By Gary Thomas
Chico, CA – September 8, 2011…A new twist to the Gold Cup Race of Champions was brought in this year with the addition of USAC Sprints and Midgets and on Thursday night that change added much excitement to the four-days of racing at Chico’s Silver Dollar Speedway.
Sharing victory lane during the night at the “Tiner Family Classic” were Elk Grove’s Kyle Larson in the USAC/CRA & Western Classic Sprints main event and Fresno’s David Prickett in the USAC Western & BCRA Midget feature. A total of 50 Non Wing Sprint Cars and 24 Midgets were on hand for the action packed night of competition.
The sprint car main event turned out to be one of the best races seen all season long at SDS, with side by side and even three-wide action prevalent all feature long. Fremont’s Shane Golobic started out the race in the lead, but soon felt intense pressure from Sebastopol’s Geoff Ensign.
The driver known as the “Human Highlight Reel” lived up to his nickname and rode the high-side to the lead on lap eight. A yellow on lap 10 created a single file restart however and during it Yorba Linda’s Matt Mitchell sliced to the inside and took over the top spot. Shortly after that, Ensign’s bid at victory came to an end when he had issues in turn four and brought out a caution.
The restart saw fans come to their feet when Mitchell, Kyle Hirst and 14th starting Kyle Larson went three wide in an exciting battle down the back stretch. It was all for naught though as the yellow lights came back on for a stalled car. When the green came back out Hirst once again blasted to the high side and stole the lead from Mitchell off turn two.
Larson then charged to second and began to battle Hirst for the lead, which turned out to be a tremendous side by side fight between the two Outlaw Kart graduates. After a number of laps going wheel to wheel Larson finally got the momentum he needed and used lapped traffic to get under Hirst for the lead.
The 19-year-old Larson was mistake free the rest of the race and motored on to cross the checkered flag and pick up another huge victory on the season. Fast qualifier Jac Haudenschild made some great moves in the feature to come in second, with Mitchell claiming the final spot on the podium.
Hirst scored fourth and multiple time USAC/CRA champion Mike Spencer of Temecula rounded out the top five. The rest of the top ten was completed by Golobic, Nic Faas, Chico’s Jason York, Placerville’s Jimmy Trulli and Orland’s Taylor Simas.
The USAC Western & BCRA Midget main event began with Fresno’s David Prickett jumping into the lead ahead of Fremont’s Shane Golobic and Ventura’s Cory Kruseman. “The Kruser” didn’t wait long though and made the move around Golobic on lap four to grab second.
Prickett felt heavy pressure from Kruseman for the remainder of the 25-lap contest, but did a great job to fend off the multiple time Chili Bowl Midget Nationals winner. Kruseman gave it everything he had, stalking the rear of the No. 15 midget. Despite a relentless late race challenge however, Prickett never faltered and crossed the checkered flag to win the main event.
Kruseman came home in second with Golobic third, Matt Streeter fourth and Oklahoma’s Michelle Decker rounding out the top-five.
Wooster, Ohio’s Jac Haudenschild began the night with the USAC/CRA & Western Classic Series by taking fast time with a 13.60 aboard the Silva Racing 57. The non qualifier race was won by Billy Wallace with the four 10-lap heat races being picked off by Haudenschild, Mike Spencer, Kyle Larson and Richard Brace Jr. The b-main was captured by Cody Myers.
USAC Western & BCRA Midget heats were won by Cody Swanson, Jake Swanson and Shannon McQueen.
Racing action at the 58th Gold Cup Race of Champions will continue tomorrow and Saturday with the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series invading Silver Dollar Speedway. More info can be found at http://www.silverdollarspeedway.com