Oregon's Zimmerly takes Petaluma Civil War

PRESS RELEASE –HOOSIER TIRES CIVIL WAR SPRINT CAR SERIES
FROM THE OFFICE OF HANDY RACING PROMOTIONS INC.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2009
MEDIA CONTACT: BILL SULLIVAN: sullivanimages@sbcglobal.net           
 

 
Oregon’s Zach Zimmerly leads every lap of Petaluma Civil War feature
 
By Bill Sullivan, Handy Racing Promotions, Inc.
 
PETALUMA, CA – The Hoosier Racing Tires Civil War Race Series made it’s last appearance of the 2009 racing season at Petaluma Speedway Saturday and the event ended with a new face in victory lane. Fifteen-year-old Zach Zimmerly of West Linn, Oregon became the eighth different feature event winner of the season campaign. 
 
The event was the first Civil War victory of Zimmerly’s young career and makes him the second youngest driver to win a Civil War feature event in the history of the tour that visits six different dirt tracks throughout California annually for one of the most coveted regional crown’s. Former Civil War Rookie of the Year Kyle Larson was the youngest racer to claim this feat two years ago when the series was in competition at Placerville Speedway.
 
For Zimmerly, a little good fortune from lady luck gave the Northwest teen an ideal starting position for Saturday’s feature event. After qualifying 15th in the field with a lap time of 13:271 and finishing fourth place in his heat race, Zimmerly earned the outside starting position on the front row next to polesitter and veteran area driver Mike Benson of Calistoga. Starting in the row directly behind Zimmerly was defending series champion Sean Becker of Oroville, the winningest driver of the 2009 series and four time champion Andy Forsberg of Auburn.
 
At the waving of the green flag, Zimmerly showed little intimidation by his surrounding counterparts as he powered his Duke McMillen owned #94 to the front of the field. Once in front the former Legend’s Asphalt Nationals Champion never looked back as he powered his way to a hearty lead early in the race aboard a car powered by an ASCS Motor which is slightly underpowered compared to those in the field.
 
Later in the event, Zimmerly used lapped traffic to his advantage  and sliced and diced his way through the backmarkers to protect his position. Forsberg was Zimmerly’s closest challenger for the majority of the event but was unable to close within reasonable striking distance of Zimmerly before time ran out.  At the checkered flag Zimmerly posted his first career winged sprint car victory ahead of Forsberg. Finishing in third place was the legendary David Lindt Jr. of Sebastopol. Lindt has been out of competition for two season’s and still hold the all time win record at Petaluma Speedway. Chico’s Brad Bumbgardner finished in fourth followed by Mason Moore of Princeton. Petaluma Champion Alissa Geving finished in sixth place over Myles Bishop, Mike Henry, Kyle Hirst and Joey Magaruh.
 
Saturday’s feature event was an ugly one for point leader Becker. On the sixth lap Becker and polesitter Benson entered turn on and tangled wheels, sending both cars upside down with Becker’s Scott Miller owned #2sb machine launching out of the track near the pit exit road. The incident destroyed the point leader’s car and broke his momentum entering the final two events of the season at the end of this week in Watsonville and Placerville. The incident, however, had very little effect on Becker’s dominant point lead that now exceeds the century mark.
 
In preliminary action on Saturday night, the fast time of the night was claimed by Bishop who clocked a 12:527 second lap trip around the 3/8 mile dirt track on the Sonoma Marin County Fairground. Heat race victories were claimed by Geving, Hirst, Adrien Betourney and Mike Henry. The B-feature on Saturday night was won by Chad Compton of Fair Oaks who led Jeremy Burt, Camron Mendes and Herman Klein across the finish line.
 
Following Saturday’s event, the series point standings show Becker in position to score his second straight Civil War championship title. A simple entry into Friday’s feature event at Ocean Speedway will secure Becker’s title as he now holds a 104 point advantage over Sacramento’s Herman Klein. The battle for second place is a heated one entering the season finale double header Klein holds a one point advantage over Rohnert Park’s Brett Rollag who is third in the standings.  Myles Bishop is in fourth place while Stephen Allard of Chico sits in fifth.
 
This Friday the Civil War Sprint Car Series returns to the other coastline as Ocean Speedway in Watsonville will host the penultimate event of the series. Saturday night the season comes to a conclusion for the year at Placerville Speedway for the crowning of the 2009 Civil War Series Champion.  For additional information on these events visit www.civilwarsprints.com. Information may also be found at the respective facility’s websites www.oceanspeedway.com or www.placervillespeedway.com.