From Troy Hennig
Chico, CA — (March 23, 2014) — Bloomington, Indiana sprint car legend Steve Kinser will lead a group of professional sprint car drivers this Saturday night, March 29th, into the Silver Dollar Speedway located at the Silver Dollar Fairgrounds in Chico. After this season “The King” of the Outlaws is retiring from the weekly grind of traveling across the Country following the grueling and demanding World of Outlaws schedule. In fact, this year the season is in tribute to Kinser and called “Salute to the King.” This Saturday night will be one of the final times to see Kinser on a track he has dominated during his Hall of Fame career.
Pit gate will open at 2 pm on Saturday while the front grandstand gate will open at 5 pm. Sprint car qualifying is slated to start at 6:30 pm with racing to follow. To reserve your grandstand tickets for this race please visit the website dirtcar.ticketforce.com. Camping is available at this event. The fairgrounds charges $30.00 per night.
Not only is Kinser the “King” of the Outlaws but he has been the “King” of the Gold Cups. Since 1978, Kinser has won a staggering 12 Gold Cup Championships. The domination is evident when you consider his closest challenger for Gold Cup Championships is Wooster, Ohio driver Jac Haudenschild who has three. Even though Kinser has run a limited schedule of races at Chico over the years he sits well inside the top ten all-time wins list with 24 career feature victories. This season Kinser will be on a nationwide media tour. This past weekend he was given a key to the city from Stockton and in September we will host a museum filled with Steve Kinser memories.
Even though the emphasis will be on Kinser it’s a native Californian who is leading the World of Outlaw points standing. Nashville, TN resident Paul McMahan, who was born and raised in Elk Grove, CA, has started the season off strong. McMahan has one win, four top five finishes and three quick time awards. As of this press release he holds a six-point lead over Fargo, N.D. resident Donny Schatz. Other native California sprint car drivers are holding their own this season. Grass Valley’s Brad Sweet has two wins and sits sixth in points. San Jose’s Tim Kaeding is holding down the eighth spot in points and looking to get his first win this season. Chico could bold well for all three California drivers. All three have multiple feature wins throughout their careers at Silver Dollar Speedway. In fact, Kaeding has made 56 visits to victory lane at Chico. That puts him second on the all-time wins list. California driver and defending Gold Cup champion Jason Meyers of Clovis, CA, Brownsburg, IN driver Joey Saldana, a two-time Gold Cup Champion, and Owasso, OK veteran Daryn Pittman, 2006 Gold Cup Champion and defending World of Outlaw Champion, will all be challenging for the Mini Gold title.
Quite possibly the hottest sprint car driver in the nation right now is Rico Abreu. Always the crowd favorite, Abreu has already beat the Outlaws at Tulare this season and won the Saturday night Silver Cup main event at Chico two weeks ago. Abreu has five wins in 2014 already and could easily pick up another one at Chico. Local 410 winged veterans who will look to knock off the Outlaws will include Chico’s Brad Bumgarner and Robbie Whitchurch, Corning’s Bud Walberg and Anderson’s Keith Bloom Jr.
For more information about this race feel free to visit www.silverdollarspeedway.com or the World of Outlaws website at www.woosprint.com.