(12/18/2018)
Despite a short season in 2018, Santa Rosa wheelman Chris Sieweke heads into 2019 with plenty of reasons for optimism. The veteran driver enjoyed a breakout performance over the last 3 months of the season, picking up 3 wins in his last 7 starts.
Looking at Sieweke’s season from a statistical perspective doesn’t do justice to just how consistent Sieweke was during 2018. While it’s true that Sieweke finished outside the Top 5 8 times across his 14 starts this year, the numbers won’t tell you that 6 of those races he didn’t finish due to either an incident, or a mechanical failure.
Most will say that a 14th place finish isn’t something to be proud of, but just making the Pat and Jim Pettit Memorial feature was a huge accomplishment for Sieweke. Sieweke was able to hold his own against 50 of the West Coast’s best Modified drivers all weekend long, an impressive feat for just about anyone.
The biggest story for Sieweke would easily be his late season success. Chris took home 3 wins at 3 separate race tracks from August to October. While the wins at Petaluma and Watsonville’s Ocean Speedway were certainly impressive, his biggest win of the season would be the Fall Brawl at Antioch Speedway. Against a full field of stout Sport Mods, Sieweke pulled off the unexpected win, easily one of the biggest of his career.
Even though he runs on a shoestring budget and doesn’t have any sponsors besides his father Mike Karinen, Sieweke managed to put together the best season of his career, and has given people plenty to talk about as we get closer to the 2019 race season. While it remains to be seen if he’ll be able to repeat this performance next year, there’s no doubt that he has firmly entrenched himself as a contender each and every night out.
Season Stats:
Starts: 16
Wins: 3 (At 3 different tracks)
Top 5’s: 8
Top 10’s: 12
Best Finish: 1st (3 Times)
Worst Finish: 14th (Pat and Jim Pettit Shootout)
Petaluma:
April 21st: 9th
May 12th: 5th
May 19th: 8th
June 16th: 9th
August 11th: 1st
September 3rd: 11th
Antioch:
May 5th: 8th
June 30th: 13th (Sport Mod)
July 21st: 4th
August 25th: 2nd (Sport Mod)
October 13th: 1st (Sport Mod)
Ocean:
September 21st: 1st
September 29th: 14th (Pat and Jim Pettit Shootout)
Orland:
June 2nd: 3rd
July 28th: 3rd
Merced:
September 22nd: 13th
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