Heavy track favors Andy Forsberg in Civil War victory

<p>Petaluma Speedway's heavy clay racing surface, a favorite among sprint car drivers near and far, proved to be an ideal fit Saturday night for Auburn's Andy Forsberg, who capitalized on a front-row start to grab an early lead before holding off a determined late-race challenge by defending champion Sean Becker of Antelope to become the Civil War Series first two-time feature winner of the season. </p><p>Both of Forsberg's victories have been on Petaluma's three-eighths-mile oval, this one adding valuable points to the slender advantage held by the former four-time series champion over second-ranked Herman Klein, who finished fourth, and third-ranked Becker, who entered the event 10 points behind Forsberg. </p><p>In the accompanying All-Pro Racing Series events, Paul Guglielmoni, in a surprising finish, captured his first Late Model victory of the season, and Michael Paul Jr. held off an exciting challenge by his father, Michael Paul Sr., to win his third straight Dirt Modified feature. </p><p>Forsberg led the 22-car Sprint Car field through a mostly uneventful first 19 laps, in which Becker climbed from the second row to second place, and Mike Henry, who, along with fast-qualifier Mason Moore, had to come through the B-main to reach the feature, rose from eighth starting to third place.</p><p>On Lap 19, Jimmy Trulli's mechanical problems slowed Forsberg's frantic pace, and on the next lap, fourth-place Richard Brace Jr., who had started in the front row, lost a wheel. With two lapped cars electing to go to the rear, Forsberg's lead over Becker, Henry, Petaluma regular Geoff Ensign and Klein was sharply narrowed. </p><p>On the restart, Becker immediately began to haunt Forsberg, closing to within two car lengths as the laps wound down, but the track, “heavy and fast, just the way I like it,” according to Forsberg, favored the leader.</p><p>As the cars charged toward the checkered flag on what should have been the final lap, Cody Lamar, running at the back of the pack, but just ahead of the front-runners, took a hard end-over-end tumble, bringing out starter Joe Ponti's red flag. The green/white and checkered two-lap finish added to the drama, but Forsberg remained unaffected, as he collected the triumph over Becker, Henry, Klein, Ensign and Bradley Terrell. </p><p>In the B-main, Henry had no trouble, as he led all 12 laps, and transferred to the feature along with second-place Moore, Camron Mendes and Lamar.</p><p>The outside front row was the place to be in the heats, as all four winners started in that spot, with three of the victories going to Petaluma Speedway regulars.</p><p>All-Pro points leader Terrell won the first heat, Stephen Allard won the second, 15-year-old rookie driver Chase Johnson of Penngrove won the third and Jeremy Burt prevailed in the final heat race. </p><p>The Civil War Series returns to Petaluma Speedway on Aug. 6, for its fourth and final appearance of the season.</p><p>In the Jeff Decker-dominated Late Model standings, where the Morgan Hill driver has won six of the first seven races, Santa Rosa's Anthony Restad was the only driver separating Decker from a perfect season, having snapped Decker's four-race winning streak three races ago. Saturday night, with Decker's new two-race winning streak on the line, and Restad starting in the front row next to Guglielmoni, two rows ahead of Decker, the odds were stacked against a Decker three-peat. </p><p>Restad quickly launched into a torrid pace, with Guglielmoni in tight pursuit, while John Silva, Randy Shafer and Decker battled it out for third place. The fast track and lack of yellow flags helped put Restad and Guglielmoni into lapped traffic after 10 laps, with both drivers performing flawlessly.</p><p>Things changed rapidly when, with three laps remaining, the event's first and only yellow flag was waved. As the cars lined up for the restart, Restad, assuming it would be a single-file restart, was on the inside and Guglielmoni took the highly favored outside. But, as track officials explained, the race's first restart follows a double-file format. Veteran racer Guglielmoni pounced at the surprising opportunity, bolted into the lead on the restart and held on to grab the victory, his first of the season, over Restad, Decker, Randy Shafer, Silva and Rod Arnold. </p><p>Chris Sieweke led the first 13 laps of the 25-lap Dirt Modified feature, but by the time the Michael Pauls, junior and senior, passed him on Lap 14, the race had turned into a red-hot two-man shootout for first place, and family ties took a back seat winning.</p><p>The Pauls, who have dominated the last 10 years of Dirt Modified racing at Petaluma Speedway with a combined seven track championships between them (Paul Sr. has three, Paul Jr. has four), and total 79 wins, have seldom raced this hard and this close. </p><p>Three-time defending champion Paul Jr. was up for the challenge, as he repeatedly shut the door on every challenge by his father as he sped to his third straight feature win, his sixth of the season and 33rd of his career. </p><p>Twice in the past, Paul Jr. has notched three straight victories, but never has he won four in a row.</p><p>Rounding out the finish were third-place Mike Learn, Sieweke, Oreste Gonella, Joel Myers, John Escobar and Jon Hoke.</p>