Romo Motorsports driver Randy Romo kicked off his California 300 race weekend in style on Friday morning, officially winning the UTV World Championship Short Course Race that started a full day of racing on Friday. Romo completed six laps of the nine-mile short course in 1:06:47.223, beating Short Course Pro Turbo rival Ronnie Anderson by just seconds as both drivers prepared to do double duty on the day with the UTV desert race coming directly after.
Cole Fike completed the overall podium with the Production 1000 class victory, becoming the third and final driver to complete six laps on the course. Production 1000 runner-up Devin Smith and Turbo third-place finisher John Bonanno completed the overall top five with five laps completed apiece.
“I’ll take that all day!” Romo said at the finish. “The track is super fun, the Martelli's did a great job laying the course out. It was very challenging, but we just sent it. We kept live timing going with us and we knew it was within seconds every lap, and that last lap I heard (Anderson) got a flat, so I stepped it up even more because I wanted to get some time between us. Sure enough, he came on like a madman and made up a ton of time. So it was really close, but it was fun!”
“Congratulations to Randy Romo for taking the first major win of the weekend at the California 300,” said California 300 CEO Matt Martelli. “Randy and Ronnie Anderson had an epic battle all race long, and to see them fight that hard with the desert race right ahead of both of them really set the tone for some great racing over the next two days. We can’t wait to see them do battle again in today’s desert racing, and look forward to seeing if Randy can make it back-to-back wins on the day!”
Romo's daughter would be racing in the limited race Friday and has a chance to match her dad's success in the Barstow desert.
