By: Chris Santos
9/20/22…Hanford California: Thursday Night, Ryan Rocha and his team would return to action after a long hiatus from Winged Sprint Car Racing. A great field of 36 Winged 360 Sprint Cars would pack the Keller Auto Speedway pit area for a very good night of racing action in Hanford.
His night would start off in qualifying as he would go out in the 2nd group. Ryan would end up putting down a decent lap. That lap would put him in the 5th position out of 9 Winged 360 Sprint Cars that were in his group.
A 5th place qualifying result in his group would put him in the inside of row 3 in the 5th position to start his heat race. On the start he would fall back to 6th, and that would put him out of a transfer spot. Keller Auto Speedway would be follow the leader for the heat races & he would finish in the 6th position and go to the B-main.
The B-main would have Ryan start on the outside of row one in the 2nd position. The inside would get the jump and Ryan would be shuffled back to 3rd. However he would hold onto 3rd and finish there, transferring to the Thursday Night Feature event.
With a 3rd place finish in the B-main, Ryan would start inside of row 11 in the 23rd position for the feature. He would battle early on, however an issue in turns 1 & 2 would end his feature early as he would finish in the 22nd position and bring his weekend to an end.
Overall it was a solid night for Ryan. He would get a lot of laps as he would get used to being back behind the wheel, while also making a very strong feature event in his first race back behind the wheel in around 2 months.
Ryan would like to thank his sponsors; • K&M Ag, R&R Farms, Fagundes Auto Body, Van De Pol Petroleum, Myers Well Drilling Inc., Spy Graphic, Brasil Hay, Davis Motorsports, Valley Oxygen, Wisecarver Farms, Aardema Group, Twin Ridge Genetics, Mesa Alta Transportation Inc., Tiner Hirst Enterprise, Don Otts Racing Engines, Davis Farms, Champlin Farms, Hoosier Tires, Simpson Racing Products, Daval Building Maintenance, and Russell Howard.
Next Race: TBA