to get the jump on his teammate Moles, Sanders and Eliason.  Sanders got over the cushion in one and two on lap three, allowing Eliason by for third.  Sanders then caught a rut in turn three and dumped it, collecting Heath.  Both were done, but unhurt.  Eliason jumped to second on the restart, almost tattooing Moles into the turn two wall with a slider.  Eliason was the high point getter.

Group B Heat two (started): 1. Sean Becker 83V (2) 2. Chase Johnson 28 (3) 3. Zane Blanchard 7z (1) 4. Mich. Faccinto 5H (4) 5. Netto 88N (6) 6. Max Mittry 2xm (7) 7. Bradley Terrell 43 (8) 8. Bailey Sucich 14B (10) 9. Peck x1 (5) 10. Jodie Robinson 4 (9)

Becker led the distance.  Mittry spun, bringing cautioin two laps in.  Johnson used the restart to get by Mich. Faccinto for third.  J. Robinson got upside down for the second time in two nights at the halfway point.  Peck would suffer the same fate in turn one on the restart.  Johnson shot by Blanchard for second with two to go.  Netto was the high point getter.

Group A Heat two (started): 1. Dominic Scelzi 41 (2) 2. Colton Hardy 41c (1) 3. T. Kaeding 42x (6) 4. Montgomery 3 (4) 5. Golobic 17w (5) 6. Tyler Thompson 98H (3) 7. Dustin Freitas 9 (7) 8. Chase Goetz 91 (8) 9. Tyler Driever 33T (10) 10. Bret Barney 78 (9)

Scelzi pulled away to win easily in a race that didn’t see much passing.  T. Kaeding was the high point getter.

Group B Heat three (started): 1. Jake Andreotti 7P (2) 2. Cole Macedo 20 (4) 3. Shane Hopkins 21s (1) 4. Abreu 24 (6) 5. Ryan Timms 5T (3) 6. C. Day 14 (5) 7. Colby Johnson 38 (8) 8. Michael Pombo 98 (7) 9. Ryan Lippincott 77 (9) DNS – Austin McCarl 88

Andreotti led wire to wire.  Abreu took fourth from Timms in a great battle on lap two.

Group A Heat three (started): 1. Justyn Cox 7c (2) 2. Willie Croft 29 (1) 3. Robbie Price 21P (4) 4. JJ Ringo 2K (3) 5. Borden 8 (5) 6. Steve Kent 7 (6) 7. Colby Thornhill 19 (7) 8. Danny Faria Jr. 17V (8) 9. Bobby Butler 57B (10) 10. Brooklyn Holland 2 (9)

Cox dominated this one, while Price was the high point getter.

Group B Heat four (started): 1. Anthony Macri 94 (1) 2. Joey Ancona 88A (2) 3. Copeland 5V (5) 4. Nick Parker 115 (4) 5. Mit. Faccinto 88F (6) 6. Tim Estenson 14T (7) 7. Carson Short 7Y (3) 8. Pat Harvey Jr. 15 (9) 9. Grant Champlin 18 (8) DNS – Tony Gomes 73

Champlin exited immediately.  Macri shot out to the lead and held it the while way.  Mitchell Faccinto grabbed fifth from Short on lap three.  Copeland passed Parker for third with 7 to go.

Group A Heat four (started): 1. Chase Randall 9R (3) 2. Hirst 0 (5) 3. Keith Day Jr. 22 (8) 4. Chase Majdic 2x (7) 5. Korey Lovell 71L (10) 6. Tucker Worth 33 (1) 7. Ryan Rocha 5R (2) 8. Travis Coelho 6c (9) 9. Ryan Bernal 21 (4) 10. B. Kaeding 69 (6)


After contact with Worth, Bernal flipped in turn four.  B. Kaeding also had issues and took it pitside.  Worth led Randall, Hirst and Rocha early.  Majdic passed Rocha for fourth on lap two, but on the same lap, Rocha and Coelho connected and took a hard series of flips in turn four.  Both drivers were o.k.  On the restart, Worth lost a left side panel on the top wing.  He continued for a while, but Randall and Hirst cruised by to finish one, two.  Majdic spun lap three while running fourth.  Randall would go on to win.

Corey Day C main (started): 1. Colby Johnson (2) 2. Estenson (5) 3. D. Faria (7) 4. Goetz (4) / 5. Pombo (11) 6. Sucich (13) 7. Holmes (10) 8. Larsen (8) 9. Duinkerken (3) 10. Driever (14) 11. Butler (16) 12. Bullock (9) 13. Cole Danell (18) 14. Barney (17) 15. J. Robinson (15) 16. Chisum (21) 17. Lippincott (20) 18. Harvey (12) 19. Holland (19) 20. Lovell (6) 21. Connor Danell (1) DNS – Terrell, Champlin, Coelho

The 10-lapper took the top four to the two B’s.  Colby Johnson led the duration.  Early on, Goetz followed before Connor Danell had issues in turn four.  Estenson jumped into the final transfer on the restart before Danell had issues with a spin.  D. Faria shot to second on the restart, while Estenson got by Goetz for third on lap five.  Holland and Lovell got together, with the latter getting upside down with four to go.  Both were ok, but retired.  Estenson gained second behind Colby Johnson on the restart. 

B main #1 (started): 1. Montgomery (2) 2. Michael Faccinto (3) 3. Mitchell Faccinto (6) 4. Bernal (16) / 5. B. Carrick (6) 6. Hopkins (12) 7. Parker (1) 8. Blanchard (11) 9. Croft (10) 10. Hardy (9) 11. Heath (13) 12. Colby Johnson (15) 13. Nelson (18) 14. Stidham (17) 15. D. Faria (19) 16. Steven Kent (4) 17. Lemley (7) 18. Short (14) 19. Ringo (8) DNS – Peck, Rocha, Sanders

The 20-lapper took the top four to the A, and had a point invert of six.  S. Kent jumped Michael Faccinto’s right rear at the green and came to a stop.  Parker led Montgomery and the Faccinto’s early.  Montgomery passed Parker before Ringo took a hellacious series of flips through turn three.  He crawled out on his own.  On lap four, Michael Faccinto grabbed second from Parker.  Brother Mitchell followed him into third on lap 11.  B. Carrick passed Parker for the final transfer on lap 14 before Lemley spun with five to go.  Bernal was on a breakneck pace, grabbing fifth on that restart, and storming around B Carrick coming for the white flag to steal the final transfer after starting in row eight.

B main #2 (started): 1. Golobic (4) 2. C. Day (1) 3. Borden (3) 4. Chase Johnson (5) / 5. Henry (8) 6. Timms (10) 7. Myers (2) 8. Ancona (7) 9. Majdic (14) 10. Moles (9) 11. K. Day (15) 12. Goetz (22) 13. Thompson (12) 14. Thornhill (19) 15. J. Faria (20) 16. Mittry (17) 17. Estenson (21) 18. Freitas (18) 19. Macedo (6) 20. B. Kaeding (11) 21. R. Robinson (13) 22. Worth (16)


Golobic dominated out front, with plenty of action behind him.  C. Day sat in second, with Borden hot on his heels.  Chase BerJohnson grabbed the fourth and final transfer from Myers on lap two, while Borden took second from C. Day o lap three.  Worth spun on lap three in an incident that included J. Faria.  Chase Johnson took third from C. Day on the restart, before Worth slowed to bring another caution five laps in.  Another caution came when Freitas slowed and exited on lap six.  Macedo was running as high as fifth before getting sideways and collecting B. Kaeding, who got upside down.  Both were uninjured.  Henry was running strong, and battled Chase Johnson for the final transfer, taking it on lap 17.  C. Day bested Borden for second with two to go.  Chase Johnson worked his way back by Henry in exciting fashion to steal the final transfer in the last corner.

Rico Abreu A main (started): 1. Abreu (6) 2. Kofoid (12) 3. Mitchell Faccinto (3) 4. Hirst (7) 5. Copeland (4) 6. Netto (5) 7. Eliason (11) 8. T. Kaeding (10) 9. Becker (14) 10. Golobic (15) 11. Bernal (24) 12. Macri (23) 13. T. Carrick (9) 14. Borden (19) 15. Michael Faccinto (17) 16. C. Day (22) 17. Price (13) 18. Cox (21) 19. Courtney (8) 20. Andreotti (18) 21. Randall (2) 22. Montgomery (20) 23. Scelzi (16) 24. Chase Johnson (1)

The 30-lapper had an invert of 12 by points.  Chase Johnson led early, in front of Mitchell Faccinto, Randall, Copeland and Abreu.  Courtney surged early, grabbing fifth from Abreu briefly on lap three.  Copeland passed Randall for third on lap four.  Mitchell Faccinto used the high side by the wall to sling around Chase Johnson and lead lap five.  Abreu was back in the top five by lap six and passed Randall for fourth on lap seven.  On lap eight, Chase Johnson caught a rut in turn three while running second and flipped.  He was uninjured.  The restart saw Mitchell Faccinto leading Copeland, Abreu, Hirst, Randall and a charging Kofoid back to green.  Abreu quickly took second, while Kofoid moved into the top five on lap ten.  It was a rare occasion when the race entered lapped traffic on lap 18, but Scelzi would come to a stop opening up track in front of Faccinto.  Kofoid disposed of Hirst on the restart, taking fourth.  Borden had worked from 19th to tenth when he spun with nine to go.  Kofoid used to restart again, this time to gain third from Copeland.  Hirst would follow him into fourth when things really got entertaining for the leaders.  Unfortunately, Montgomery dumped in turn one to set up a six lap dash.  Abreu dove in front of Faccinto for the lead in turn four after the restart and never looked back.  Kofoid followed him into second.  Courtney would flip before getting to the checkers.  He was not hurt. The win was worth $4,000 for Rico.  Bernal was the hard-charger.

The big money on Saturday is based on points.  The top ten heading in…

1.  Kofoid, 281
2.  Abreu, 275
3.  Macri, 273
4.  Hirst, 271
5.  Eliason, 271
6.  Netto, 270
7.  Scelzi, 270
8.  Mitchell Faccinto, 267
9.  Copeland, 265

10.  T. Kaeding, 265