By BILL POINDEXTER
& DALE BOSOWSKI
Special the Bulletin
STOCKTON — JoJo Stearns wished his dad, Joey, a Happy Father’s Day a night early, and his timing was impeccable, considering he did so from Victory Lane at Stockton 99 Speedway after winning the 60-lap Stockton Late Models main event on Saturday.
It was the second checkered flag in the last two Stockton starts for the family Stearns, and it came in large part to stripping the front end even after recording “good” times during testing Thursday with JoJo Stearns, saying, and “We didn’t have a raceable car.”
Their strip job resulted in finding a frozen left ball joint, and they “changed the front geometry,” JoJo Stearns said. Final adjustments were made before the main event.
“Everyone says races are won in the garage, and this proves it right here,” said Stearns, who qualified No. 1 but started eighth because of the invert.
“We knew there were 60 laps, so we had to bide our time and be smart and not want to get into anyone and tear the car up,” Stearns said. “From the drop of the green, I knew we had a good piece, so I definitely didn’t want to rub doors with anyone and mess up what we had.”
Stearns, of Stockton, passed Sam Solari of Escalon on a restart on lap 21 and led the rest of the way, though Solari and Stockton’s Ty Carlson provided challenges – when they weren’t challenging each other. Carlson gave Solari a tap to slide by into second behind Stearns on lap 34. Carlson then got underneath the bumper of Stearns, his brother-in-law, but Stearns hung onto the lead.
Carlson then slid into the back wall, providing sparks, but maintained control and the next time around got into the back of Solari, sending him spinning in turn 4 on lap 43. Both cars turned to the infield for quick repairs before returning to the quarter-mile paved oval.
Stearns won that last restart and went on to a 3.454-second victory over Solari, who roared through the remains of a 12-car field to finish second. Carlson finished fifth behind third-place Steven Fraser of Lodi and Danny Devore of Stockton.
NorCal Mini Stock: After a blown engine kept him out of the last couple of events Manteca’s Joe Flowers decided to go to his backup car and put it on the pole for the 30-lap feature.
“I pulled our backup car out of the field on Thursday and rushed to get it ready for today,” Flowers explained. “It was the car Natalie Harper drove last season.”
Pumping about $600 worth of new parts into his racer, Stockton’s Ethan Rumsey immediately jumped into the lead over Flowers just after the green flag and drove away to a dominating 5.638-second victory in the 30-lap main event. Flowers hung on for second, and Linden’s Leilani Sprenkel recovered from an early race spin to take third.
A red flag and two cautions marred the first two laps before the last 28 laps went caution-free with Rumsey dominating, including a race-best 16.033-second lap.
Grand American Modified: Veteran Scott Winters of Tracy took his time before making his move to pass Sammy Nuno of Windsor for the lead on lap 12 and drove to the checkered flag in his third race of the season in a car his team put back together after he tore it up at the end of last season.
Winters led the rest of the way and set quick lap in the 30-lap main at 14.57 seconds en route to beating Nuno by 1.271 seconds. Jordon Smith of Daytona Beach was third when Sacramento’s Calvin Hegje spun out on the last lap as he attempted to move underneath Smith, causing the race to finish under a checkered-yellow.
Legends of 99: Cam Carraway of Castro Valley was battling with fast qualifier Wyatt Sansom of Linden for second place in the early going of the 25-lap feature when the pair touched coming out of Turn 1, causing Sansom to end up on top of Carraway’s front hood and sending both of them to the pits.
Zack Sansom of Linden took the lead from pole sitter Kayci Phillips of Stockton on the ensuing lap 3 restart and pulled away over the final 22 laps to win the 25-lap feature by 6.226 seconds.
“The car felt good all day,” said Sansom, who had the quickest lap in the feature at 15.33 seconds.
Phillips fought off late challenges by Chad Nascimento of Manteca to place second.
Pure Stock: Donnie Darter’s quest for a fourth consecutive victory ended on lap 9 when a sideswipe by Morada’s Mason Beghtel ripped away the left side of the front bumper. Darter of Valley Springs drove 10 more laps with the bumper sticking straight out before an explosion of steam from under his hood ended his night on lap 18.
Following a lengthy delay as officials cleaned up Darter’s radiator coolant spill, Stockton’s Jeremy Tucker once again jumped into the race lead and began waiting for a challenge from Darter that never came.
“Donnie Darter, he’s a tough competitor. He’s always there. He gives you a run for your money for sure,” Tucker said. “I was just taking it easy waiting for Donnie to come. I knew he was going to be coming, so I was just trying to save what I had.”
Tucker led the entire way in the 25-lap feature race, winning by a whopping 7.594 seconds. Sam Reynolds of Lockford finished second after Beghtel struggled with his handling on the final lap.
Stockton 99 will be dark until hosting the Ron Strmiska Firecracker for Stockton Late Models on Thursday, July 3, along with the NorCal Mini Stock, Pure Stock, Legends of 99 and Fast Kar Solutions Mini Modifieds.
— Dale Bosowski contributed to this report
STOCKTON 99 SPEEDWAY RESULTS
June 14, 2025
Stockton Late Model: 1. JoJo Stearns, 2. Sam Solari, 3. Steven Fraser, 4. Danny Devore, 5. Ty Carlson, 6. Brandon Diede, 7. Jeana Ramos, 8. Greg Potts, 9. Roy Luft, 10. Shawn O’Leary, 11. Lawrence Massone, 12. Tony Vincent.
Pure Stock: 1. Jeramy Tucker, 2. Sam Reynolds, 3. Mason Beghtel, 4. Dylan Powell, 5. Jerry Crawford, 6. Donnie Darter.
Grand American Modified: 1. Scott Winters, 2. Sammy Nuno, 3. Jordon Smith, 4. Calvin Hegje, 5. Sam Winkler, 6, Rick Avila.
Legends of 99: 1. Zack Sansom, 2. Kayci Phillips, 3. Chad Nascimento, 4. Justin Gantt, 5. Erin Brandt, 6. Cam Carraway, 7. Wyatt Sansom.
NorCal Mini Stock (30 laps): 1. Ethan Rumsey, 2. Joe Flowers, 3. Leilani Sprenkel, 4. Chad Pais, 5. Natalie Harper, 6. Steve Ford, 7. Scott Sprenkel, 8. John Sproule, 9. Scotty Crawford, 10. Stephanie Ziebell.
