By Bill Sullivan/ Sullivan Images Media
PENNGROVE, CA (5-7-11) – Two- time Petaluma Speedway champion Alissa Geving of Penngrove, California returned to the title bearing track she calls home Saturday night in spectacular fashion. Despite a close call in the opening laps of the race, Geving returned to her winning ways aboard her Tillett Tool, Pit Stop USA, Matt Cordeiro Enterprises #3x sprint car.
“It’s always great to come back to this place where my Dad and my Grandfather raced successfully,” said 19-year-old Geving. “It’s even better when we are able to come back and get a win, especially this early in the year. I really want to thank all my sponsors and my crew for all their hard work. They put together this brand new A.R.T sprint car and I love it. This was a real team effort tonight.”
In qualifying, Geving scored the fastest lap of the night with a 12:912 on the 3/8 mile oval. She completed her preliminary portion of the program with a third place finish in the opening heat race of the evening behind Roberto Kirby and Klint Simpson.
As she took to the track for the 25-lap feature event in the second row, Geving was poised to contend for the lead early in the event. However, her hopes of doing so were nearly dashed when a collision occurred among front row starters Kirby and David Lindt Jr. With no place to go as the incident broke out, Geving became collected in the crash. Although she was able to keep moving along with Kirby, the collision caused severe damage to the front wing of her Chicko Motorsports #3x, which would affect its performance for the remainder of the night.
Known as a driver that handles adversity when it is tossed in her direction, Geving didn’t let the damaged wing daunt her as the race resumed. When the green flag dropped the second time Kirby powered off the pole position and was then penalized for jumping the start which gave Geving a new challenge, moving Mike Benson up to the pole position for what would become the final and official start of the race.
Despite the handling woes in the front of the car due to the damaged wing, Geving muscled into a lead she would never relinquish when the race was underway. She then led every lap until the checkered flag to pick up her first win of the 2011 Petaluma Speedway championship season and her ninth career victory at Petaluma.
“The car definitely handled different with the wing damage,” said Geving. “But it wasn’t anything I couldn’t adjust to. Once I got out in front I just found a line that worked well and stuck with it. I really want to thank my whole team for a very successful weekend, this is a great way to start our season here at home.”
On Friday night, Geving made an unscheduled trip to Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico to compete in her 410 sprint car with the Wells Fargo weekly championship series there. In this event she concluded her night with an impressive fifth place finish. Geving will return to the Chico clay this Friday night at the Hoosier Tires Civil War Series competes at Silver Dollar Speedway. Geving, a former Rookie of the Year in the traveling series, is currently fourth in the championship point standings entering round three. If all goes well on Friday night, Geving and her Chicko Motorsports Team will make the trip to Placerville Speedway to compete in Saturday’s point race there.
Geving carries the sponsorship of Tillett Tool of Santa Rosa along with the online superstore Pit Stop USA that is based in Petaluma and Napa’s Matt Cordeiro Enterprises a and Auto Repairs Unlimited with A1A Performance of Santa Rosa. Associate sponsors include Golden Gate Meat Company North, K&N Filters, Keizer Aluminum Wheels, R2C, Napa Auto Parts, Flowmaster Mufflers, Allstar Performance, Santa Rosa Auto Parts, Simpson Racing Products, 21st Century Health Club, , Pro Shocks, ALC Machine and JW Web Design.
To learn more about Alissa Geving visit her official website at www.chick-o-motorsports.com. Chicko Motorsports can also be found on facebook.