By: Chris Santos
10/5/22…Chico California: Friday night Colby Johnson and his team would make the trip to Chico California for night one of the 2022 Fall Nationals. An outstanding field of 67 Winged 360 sprint cars would make the trip to kick off the 2022 Fall Nationals and in the Silver Dollar Speedway season.
Colby would be one of the first cars out as he was in a very strong group number one for qualifying . He would end up having some really good speed as he would be second quick out of the 16 winged 360 sprint cars in his group. “We started off qualifying strong we qualified second.“
That would put Colby in a pole position for heat race number one. However, Faccinto would get him on the start, and Colby would fall back to second. Colby would run there for the rest of the heat race and finish in the second position. “
His heat race efforts would lock him in to the future event, where he would start 11th . Early on he had a very good car as he found himself climbing up nearly into the top five. however, the crazy feature would get him involved as well as he would make contact with a few drivers causing him to fall back to 14th. When the checkered flag fell, he would be in the 14th position. “Started 11th and got rolling, just had like the weirdest craziest main. I feel like every time I broke away I would get squeezed or I got tagged in the rear.”
Saturday night Colby would return to Chico California for night number two of the 2022 Fall Nationals. Another very strong field of 66 winged 360 sprint cars would pack the Silver Dollar Speedway pit area ready to go in the final race of the 2022 race season at Chico California.
His night would start out with qualifying where he would have yet another tough group as he would go out in the first group. This time he would struggle as he would end up tenth quick, and barely make the heat race cut off. “We started off the night terrible. I don’t know what happened in qualifying we were second quick in hot laps. We then went to qualify and was 10th in our group.”
The heat race will see him roll off from the 10th position outside of row number five. The track would be hooked up early on in heat race and Colby would have a very hard time passing. He would end up finishing in the 10th position and head to the C-main event. “The track was super fast and I finished 10th in our heat race.”
That would line him up on the second row of the C-main event. He would start fourth and kind of struggle early as he found himself outside of a transfer a spot. However, Colby would race his way back in and finish in the fourth and final transfer spot & head to the B-main.
In the B-main he would start on the final row in the 20th position. He would start to find his speed as he would charge forward eight spots to the 12th spot. However, it would be too late as when the checkered flag fell he would finish 12th and miss the B-Main transfer. “Made a couple of adjustments and would go 20th to 12 in the B-main which was good but not enough.”
It was a very solid weekend for Colby highlighted by a top 15 finish on Friday. He would struggle early on Saturday but find the speed. However, it would be too late and his night would end early.
Colby would like to thank his sponsors; Pit Stop USA, CSI Shocks (Competition Suspension Inc.), Johnny Franklin's Muffler - Driveline - Hitch, Tim McCloskey Electric, Inc., K1 RaceGear, Bell Helmets, QuickCar Racing Products, Topline Titanium, and Schoenfeld headers.
Next Race: TBA