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Abreu Wins Trophy Cup Main by Ron Rodda

Tulare, CA…Rico Abreu not only survived a rough and tumble 30 lap main at the 19^th annual Trophy Cup, he led the last five laps to claim the win to open the two day winged portion of the event.A track that was fastest next to the wall all the way around the 3/8 oval led to numerous drivers banging off of the wall, some with race ending consequences.Leading the last five laps, Abreu did his share of cleaning off the wall but stayed upright to secure a popular win before a large crowd.

Shane Stewart was 2^nd and leads in points after one night of winged racing, six ahead of Jason Meyers while defending champion, Jac Haudenschild, is 12 back of Stewart.The next three in line are Craig Stidham (15 back), Abreu (17 back) and Andy Forsberg (19 back).

Qualifying for the 85 car field was led by Paul McMahan at 13.876, earning him 150 points with a one point drop per spot.There was just under a half second between fast time and the important 36^th quick time, the last spot to make the inversion.Six heats for the fastest 48 inverted six and took only the top 3 directly to the A main.This led to a talent filled B main that moved six more to the finale.Heats are 36 points to win with a drop of 3 per spot.

Jonathan Allard won the C main and transferred to the B along with Henry Van Dam, Kenny Allen, Jason Statler, Bud Kaeding, and Mark Dobmeier.Bud Kaeding started his journey with a 2^nd in one of the D mains, passing 3 cars for that transfer spot.He then started 18^th in the C and finished 5^th, followed by a 24^th to 6^th run in the B main.Starting 24^th in the A main, Bud was one of the several rollover victims and was 20^th in the final rundown after running 12^th at the time of the flip.He had passed 46 cars in main event racing at that point.

Allard was leading the B main when a dramatic turn of events occurred when he drove under a car going into turn1 and contact saw him flip and come to rest in front of Cory Eliason, the 2^nd place car.Despite stopping to avoid running over Allard, Eliason was sent to the back and Van Dam inherited the lead.

P. McMahan used a last lap pass to win over Van Dam, Daryn Pittman from 18^th starting, Kyle Hirst, Trey Starks, and Bud.These six moved onto the 30 lap finale and, like all the preliminary mains, everyone got their points back for the next main’s starting grid.

Running the top of the Tulare Thunderbowl Raceway surface was costly as shown by the six reds needed in the A main while only a single yellow was thrown.Only one lap was scored before the first red and four times the red flew in just the first six laps.With a 12 inversion by points, Roger Crockett was cruising in the lead from his outside front row start, initially chased by Van Dam until Jason Meyers took 2^nd with a back stretch pass on lap 3.Three laps later Andy Forsberg took 3^rd using the top of turn 2 for the move.Rico Abreu, starting 14^th, avoided the early race carnage and took 3^rd with a turn 4 slider on the 8^th lap and five laps later got past Meyers for 2^nd.

Some furious laps followed with Crockett holding off Abreu despite the eventual winner throwing every move in the books at Crockett.Coming from 11^th, Shane Stewart stayed clear of the mishaps also and took 3^rd on lap 18 and closed on the lead duo.Disaster struck and ruined Crockett’s strong drive after 25 laps were scored when yet another red flew for a car flipping off the wall between turns 3 and 4 right in front of Crockett and he had nowhere to go and was collected.

Crockett’s misfortune was Abreu’s good luck and he assumed the lead on the restart and won over Stewart, Meyers, Kyle Hirst, and Daryn Pittman.The Friday main awards 100 points to the winner with a 2-point drop per spot.Night two will see another set of heats, inverting 8 by points, and taking the top 20 point cars to the A main.The Saturday main will invert all 24 cars by points and award 150 to the winner with a 5-point drop.

Finishes with starting spots in parenthesis:

C main—Jonathan Allard (2), Henry Van Dam (1), Kenny Allen (9), Jason Statler (10), Bud Kaeding (18), Mark Dobmeier (17), Mike Henry (5), Stephen Allard (14), Matt Peterson (6), Trevor Turnbull (13), Mason Moore ((3), Chase Johnson (16), Nick McColloch (12), Jimmy Trulli (15), Mike Faria (4), Daron Clayton (7), Andy Ferris (8), Dylan Black (11)

B main---Paul McMahan (6), Van Dam (2), Pittman (18), Kyle Hirst (8), Trey Starks 12), Bud Kaeding (24), Justin Sanders (3), Dominic Scelzi (15), Andy Gregg (17), Kraig Kinser (5), Evan Suggs (13), Dobmeier (23), Cory Eliason (4), Eric Humphries (11), Cole Wood (19), Bobby McMahan (20), Statler (22), Justyn Cox (9), Allen (21), Tyler Wolf (14), Allard (1), Garen Linder (16), Sean Becker (7), Zach Zimmerly (10)

A main

1. Rico Abreu (from 14^th)
2. Shane Stewart (11)
3. Jason Meyers (8)
4. Kyle Hirst (16)
5. Daryn Pittman (23)
6. Andy Forsberg (5)
7. Steven Tiner (13)
8. Craig Stidham (9)
9. Terry McCarl (4)
10. Jac Haudenschild (12)
11. Roger Crockett (2)
12. Kyle Larson (17)
13. Henry Van Dam (1)
14. Tommy Tarlton (22)
15. Tim Kaeding (7)
16. Danny Faria Jr. (21)
17. Willie Croft (15)
18. Bradley Terrell (20)
19. Greg DeCaires (18)
20. Bud Kaeding (24)
21. Paul McMahan (10)
22. Trey Starks (19)
23. Shane Golobic (6)
24. Jayme Barnes (3)

Top twenty-four in points:

1. Shane Stewart 277
2. Jason Meyers 271
3. Jac Haudenschild 265
4. Craig Stidham 262
5. Rico Abreu 260
6. AndyForsberg 258
7. Terry McCarl252
8. Kyle Hirst 250
9. Steven Tiner249
10. Roger Crockett246
11. Tim Kaeding 244
12. Paul McMahan 237
13. Henry Van Dam 237
14. Kyle Larson 234
15. Willie Croft 227
16. Shane Golobic 226
17. Jayme Barnes 221
18. Tommy Tarlton 221
19. Danny Faria Jr. 221
20. Daryn Pittman 221
21. Bradley Terrell 217
22. Kraig Kinser 216
23. Greg DeCaires 216
24. Justin Sanders 214