STOCKTON — Sammy Solari set a goal for this season at Stockton 99 Speedway: Among his many victories and track championships, the Escalon driver entered the season without a Pro Late Model checkered flag. Now he has two.

Solari passed Modesto’s Garland Tyler on a restart 18 laps from the finish and drove away to victory by 3.85 seconds. JoJo Stearns of Stockton finished third in the 77-lap main event.

Solari, who also has a Stockton Late Model class victory this season, said in victory lane he only “dabbled” in Pro Late Model events until this year.

“It really feels good because I set out my mind this year to win one pro race … so to win two of them right off the bat, it’s pretty exciting,” said Solari, who scored his first Pro Late Model checkered flag in the season opener March 21. “I couldn’t do it without Mike David and all these guys.”

Tyler shot to the front at the green flag and led the field through 59 green-flag laps. Solari sneaked inside Mike Beeler for second on the 18th lap and they ran 1-2 until Hayden Stepps got into the back of Mike Fickin’s racer and wrecked on lap 59.

While Tyler clocked the quickest lap of the race at 14.7 seconds around the quarter-mile paved oval, Solari said, “I knew we were better.”

Solari pushed Tyler to drive hard while trying to save a little something in his No. 22 machine.

“I was trying to save a little bit and I’d catch up to him and I’d see where I was ... so he kept driving his (car) hard, and trying to get mine to cool down a little bit,” Solari said. “And when I saw that restart, I was like I’m good because I knew I was faster.”

Solari approached the green flag for the restart outside of Tyler, shot to the front and pulled away from there.

Hans Beeler of Salida finished fourth and Henk Gaalswyk of Modesto was fifth.

Legends of 99: Brothers Wyatt and Zach Sansom of Linden finished 1-2 under checkered/yellow flags in a dominating effort – by both.

Their best laps of the 31-lap main event – 15.078 seconds by Wyatt Sansom and 15.082 by Zach Sansom – were two-tenths of a second better than third-place finisher Jason Gilbert of Danville and a half-second quicker than Kyle Labrie of Easton and Kaine Betancourt, who finished fourth and fifth in the 18-car field.

Gilbert led the first 10 laps before Zach Sansom drove by on the inside through turns 1 and 2 to move in front on lap 12, followed quickly by Wyatt Sansom. The brothers blew by lapped traffic, and Wyatt Sansom passed Zach Sansom for the lead on a restart on lap 25.

A crash involving several cars brought out the first of two red flags over the next six laps. The track wrecker stayed busy hauling cars back to the pits.

At one point during the race, Wyatt Sansom clocked 15.131 seconds and Zach Sansom 15.132 on the same lap.

Wyatt Sansom held off his brother on two restarts before the checkered/yellow ended the race short of its scheduled 40 laps.

“I definitely got lucky on that one,” Wyatt Sansom said. “It’s always fun to race my brother and come out with a win. It worked out on my side and he had a good finish as well.”

Said Zach Sansom, “I didn’t get it done on the restart; waited too long, and he got me there. He had a better car there in the middle, and then I think mine was better here at the end.”

Grand American Modified: Scott Winters of Tracy drove into the lead on the second lap and drove away to a victory in the 35-lap main event. It was the first appearance of the season for the Modified division.

Winters won by .556 of a second. Sammy Nuno of Windsor passed Calvin Hegje of Sacramento for second on lap 22. Hegje was third, Adam Coonfield of Modesto was fourth and Aaron Coonfield of Riverbank fifth.

“The car was good, we had a great starting spot, we got out front and tried to run our pace and control the rest of it,” said Winters, who logged the quickest lap in the race at 14.466 seconds.

Fast Kar Solutions Mini Modifed: Freddy Irvin of Madera led from green flag to checkered to score his second victory in two appearances this season. Irvin finished 3.876 seconds in front of runner-up Mike Brooks Jr. in the 20-lap feature.

“Brooks is getting faster and faster every race,” Irvin said. “He’s put a lot of time and hard work and dedication into that car, and it’s showing every week.”

Irvin thanked Patrick Geiger of Clovis for letting him drive the car. Irvin set quick lap in the main event at 16.119 seconds and said he “grew up in Madera watching this car just kill everybody, and I said one day I want to drive that car, and he’s allowing me to do it.”

Irvin said several cars are being fixed up and getting ready to rent.

Said Irvin, “If anybody wants to run one, come see us.”

Stockton 99 Speedway returns to action Saturday, May 30, with its first Night of Destruction of the season featuring a motorcycle stunt show, drift exhibition, trailer racing and spectator drags. Ticket prices are $20 for ages 13 and older and $10 for kids 6-12. A family pass (two adults, two juniors) costs $50 and is available online only. Kids 5 and under are admitted for free. Parking is free at Stockton 99. Gates open at 5 p.m. with action at 6.