Forum: Northern California Sprint Car (go)
Moderators: StuDeedooo

Veteran Hanestad Wins Night One at Chico

by: Troy Hennig

(Chico, CA 10-10-08)...Veteran open-wheel sprint car driver Darrell Hanestad dominated night one of the 4^th Annual Non-Wing Spec Sprint Nationals at Chico. Hanestad won three of the four events he entered tonight. He started the night off by turning the quickest lap in qualifying at a 14.733. Then he started sixth in the first heat and won that race. The only thing that derailed his perfect night was a third place finish in the dash. However, when the money was on the line, Hanestad turned up the heat and raced to the lead earlier into the 20-lap main event. Hanestad was never challenged and won the main event. Billy Wallace was second and Marc Mackay was third. A total of 52 drivers entered the first of two nights of racing. The final night of racing at the Silver Dollar Speedway takes place Saturday night.

The first lap of the main event saw Charlie Cagle grab the early lead. The race was halted on lap two when Bob Newberry came to a stop with front end damage. Hanestad was the leader. On the sixth lap a red was needed for David Press, Petaluma track champion, and Arvo Backholm stopped. Press would continue and moved up to a 14^th place finish. Backholm did not return and finished 20^th. Billy Wallace moved into the second spot on lap nine but by then Hanestad had a sizable lead. The race continued non-stop for the final 14 laps. Moving into third spot on lap 19 was Marc Mackay. He passed Cagle coming down for the white flag, Hanestad cruised to the victory and was all smiles in victory lane. Cagle finished fourth and Keith Bloom Jr. was fifth.

Korey Lovell won the 12-lap B main event. This race went non-stop from start to finish. Cody Myers ran a solid second followed by Scott Hall. Matt Streeter, Tony Boscaccia and Bob Newberry rounded out the top six.

The C main event was an exciting event with the top three transferring. Winning the race was Rick Sharp. John Anderson and Bob Newberry transferred to the B main with Sharp.

The start of the dash got off to a nasty start when Tony Richards flipped off the race track and ended up off turn one. He was alert and talking but complained a back pain. When resumed the seven lap dash was won by Charlie Cagle.

Hanestad won the first heat race. Keith Bloom Jr. won the second heat. Todd Miller drove a solid race to win heat three. Cagle led all the laps to win the fourth heat.

Saturday nights racing will feature qualifying, heat races, a dash and main events. Most of tonights car are scheduled to return on Saturday nights finale.

Full results are on www.johnpadjenmotorsports.com

END

Good night of racing on a cold and windy evening. Hopefully it warms up a bit for tonight. I didn't get to see it and I'm pretty sure that Mike Doyle will post it at some point but Cameron Beard's turn two flip during his heat race sounded pretty nasty. He was just a tad frustrated since,from what I heard, he pretty much had nowhere to go. Richard's flip was spectacular and he bounded over two sets of cement barriers like they were hurdles (which was a good thing) stopping at the fence that separates the pits from the fairgrounds in turn one. Hanestad was unstoppable on the first of what he insists are his final two nights of competition before retiring. Kyle Hirst's motor was mortally wounded early in the evening so he wound up in the booth and did a fantastic job of calling one of the heat races.There is a BBQ at the fairgrounds starting at noon today which is a NARC reunion and hall of fame induction which should be a must attend event. It was also announced last night that Bailey (sp?) Hennig's third birthday is today if I heard correctly so happy birthday to her!