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Silver Cup Draws 100 Cars on Opening Night
By: Troy Hennig
(Chico, CA 3-21-08)...Exactly 100 drivers entered the first night of racing during the Silver Cup Race of Champions at Silver Dollar Speedway on Friday night. The large car count consisted of 54 winged 360 sprints, 23 dirt modifieds and 23 wingless sprints. It was the largest car count at the speedway since 1998, when 102 cars were entered in this same race format. Tonights racing featured a pill draw for starting spots in heat races. After the heat races, points were awarded for finishing position and passing points. When the points were tallied, the top 20 in each division were invited to run a feature event. Winning the 25-lap winged 360 main event was Shane Stewart driving Paul Silva's #57. Chico's Mark Abouzeid won the 20-lap dirt modified main event. Marc MacKay won the 20-lap wingless sprint feature event. There were no points awarded to the main events tonight. It was just for money. Tomorrow night will conclude the weekend with more heat racing for points. Saturday's heat race points will be combined with tonights and the drivers will be placed in main events.
Paul McMahan earned the most points after the heat races and earned the right to start on the front row of the 25-lap winged 360 main event. Joining him was Chico driver Kevin Sharrah. McMahan grabbed the early lead while Sharrah fell into the second spot. On lap three Tyler Walker moved around Sharrah for second. On lap four Shain Matthews brought out the yellow. Racing resumed with Sean Becker charging up to the third spot. Another driver charging was Kyle Hirst. Hirst moved into the fifth spot and was battling Sharrah for fourth on lap nine. The next lap was disaster for the two as Sharrah broke something in the rear end and spun in four and collect Hirst. Both cars were out for the night. On the restart, Becker's car did not respond and he drifted off turn one and called it a night. During the restart Waker bobbled a bit in turn two and this allowed Shane Stewart to take the second spot. McMahan had a sizable lead shrink on lap sixteen when he caught up to the slower back cars. Stewart closed in and passed McMahan for the lead on lap 20. McMahan fought back hard to take the lead back on the next lap but was unable to do so. Walker was now catching the top two. The three car battle for the lead in lapped traffic ended on lap 23 when Richard Bailey stopped in turn four. This allowed Tim Kaeding to have a shot at the leaders. Kaeding started 13th but was now fourth. The final two laps went off without a hitch and Stewart won the race. McMahan finished second followed by Walker. Kaeding held onto the fourth spot. Rounding out the top five was Alissa Geving. She drove a great race tonight to finish in the fifth spot. A big congratulations goes out to her driving ability and the team around her for their strong finish. Brad Sweet drove Rod Tiner's #83 into the sixth spot.
Mark Abouzeid led all 20 laps to secure the dirt modified main event win. He was challenged all race long by Marysville's Ryan McDaniel. McDaniel was never able to get close enough to try a slider for the lead. Abouzeid, driving the Chico Volkswagen #27 never let up all race long and proved he belonged in winner's circle. Those two were the class of the field in the modified main event. Mike Learn came home in the third spot. Matt Murphy and Eli Zucker each had solid runs to finish in the top five. Abouzeid was a busy driver tonight as he was pulling double duty. He also drove in the wingless division and made the main event where he finished ninth. Not bad, two top tens on the night with one of them a big win. Sprint car champion Stephen Allard did well tonight in his first dirt modified start. He finished second in heat one and came home seventh in the main event. Abouzeid also won heat won to allow him a clean sweep of the night's event. Duane Cleveland and Mike Sohnrey were the other heat race winners in the modified division.
The wingless main event started off slow but finished off with a bang. Numerous cautions slowed the early part of the race but once things got going it was a fantastic race. Marc Mackay led from the pole for the first four laps. The it was BJ Martin's turn to take control. Martin showed the way until just past the half way point when Mackay used the bottom to retake the lead. Moving towards the front was Billy Wallace. Wallace actually took second on lap 17 from Martin but the next time by drifted high in turn four and fell back to third. Martin closed on the final lap and battled Mackay for the lead. To Mackay's credit he held off Martin to secure the non-wing victory. Martin was second and Wallace third. Justin Funkhouser finished in the fourth spot after starting ninth while Keith Bloom rounded out the top five. Scott Hall won the first heat race. Keith Bloom won the second heat and Billy Wallace led all ten laps to win the third heat.
Tim Kaeding landed the victory in heat one during the winged 360 heats. Hawaiian driver Dean Freitas scored the win in heat two. Kyle Hirst drove Gary Perkins #6 into the winners circle during heat three. Fourth heat win went to Shain Matthews, who is leaving for the Mid West next week. Steven Tiner didn't miss a beat after a three year break from racing at Chico and won the fifth heat.
For complete results visit www.johnpadjenmotorsports.com and click on the Silver Dollar Speedway logo. Once there click on the results link for the Silver Cup race.
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