Photo by http://www.graphxdesigns.com Jason Meyers claims second consecutive Mini Gold Cup title
By Gary Thomas
Chico, California – March 16, 2009…Clovis, CA native Jason Meyers continued his strong success at the Silver Dollar Speedway this past weekend and held off a relentless closing laps challenge from Danny Lasoski to pick up his second straight Mini Gold Cup victory and third overall in his career.
The win however, most likely wouldn't have been possible had Meyers not put together an impressive run in his heat race after qualifying just 31st fastest in the field. Meyers, long known for his aggressive and exciting driving style, blasted from eighth starting in his heat race and executed a picture perfect slide job on Jason Sides during the final corner of his heat to finish runner-up and earn a spot in the dash.
Meyers was rewarded for his great run as he drew the number one pill for the dash, which he parlayed into a dominating run to score the pole position for the main event. When the green flag dropped in the feature Meyers charged into the lead aboard his GLR Investments No. 14 as the track became very slick and had begun to take rubber due to the strong day-long winds taking its toll on the surface.
The driver known as "Hotfoot" was in charge for much of the way, but the car to watch was the Casey's General Stores No. 6 of Dover, Missouri's Danny Lasoski. With most competitors preferring the bottom groove, the "Dude" put his machine at the top of turns one & two and made up a large amount of ground from his 10th starting position. A few other drivers had attempted to run the high-side in that set of corners, but none could hold the line as smoothly as Lasoski.
As the laps wound down in the 40 lap contest traffic came into play and it allowed the second place car of Kraig Kinser, as well as Lasoski the chance to close in. A couple of times it looked as if Lasoski could blow around both drivers, but with nothing up top in turns 3 & 4 to get a hold of, he was forced to dive back to the bottom each time. A caution on lap 27 however, then gave the leaders a clear track ahead and with Kinser not getting a great start, it allowed Lasoski to charge his way around to claim second.
The final caution of the race then came out with 10 laps to go and when the green came on for the last time Lasoski stayed close to Meyers waiting to capitalize on any mistake that the No. 14 machine might make. As the white flag waved Meyers encountered some traffic and eased into the first turn a little bit less than he had been and Lasoski drove hard into the corner up high and was able to get side by side with Meyers off turn two.
The top two drivers drove wheel to wheel as they attempted to split a lapped car on the back-stretch, but Lasoski couldn't get the momentum he needed and was forced to tuck back in down low entering turn three and that allowed Meyers to smoothly drive his way to the checkered flag and pick up his third Mini Gold Cup title. Lasoski crossed the line in second with Kraig Kinser, Craig Dollansky and Steve Kinser rounding out the top five.
Finishing sixth through eighth were Jason Sides, Kerry Madsen and Jac Haudenschild. Warsaw, MO's Jesse Hocket drove the California based Mcmillen Motorsports sprinter to a ninth place finish in the feature. Hockett will be back later in the year to drive the No. 2 machine in some of the special late season events. Completing the top 10 in the main event was defending King of California Jonathan Allard. The Chico native became one of two drivers to join the 10-second club at Silver Dollar Speedway on Friday night with his clocking of 10.954 in qualifying.
Oklahoma's Wayne Johnson scored an 11th place finish in the Grass Valley, CA based Main Motorsports No. 35a sprinter. Johnson will be back in the car during this coming weekend's Outlaw event in Tulare. Running 12th in the feature was Los Angeles driver Tyler Walker, who finished runner-up in the Golden State Challenge Series standings last season and looks to be very fast once again this year.
Other California affiliated drivers and teams in the main event included San Jose's Tim Kaeding who scored 14th, Loomis' Kyle Hirst who ran 15th, San Jose's Randy Hannagan in 16th, Sean Becker who ended the feature in 20th, Bobby Mcmahan in 22nd and Sammy Swindell, who was running near the front of the field when he had mechanical problems in the Tom Rolfe Trucking machine rounded out the pack in 24th.
Racing action will return to the Silver Dollar Speedway in two weeks with the running of the annual Silver Cup on March 27 & 28. The two-night event will feature 360 sprints, wingless spec sprints and dirt modifieds taking to the quarter-mile bullring. The following weekend will then see the opening Feather Falls Casino 410 point race taking place on Friday night April 3.
This coming Sunday the track will hold a playday for teams hoping to get some track time in before the season kicks into gear.
The Silver Dollar Speedway is located in Chico, California and for more news and info on the track log onto http://www.silverdollarspeedway.com
|
