By Michael Dennis
SONOMA, Calif. (April 16, 2018) – Ryan Mackie took home the trophy today in the Small Tire class at the team Boddie Small Tire/Big Tire 1/8 Mile Shootout today at Sonoma Raceway in Sonoma California. Giuseppe Gentile won the Big Tire class.
Mackie was excited especially after losing the first round of the last event in Bakersfield California. “It feels sweet considering Bakersfield was a disaster,” said Mackie. “We’ve got a handle on the car now and we’re starting to feel pretty good with it.”
Despite making it to the final round Mackie didn’t have much confidence entering the final round, but he had no intentions on backing down and was willing to push his car to the limit in order to get the win.
“I was not confident at all, just continued to push the envelope every pass,” Mackie said. “I was just waiting on the car to break traction down track or right after 60 feet but it never happened, it just kept holding. The weather was really cold, the Sun never came out, and I feel like I was to my advantage.”
The Team Boddie Big Tire/Small Tire Shootout competition is a grudge race style format where none of the competitors’ elapsed time or speeds are shown on the board. This can create situations where competitors must try to predict how quick their opponents are.
“You always know a little bit of what they’re running,” said Mackie. “But you’re never accurate on it.”
Big tire shootout winner Giuseppe Gentile took the victory after defeating Paul Langlie in final round. Gentile who won the previous event in Bakersfield was able to retain his points lead coming out of Sonoma.
“Feels great to win here,” explained Gentile. “It was a good track with a lot of good competition out here, it was a great win.”
Going into the final round Gentile felt pretty good about his chances.
He said, “I was pretty confident. We had been making good runs all weekend, I felt like we had the car in the finals to win it, for sure.”
The next stop on the Team Boddie presents Grudge King Shootout takes place at Tucson Raceway May 5th and 6th.
