Ventura, California (July 20, 2024)………Caden Sarale survived a four-lap shootout and a fierce challenge from Ryan Bernal down the stretch to score the victory in Saturday night’s USAC Avanti Windows & Doors USAC Western States Midget feature at California’s Ventura Raceway.
For Sarale (Stockton, Calif.), it’s his second win of the USAC Western States Midget season, and overall, the third of his career with the series.
In a race that featured five lead changes among three different drivers, Sarale emerged with the victory late in the going. Sarale led three different times after starting from the pole position for the 30-lap main event on the 1/5-mile dirt oval.
Brandon Wiley paced the opening two laps before Sarale briefly took over on lap three. Wiley surged back to the front on lap as Sarale regained control on lap five in a hectic first five laps to start the main.
Sarale remained up front until a caution was displayed with four laps remaining. On the subsequent restart, fifth running Dalten Gabbard’s car failed to take off, resulting in a stack up between C.J. Sarna (6th) and Dane Culver (7th), sending all drivers to a stop.
Once the field was reset for the lap 27 restart, second running Bernal made his bid for the win when he slid past Sarale in turns three and four, then beating Sarale to the line to lead with four to go. However, Sarale had the inside line and beat Bernal in a drag race to the bottom of turn one to retake the top spot. From there, Sarale successfully fended off Bernal by about five car lengths to secure the victory.
Chase Johnson (Penngrove, Calif.) earned Woodland Auto Display Fast Qualifying honors but opted to relinquish his sixth starting spot in order to take on the back row challenge for an extra $5,000 bonus if we could pull off the win. Starting 21st, Johnson raced his way to a third-place finish, coming up just two spots shy of the 5K bonus, but he did pocket the night’s Carrick Towing / Rod End Supply Hard Charger award for his +18 performance.
The top-two in USAC Western States Midget points, Cade Lewis (Bakersfield, Calif.) and Drake Edwards (Peoria, Ariz.), rounded out the top-five in the fourth and fifth positions, respectively.
Prior to the feature, a 20-lap non-points special event pursuit race was held, consisting of separate segments totaling 20 laps in length. If a driver was passed in any of the segments, they were eliminated. Chase Johnson not only avoided elimination, but he thrived in his charged from 14th to the win, picking up an extra $3,000 for his efforts.
USAC AVANTI WINDOWS & DOORS WESTERN STATES MIDGET SERIES RACE RESULTS: July 20, 2024 – Ventura Raceway – Ventura, California
WOODLAND AUTO DISPLAY QUALIFYING: 1. Chase Johnson, 68, Six8-12.842; 2. Drake Edwards, 3p, Petty-13.149; 3. Garrett Twitty, 4G, Twitty-13.314; 4. Cade Lewis, 101, Alexander-13.334; 5. Brandon Wiley, 14, Graunstadt-13.335; 6. Caden Sarale, 32, Sarale-13.361; 7. Ryan Bernal, 8w, Ford-13.567; 8. Dalten Gabbard, 77, Gabbard-13.772; 9. Brandt Twitty, 4B, Twitty-13.874; 10. Ricky Lewis, 14T, Graunstadt-13.972; 11. C.J. Sarna, 20, Sarna-14.056; 12. Randi Pankratz, 8, Pankratz-14.075; 13. Kyle Beilman, 31B, Beilman-14.135; 14. Tom Dunkel, 17A, Ford-14.178; 15. Dane Culver, 50, Knuckles Up-14.269; 16. Cody Williams, 4, Ford-14.503; 17. Bryan Drollinger, 71D, Drollinger-14.570; 18. Taylor Hall, 31, Beilman-14.817; 19. Billy Rayburn, 18K, Kruseman-15.255; 20. Hailey Lambert, 55, Lambert-15.569; 21. Ron Hazelton, 78, Mitchell-15.787.
CAL WEST WELDING FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Ryan Bernal (4), 2. Chase Johnson (6), 3. Cody Williams (1), 4. Cade Lewis (5), 5. Kyle Beilman (2), 6. Ricky Lewis (3), 7. Billy Rayburn (7). NT
ROD END SUPPLY SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Drake Edwards (6), 2. Tom Dunkel (2), 3. C.J. Sarna (3), 4. Brandon Wiley (5), 5. Bryan Drollinger (1), 6. Hailey Lambert (7), 7. Dalten Gabbard (4). NT
BR MOTORSPORTS THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Caden Sarale (5), 2. Randi Pankratz (3), 3. Garrett Twitty (6), 4. Brandt Twitty (4), 5. Ron Hazelton (7), 6. Taylor Hall (1), 7. Dane Culver (2). NT
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Caden Sarale (1), 2. Ryan Bernal (6), 3. Chase Johnson (21), 4. Cade Lewis (3), 5. Drake Edwards (5), 6. Cody Williams (15), 7. Dane Culver (14), 8. Randi Pankratz (11), 9. Tom Dunkel (13), 10. C.J. Sarna (10), 11. Bryan Drollinger (16), 12. Ricky Lewis (9), 13. Dalten Gabbard (7), 14. Garrett Twitty (4), 15. Kyle Beilman (12), 16. Brandt Twitty (8), 17. Hailey Lambert (19), 18. Billy Rayburn (18), 19. Brandon Wiley (2), 20. Taylor Hall (17). NT
PURSUIT RACE: (20 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Chase Johnson (14), 2. Ryan Bernal (13), 3. Drake Edwards (15), 4. Dane Culver (5), 5. Caden Sarale (18), 6. Bryan Dollinger (3), 7. Cody Williams (4), 8. Kyle Beilman (7), 9. Ricky Lewis (10), 10. Tom Dunkel (6), 11. Dalten Gabbard (12), 12. Taylor Hall (2), 13. Randi Pankratz (8), 14. Brandon Wiley (17), 15. C.J. Sarna (9), 16. Billy Rayburn (1). NT
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-2 Brandon Wiley, Lap 3 Caden Sarale, Lap 4 Brandon Wiley, Laps 5-26 Caden Sarale, Lap 27 Ryan Bernal, Laps 28-30 Caden Sarale.
USAC WESTERN STATES MIDGET POINTS: 1-Cade Lewis-397, 2-Drake Edwards-383, 3-Dane Culver-311, 4-Caden Sarale-307, 5-Brandt Twitty-250, 6-Dalten Gabbard-232, 7-C.J. Sarna-232, 8-Garrett Twitty-224, 9-Brandon Wiley-223, 10-Ben Covich-214.
NEXT USAC WESTERN STATES MIDGET RACE: August 31, 2024 – Santa Maria Speedway – Nipomo, California
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
Carrick Towing / Rod End Supply Hard Charger: Chase Johnson (21st to 3rd)
