Faccinto completed the “clean sweep”

at Fernley 95A Speedway

 

 

Bay Cities Racing Association (BCRA) racer Michael Faccinto unveiled a new Simpson driver’s uniform before the evening’s races at Fernley 95A Speedway Saturday, which he hoped would change his luck. In recent weeks Michael’s racing luck has been a roller coaster ride, as Michael flipped the Mike Sala midget at Placerville Speedway and took a precautionary trip to the hospital, but came back and won at Petaluma Speedway. Last week at Marysville Raceway, after he won the heat race, Faccinto had the field covered in the feature only to have the engine in the Sala midget fail with less than ten laps to go.

The night at Fernley started out well for Faccinto as he set quick time during the group qualifying session with his second lap which stopped the clocks at 17.244 seconds, which edged out BCRA points leader Maria Cofer’s 17.613 second lap. Third quick qualifier was Bobby Wilson at 17.704 seconds, with Floyd Alvis and JR Williams rounding out the top five qualifiers.  Williams battled back from an earlier drive line problem prior to hot laps to make successful repairs with the assistance of Rick Holbrook using parts provided by John Cofer.

Pole-sitter Bobby Wilson led the first ¾ of the first lap in the heat race before both Faccinto and Cofer swept by, and then Wilson and Alvis dueled for position before Bobby’s car got loose as he exited turn two and brushed the outside backstretch wall. Wilson recovered and maintained his third positon to the finish as Alvis settled into fourth place as Williams’ car missed the call.   

Young guns Faccinto and Cofer shared the front row for the start of the 20-lap feature event, and at the drop of the green Michael powered away from the field and built up a three-car length advantage over Cofer.  Wilson and Alvis dueled for third place during the race’s first three laps before Floyd established himself in third place and pulled away from Wilson.

During the middle laps of the race, Maria Cofer reeled in the leader; first she closed to within two car lengths then was right on the bumper of the #19 midget for several torrid laps. However, as track conditions changed, on successive laps Cofer’s car bobbled as she exited turn two which allowed Faccinto to pull away and rebuild his three-car length lead in the later laps of the race.  

The standing-room only crowd watched as Faccinto in his new “lucky” driver’s uniform cruised under the checkered flag to complete his “clean sweep” of the night’s racing program. Maria Cofer padded her points lead with a strong second place finish while the ageless Floyd Alvis scored his second straight third place finish ahead of Bobby Wilson. JR Williams encountered handling problems with his #74 midget and pulled into the pit area mid-race.

The BCRA mighty midgets return to the pavement on August 5 with the second annual Tom Manning Memorial Race at Stockton 99 Speedway, with opening ceremonies set to begin at 6 PM. See you there!