Photo Credit - Saul Leon
March 29th, 2025 saw the return of the newly revamped California Racesaver Sprints to the quarter mile bullring that is the Merced Speedway for the first time since 2021 where the series saw 15 entries hit the track.
Qualifying kicked off the night for the series as Anthony Pombo aboard the 3 car from Kerman, California hit the track for a 12.1830 qualifying time on his first lap. Anthony held the quick time for a very short period of time as brother Davey, also hailing from Kerman who was aboard the 2 car, was the third car to go out for qualifying and quickly overtook Anthony with a time of 11.501 on his second lap. The tenth car to go out; Kyle Rasmussen coming from Clovis, CA, aboard the 38N, then hit the track with a first lap time of 11.600 and a quicker second lap of 11.484, where he then held quick time for the rest of qualifying and setting a first ever Racesaver track record at Merced Speedway.
Qualifying Rundown:
- Kyle Rasmussen - #38N (11.484), 2. Davey Pombo - #2 (11.501), 3. Phil Heynen - #31H (11.503), 4. Tylor Henson - #11T (11.638), 5. Jeremy Alves - #81A (11.700), 6. Rino Felicioni - #15 (11.710), 7. David Knott - #28 (11.750), 8. Koen Shaw - #64C (11.984), 9. Lance Jackson - #18 (12.007), 10. KC Weikle - #53 (12.072), 11. Ty Hindman - #86 (12.128), 12. Anthony Pombo - #3 (12.183), 13. Jon Williams - #30 (12.410), 14. Kevin Barnes Sr. - #36B (12.631), 15. Andy Smith - #7 (13.907)
CRS heat races later followed and turned out to be just as eventful as the feature event where KC Weikle, Davey Pombo and Lance Jackson all won their respective heat races.
Heat 1 started with the #11T of Tylor Henson on the pole and the #53 of KC Weikle on the outside, followed by the #30 of Jon Williams, the #38N of Kyle Rasmussen and the #28 of David Knott wrapping up the lineup for heat race #1
The first heat race went caution-free but had its fair share of events when KC Weikle took the lead on the opening lap and Tylor Henson later went off the high side of turn three but maintained control while also losing two positions on lap five and then on lap 7, spins coming out of four and stalls at the bottom of turn four and on the same lap, Jon Williams and the #30 car were involved in their own separate incident on the high side of turn three which required assistance from Merced’s Motorsport Movers. The race was then called on lap 7 where KC Weikle who resides in Pine Flat Lake, CA led all 7 laps to pick up the heat race win by a gap of over a second over Kyle Rasmussen.
Heat 1 Rundown (*7 Laps):
- KC Weikle - #53 (2nd), 2. Kyle Rasmussen - #38N (4th), 3. David Knott - #28 (5th), 4. Jon Williams - #30 (3rd, DNF), 5. Tylor Henson - #11T (1st, DNF)
Heat 2 then followed with #81A of Jeremy Alves starting on the pole, the #86 of Ty Hindman starting on the outside, followed by the #2 of Davey Pombo, the #36B of Kevin Barnes Sr. and the #64C rounding out the field for heat race #2
The race kicked off with Jeremy Alves leading the opening lap but on lap 2, a yellow comes over the track as Ty Hindman spins coming out of turn two and we also see Kevin Barnes Sr. exit the track due to mechanical issues. On the restart, we see a close battle for first as Alves and Pombo battle for the lead and on lap 3, we see Pombo win the battle where he would lead for the rest of the race and coming to the checkered, Koen Shaw in the #64C machine passes Alves in the #81A for the second position coming out of four. The race concluded with Davey Pombo out of Kerman, CA in the #2 car picking up the heat race win and a gap of nearly 3 seconds over second place driver Koen Shaw
Heat 2 Rundown (8 Laps):
- Davey Pombo - #2 (3rd), 2. Koen Shaw - #64C (5th), 3. Jeremy Alves - 81A (1st), 4. Ty Hindman - #86 (2nd), 5. Kevin Barnes Sr. - #36B (4th, DNF)
The final heat race for the night had the #15 car of Rino Felicioni on the pole, the #18 of Lance Jackson on the pole, followed by the #3 of Anthony Pombo, the 31H of Phil Heynen and the #7 of Andy Smith rounding out the field for heat race #3.
The final heat race of the night for the CRS series kicked off with Felicioni losing control coming into turn two on the opening lap and hitting Heynen’s left rear which resulted in a flat and Heynen hitting the hot pit to fix the flat left rear. Three laps later on lap 5, we see Felicioni spin between turns three and four and collects Smith in the #7 car. Also on lap 5 we see the return of Heynen and the #31H with a freshly fixed left rear. A lap later, Smith in the #7 car spins in turn four and later pulls off the track. With a fresh restart, we later see Felicioni in the #15 car overtake Anthony Pombo in the #3 for the second position where he would also finish, but not without giving leader Lance Jackson a run for his money coming to the checkered and out of turn four and coming up short to Jackson by a mere six tenths of a second. The final heat race of the night would end with Lance Jackson who comes from Kingsburg, CA picking up the heat race win.
Heat 3 Rundown (8 Laps):
- Lance Jackson - #18 (2nd), 2. Rino Felicioni - #15 (1st), 3. Anthony Pombo - #3 (3rd), 4. Phil Heynen (4th), 5. Andy Smith (5th, DNF)
Feature Lineup:
- Kyle Rasmussen - #38N, 2. Lance Jackson - #18, 3. Davey Pombo - #2, 4. KC Weikle - #53, 5. Koen Shaw - #64C, 6. Rino Felicioni - #15, 7. David Knott - #28, 8. Anthony Pombo - #3, 9. Tylor Henson - #11T, 10. Ty Hindman - #86, 11. Jon Williams - #30, 12. Phil Heynen - #31H, 13. Andy Smith - #7, 14. Kevin Barnes Sr. - #36B, 15. Jeremy Alves - #81A
The first fifteen laps of the RaceSaver feature were definitely a sight to be reckoned with. The feature opened up with Kyle Rasmussen and Davey Pombo fighting for the lead, with Rasmussen leading Pombo by a very slim margin on the opening lap. The fight ended with a caution caused by Hindman when he spun at the bottom of turn four on lap 2. Four laps later on lap 6, Weikle spun out in the middle of four and coming back to green, Shaw pulled to the bottom of turn two and could not get refired and later got pushed back to the pits. On the restart, Weikle climbed the cushion in turn two but kept going. The wave of yellows would soon come back as Felicioni spun entering turn one on lap 8. On the restart, Weikle gets loose entering one and spins between turns one and two and collects Felicioni in the process, which requires Weikle to need Merced’s Motorsport Movers. And on lap 11, Felicioni causes the last yellow of the feature by spinning out in turn four which would force him to go back to the pits. But the last 10 laps of the main would not go without some key events, which included Jon Williams losing control in front of leader Kyle Rasmussen in turn two but was able to keep going and then on lap 24, we saw the battle for the lead pick up between Rasmussen and D. Pombo again but in the end, Rasmussen would come out on top and win by a margin of almost a second and a half.
In his victory lane interview, when asked how did the track feel, Rasmussen had this to say; “it was a little technical, definitely got to play huggy-pole, in the beginning, I was kind of off the bottom and definitely left the door open for it. And if they can’t beat you, they’re going to have to move you”. As the interview went on, Rasmussen alluded to the fact about lapped traffic playing a role in where to run on the track. He also mentioned that he was “twiddling his thumbs” while navigating lapped traffic. And when it came to thanking sponsors, the first words to come out of Rasmussen’s mouth were “First off, Quick Change Energy, they really made this 305 program come back to life so big hats off to them, our new promoters, they’ve been working their tails off to even put a schedule together…”
Feature Rundown (25 Laps):
- Kyle Rasmussen - #38N (1st), 2. Davey Pombo - #2 (3rd), 3. Kevin Barnes Sr. - #36B (14th), 4. Phil Heynen - #31H (12th), 5. Tylor Henson - #11T (9th), 6. Anthony Pombo - #3 (8th), 7. Ty Hindman - #86 (10th), 8. David Knott - #28 (7th), 9. Lance Jackson - #18 (2nd), 10. Jon Williams - #30 (11th), 11. Andy Smith - #7 (13th), 12. Rino Felicioni - #15 (6th, DNF), 13. KC Weikle - #53 (4th, DNF) 14. Koen Shaw - #64C (5th, DNF), 15. Jeremy Alves (DNS)
Catch the California RaceSaver Sprints in a couple of weeks on April 12th, when they go to Bakersfield Speedway to battle it out for their second race of the season!!
BIG THANK YOU to all the sponsors who make this possible: Quick Change Liquid Energy, BR Motorsports, Sidewaze Designs, Rugged Radios, MyRacePass.
- ALICIA GARGES on Apr 01, 2025
- Article Date: 4/1/2025 by Brandon Garges