STOCKTON — Stockton’s JoJo Stearns drove to a commanding wire-to-wire victory in Saturday night’s 50-lap Stockton Late Model feature at the 99 Speedway, which enabled him to vault to the top of the hotly-contested, three-way points battle for the season championship.

Stearns topped the charts in qualifying to earn the pole to earn a front-row spot in the 10-car feature alongside Stockton’s Ty Carlson, his brother-in-law. Lurking just behind them in the second row was defending track champion Larry Tankersley, of Stockton, who entered the night holding a minuscule one-point lead on Stearns and a three-point margin on Carlson in the season standings.

The family dynamic was immediately tested, as the green flag dropped to start the race when Stearns and Carlson touched going into Turn 1, which caused Carlson to barrel straight into the concrete wall. After some quick repairs in the pits, Carlson was able to return to the track just in the nick of time to restart the race from the rear of the field.

Thanks to Carlson’s misfortune, Tankersley was able to move into the front row for the second try at starting the race, but he was unable to take advantage of the opportunity, as Stearns quickly powered to the front. Stearns would remain in the lead for the remainder of the race, easily weathering a couple of caution restarts to take the win by a three-second margin over Tankersley, who had his hands full over the final laps fending off Stockton’s Daniel Devore.

“We had a good car right from unloading it off the trailer tonight, and it was fast right from the jump. The restarts were big, and we were able to clear right away, and it was smooth sailing from there,” Stearns explained. “Once I got out in front, I just tried to be as consistent and smooth as possible to save my tires, so I was ready in case we had a late race caution.”

Meanwhile, it was anything but smooth sailing for Carlson. After slowly working his way back up through the field to take over the third spot at mid-race, he encountered more bad luck on lap 31 when he suddenly slowed to a stop on the back straight with a handling issue.

Once again, his crew solved the problem just in time for him to rejoin the field at the back of the pack for the restart, from where he proceeded to move his way up through the order for a second time. On the final lap, he dove under Devore coming out of Turn 4 to miraculously capture third place and keep his championship hopes alive.

“The whole race, I was thinking about how it sucked getting into Ty on the first lap,” Stearns admitted. “There was some miscommunication on clearing him. It was a bummer to see him get his car torn up, and I am sure we will be discussing it at the shop on Monday.”

After Saturday’s win, Stearns now holds a narrow three-point lead (338 to 335) over Tankersley, while Carlson sits just seven points behind him with 331. But even with only the “double points” season finale on Saturday, Oct. 12, remaining on the schedule for the Stockton Late Model division, Stearns is not worried about the standings. 

“I don’t really like getting wrapped up thinking about the points until it is all over, because if you focus on them, it can change your racing style, so I let my crew worry about that and I just concentrate on driving.”

Starting to the outside of pole sitter Jerry Kobza, of Folsom, Rocklin’s Tony Hunt bolted to the lead of the 25-lap NCMA Sprint Car main on the back straight of the opening lap.

Hunt struggled to stay out in front as Rescue’s Pat Goodwill, the winner of the previous NCMA race on Aug. 17, slowly but steadily began to reel him in. But just when Goodwill seemed poised to pounce on lap 16, he suffered a front-end failure that put him into a spin and prematurely ended his night.

With his toughest advisory on the sidelines, Hunt was able to cruise to the victory over Shauna Hogg of Fair Oaks, and Kobza.

“I have been racing here for 13 years, and some of my most special moments have come here, so it is good to be back here in victory lane,” Hunt said. “We worked hard on the car and found a few things that we thought could work to our advantage, and they paid off tonight.”

Starting from the front row next to Stockton’s Ethan Rumsey, who entered the night on a two-race winning streak, Cross quickly charged to the front and began to pull away. Maneuvering around traffic throughout the last half of the caution-free race, Cross never looked back, as he sailed to the checkered flag ahead of Ramsey and Linden’s Leilani Sprenkel.

“It wasn’t too difficult tonight, and it feels great to be back in victory lane,” Cross said. “The car started to get a little hot near the end, the motor is getting a little tired because it has a lot of races on it, so I started backing off it a bit over the last laps.”

Despite dropping out of the race with five laps to go due to a mechanical problem, Manteca’s Jordan Mast continues to hold a massive lead in the division’s season standings over Stockton’s Natalie Harper and Rumsey.

Lodi’s Brandon Jones continued his dominance of the Pure Stock class, as he picked up his seventh win of the season, finishing a half lap ahead of Stockton’s Jeremy Tucker in their caution-free 20-lap feature. Jones now holds a 36-point advantage over Tucker in the Pure Stock standings, with three races remaining on the 2024 schedule.

The 99 Speedway will be back in action on Saturday, Sept. 14, when the Pro Late Models, where Stearns also holds the lead by a five-point margin over Tracy’s Justin Philpott. Also on tap will be the Grand American Modifieds, Legends of 99, and Bandoleros.

Spears SRL Southwest Tour Series

Running only a part-time schedule in 2024, three-time Spears SRL Southwest Tour Series champion Jacob Gomes, of Manteca, snared his second win in just two starts this season by capturing the victory over Napa’s Dylan Zampa and Oakdale’s Blaine Rocha in the “JM Environmental Inc Wild West Shootout Money Talks 127 presented by Big Valley Sanitation” at Redwood Acres Raceway in Eureka, on Aug. 31.

The win was his 17th in 137 career starts, and it broke a tie with legendary “Tour” racer Jim Pettit II, for second on the all-time series wins list.

Upcoming next for Gomes and the Spears SRL Southwest Tour Series will be at Stockton 99 Speedway on Saturday, Sept. 21.