PLACERVILLE, Calif. – Andy Forsberg made some noise for the local crowd, or the old guys, depending on your point of view, after a stellar week-long run against the World of Outlaws Craftsman Sprint Car Series in Northern California.
Making his first two starts of the season last weekend at Silver Dollar Speedway, Forsberg scored top-10 finishes in both A-Features during the annual Gold Cup Race of Champions, but it was Forsberg’s performance during Wednesday night’s 49er Gold Rush Classic presented by Riebes Auto Parts at his home track that really turned heads and made waves within the pit area.
Forsberg kicked off the mid-week program at Placerville Speedway by setting quick time at the quarter-mile oval, turning a lap of 10.282 seconds around the quarter-mile bullring and earning $2,000 courtesy of High Sierra Industries, who put up a thousand-dollar bonus for qualifying and agreed to double it if the fast qualifier was not a World of Outlaws regular.
The 42-year-old veteran then won his heat race to transfer to the Sears Craftsman Dash, but struggled after being pinned in fifth starting position for the dash, fading to sixth and gridding up on the outside of row three for the 49-lap, $20,000 to win main event.
Forsberg didn’t falter, however. He charged up inside the top five immediately, but faded as far back as seventh in traffic before returning to the top five for good on lap 18.
He appeared destined to finish fifth after a long green-flag run, but a crash on the final lap which eliminated second-running Rico Abreu and shuffled the deck up front gave Forsberg new life. He charged into the fray and waged war with Cory Eliason on the final restart before icing third for good.
After the race, Forsberg was fired up and dishing humor, both on his own veteran experience and that of his crew.
“This is just a group of old, decrepit has-beens working on this car, really … and one decrepit old has-been driving it,” joked Forsberg during the podium celebration. “This car is a 2009 ART, the youngest guy on my crew is 54 years old, and I guess we kind of know what we’re doing! What a night this was.
“Thank you to the A&A Stepping Stone guys that are here; they worked their tails off and turned this car around in just a couple of days from the Gold Cup. I’m just the lucky guy that gets to drive it,” Forsberg continued. “Racing locally can turn into a full-time job, but it’s not a full-time job for me because I’ve got a bunch of great, dedicated people that help me out. Thank you to all of them; dang, this feels good!”
With Wednesday night’s result, Forsberg completed a run of three top-10 finishes in three World of Outlaws starts this season, with an average finish of seventh in less than a week’s time.
Forsberg will return to racing locally on Saturday night at Placerville, when he’ll be officially honored with the track’s 360 winged sprint car championship for the sixth time in his career, tied for the most in history alongside the legendary Brian Crockett.
It’s also his landmark 20th driving championship as a competitor in Northern California.
“It’s big fish, little pond syndrome, I guess,” laughed Forsberg of the milestone title. “When we come and race with the big fish, then we become a little fish. Every once in a while we can sneak one (good finish) off with the Outlaws, and it’s pretty motivating when you can run really well against them. We’ve raced against them three times this year and finished third, eighth and 10th; we’re really proud of that.
“We can do just as cool things on Saturdays as we do here on a Wednesday night, and Saturday will be pretty special for me – I can tell you that much.”
