Continuing his season-long domination of the Stockton Late Model division, Escalon’s Sam Solari was virtually untouchable as he cruised to his fourth win of the season in Saturday night’s 60-lap feature at the Stockton 99 Speedway.
After lapping the high-backed quarter-mile oval in 14.521 seconds on Sept. 6 to set the fast time in qualifying, an invert draw of six relegated Solari to the third row of the 13-car field for the start of the feature. It mattered little, as Solari used the outside lane to immediately surge into the second spot, behind pole sitter Dan Devore of Stockton, just two laps into the race.
Biding his time, Solari patiently stalked the leader before swooping by him on lap 15 after Devore became entangled in traffic. Once in the lead, Solari seemed to be on autopilot, as he gradually pulled away from the field until the only caution flag of the race popped out with just three laps remaining after Stockton’s Shawn O’Leary clipped the front-straight wall.
“I was just frustrated because I know what can happen under yellow; it will change the whole race,” Solari said. “I actually backed up the pace a bit mid-race because I was in so much lapped traffic. One of them almost crashed us.”
Although track officials elected to go with a single-file restart, Devore stayed glued to Solari’s tailpipe over the final laps, tapping his rear bumper on a couple of occasions as he attempted to try and get him loose. Solari was able to maintain control to take the checkered flag by a couple of car lengths ahead of Devore.
“Just hard racing,” Solari described it.
Following the leaders across the line were JoJo Stearns, Ty Carlson and Greg Potts, all of Stockton, to fill out the top five.
After accumulating seven division championships, which include two track championships, in over 30 years of racing at the 99, Solari has nothing to prove, but he is hoping to add another title this year for car owners Nelson and Emily Laires of L5 Farming.
“I don’t really care about championships because I already have seven, but I have never won one with the Laires, so I would like to win them one for providing the race car for me and everything we need week in and week out,” Solari said. “That part of it is real important – as a team effort, it is important.”
With his victory on Saturday, Solari now holds a solid 18-point advantage (370 to 352) over Stearns with just two races remaining for the division on the 2025 schedule: Kids Night on Saturday, Sept. 20, and the championship night race on Oct. 18, which will be worth double points.
Pure Stock: Mason Beghtel of Morada said he “knew it was my time” when Jerry Crawford of Stockton and points leader Donnie Darter of Valley Springs crashed on the 23rd lap of the main event.
Crawford was on Darter’s bumper for several laps before making a run for the lead inside Darter. They came together along the front stretch, which resulted in Darter slamming the wall hard entering Turn 1. Crawford also got turned around, and both were out of the race.
Following a lengthy cleanup, Sam Reynolds of Lockeford grabbed the lead on the restart, but after battling side by side for several laps, Beghtel was able to drive under him on lap 26 to earn the victory in the 30-lap race. Defending division champion Brian Jones of Lodi placed third.
It could also be Beghtel’s time to make a run for a track championship. With his victory he now takes over the lead from Darter by a 417 to 412 margin after entering the night four points behind him in the standings.
Fast Kar Solutions Mini Modified: Freddy Irvin of Modesto established the lead early in the 30-lap feature and beat points leader Patrick Geiger of Clovis to the checkered flag by less than a car-length to win by .151 of a second. Mikala Stearns of Stockton was third.
“Patrick Geiger has his hands on every single one of these cars out here. I love the guy,” Irvin said. “That points race just got a little bit tighter.”
Said Geiger, who joined Irvin in Victory Lane, “Freddy’s been working his butt off, but not just on these cars. We got a couple Legends. I felt it tonight that he was gonna be good. I had nothing for him. I’m pretty excited that he won tonight. I’m gonna try my damndest to win the championship. I don’t want to give it to him.”
Legends of 99: Brothers Wyatt and Zack Sansom of Linden finished 1-2 in the 40-lap feature. Wyatt passed Zack on lap 5 to take the lead and then spent most of the race snaking his way through lapped traffic, picking off five lapped cars from laps 28-33.
Wyatt would go on to win by .606 of a second after surviving a late race restart following the event’s lone caution flag on lap 33.
“We had a good run tonight and I thank everyone for coming out to watch,” said Wyatt Sansom, who is preparing for the Legends Asphalt Nationals in Las Vegas next month.
Season points leader Kayci Phillips of Stockton placed third, virtually locking down the Legends championship after her closest pursuer, Justin Gantt of Stockton, elected to skip Saturday’s race.
NorCal Mini Stock: Leilani Sprenkel, 14, of Linden cruised into Victory Lane and sat on the throttle for several seconds, spitting flames out of the exhaust to celebrate her first victory at Stockton 99 as cheers rained from the stands.
Sprenkel passed points leader Ethan Rumsey of Stockton for the lead on lap 13, then nimbly squeezed through lapped traffic before going on to win the 30-lap main event by 3.707 seconds. Joe Flowers of Manteca finished third.
“This has been a long time coming. I’ve been working hard on this all season, and it finally paid off,” the soft-spoken Sprenkel said to more cheers and a big hug from her father, Scott Sprenkel, who finished the race in ninth. “Those final laps felt like they were a year long.”
Stockton 99 Speedway returns to action with Kid’s Night on Saturday, Sept. 20, with the Stockton Late Models, Pure Stocks, NorCal Mini Stocks, Legends of 99, and Fast Kar Solutions Mini Modifieds, plus free games, prizes, and activities for kids.
Ticket prices are $20 for adults ages 16-59 and $15 for juniors 11-15, seniors 60 and over, and military with an ID. A family pack (two adults, two juniors) costs $55. Kids 10 and under are free. A pit pass for all ages costs $50, and parking is free.
Racing Correspondents Dale Bosowski and Bill Poindexter contributed this story.
