{"id":359680,"date":"2026-06-13T21:18:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T21:18:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/359680\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T21:18:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T21:18:12","slug":"sacramentos-landon-henry-14-earns-first-sprint-car-win-at-watsonville-speedway-santa-cruz-sentinel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/359680\/","title":{"rendered":"Sacramento\u2019s Landon Henry, 14, earns first sprint car win at Watsonville Speedway \u2013 Santa Cruz Sentinel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>WATSONVILLE \u2014 The young guns continued to shine at Watsonville Speedway, as 14-year-old Landon Henry of Sacramento bolted to his initial winged sprint sar victory on Friday night.<\/p>\n<p>Half of the Gold Star GMC 360 Sprint Car races this season have now been captured by drivers who were age 14 at the time.<\/p>\n<p>Also claiming wins on Friday were Martinez\u2019s Nick Decarlo in IMCA Modifieds, Yreka\u2019s Bo Crebs in Santa Cruz Apparel IMCA Sport Mods, Porterville\u2019s Colby Quinton in R&amp;J Landscaping Hobby Stocks and San Jose\u2019s Mel Dunn in Police N Pursuit.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier in the week, the track surface was widened and it was noticeable during the Johnny Key Classic Tune-Up Race.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" lazyautosizes lazyload\" alt=\"Sacramento's Landon Henry, 14, celebrates winning the Gold Star GMC 360 Sprint Car feature race at Watsonville Speedway on Friday night. (Top Dawg Photos)\" width=\"3824\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/STC-L-SPEEDWAY-0614-02.jpg\" data-attachment-id=\"4369067\" \/>Sacramento&#8217;s Landon Henry, 14, celebrates winning the Gold Star GMC 360 Sprint Car feature race at Watsonville Speedway on Friday night. (Top Dawg Photos)<\/p>\n<p>Henry jumped to the early lead in the 360 sprint car feature, as drivers behind him jockeyed for position over the early stages. El Cajon\u2019s Braden Chiaramonte, Clayton\u2019s Joey Ancona and Auburn\u2019s Andy Forsberg went at it before things calmed down with Chiaramonte settling into second.<\/p>\n<p>With a handful of laps remaining, Chiaramonte and Ancona exchanged spots, with the El Cajon driver remaining in the runner-up position. He then began to reel in the leader and with the white flag waving, things began to heat up.<\/p>\n<p>Henry didn\u2019t get the run up top that he wanted through turns one and two, which allowed Chiaramonte to dive below him, making it a fight for the win.<\/p>\n<p>Ancona was right there waiting to pounce on the final corners as well, but Henry did what he needed to do and crossed under the Ed Entz checkered by inches over Chiaramonte to grab the thrilling win. Ancona, the Taco Bravo Hard Charger; Forsberg, Keith Day Company Fast Time Award winner; and Caleb Debem completed the top five.<\/p>\n<p>IMCA Modified<\/p>\n<p>The IMCA Modified main event saw multiple different leaders while putting on a solid show in their 20-lapper. Prunedale\u2019s Jonathan Hagio took the early command, but it was short-lived as Robert Marsh blasted to the point on lap four.<\/p>\n<p>A long red flag period to clean up a crash in turn two was seen, which dropped the race from 25-laps to 20 with curfew looming. Jim Pettit II looked very fast and took the lead on lap nine, until \u201cQuick Nick\u201d Decarlo assumed the top spot with 14 laps complete.<\/p>\n<p>Decarlo went on to grab the win ahead of Pettit, Marsh, Fred Lind and Hagio.<\/p>\n<p>IMCA Sport Mods<\/p>\n<p>The Santa Cruz Apparel IMCA Sport Mods saw the \u201cBurrito Bandito\u201d Kaden Perez of Watsonville hop to the early lead. He maintained command for several laps before encountering issues that knocked him out of contention.<\/p>\n<p>Yreka\u2019s Crebs ran on the high side early, as he had to withstand several restarts, and fended off Danny Wagner. Crebs withstood all challengers and grabbed the win with Wagner.<\/p>\n<p>Atwater\u2019s Darren Thomas, Kingsburg\u2019s Todd Carlock and Brentwood\u2019s Jeff Bentancourt rounded out the top five.<\/p>\n<p>Hobby Stocks<\/p>\n<p>The R&amp;J Landscaping Hobby Stocks had a lengthy feature that was ultimately cut to 16 laps due to time constraints. Porterville driver Colby Quinton made the drive to Watsonville pay off by claiming the triumph over Watsonville\u2019s Lilly Mead and Dakota Keldsen, Joe Gallaher of Manassas, Virginia, and Santa Cruz\u2019s Brady Muller.<\/p>\n<p>Police N Pursuit<\/p>\n<p>Mel Dunn made the move by AJ Waltrip of Santa Cruz County Sheriffs Office to claim the Police N Pursuit portion of the evening.<\/p>\n<p>IF YOU GO<\/p>\n<p>66th Johnny Key Classic<\/p>\n<p>When: June 20, 4 p.m.<\/p>\n<p>Where: Watsonville Speedway<\/p>\n<p>Events: 360 Sprint Cars (Sprint Car Challenge Tour), Four Bangers, BCRA\/WMR Midget Super Series, West Coast Pro Stocks and the Watsonville Wreckers Demolition Derby.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WATSONVILLE \u2014 The young guns continued to shine at Watsonville Speedway, as 14-year-old Landon Henry of Sacramento bolted&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359681,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[146385,104582,146386,146387,146389,121,123,122,104581,146388],"class_list":["post-359680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-14-year-old-landon-henry-of-sacramento","tag-gary-thomas","tag-gold-star-gmc-360-sprint-car-race","tag-martinezs-nick-decarlo-in-imca-modifieds","tag-portervilles-colby-quinton-in-rj-landscaping-hobby-stocks-and-san-joses-mel-dunn-in-police-n-pursuit","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news","tag-watsonville-speedway","tag-yrekas-bo-crebs-in-santa-cruz-apparel-imca-sport-mods"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}