By Troy Hennig
(Chico, CA 4/20/12)…Defending Silver Dollar Speedway driving champion Tyler Wolf showed tonight why he will be a threat this year to win it all again. Wolf led all 25-laps to win the action packed 410-winged sprint car main event Friday night. It was an impressive win considering some heavy hitters in attendances who were trying to win the coveted 5th Annual Bill Brownell Memorial. “This feels great,” said Wolf in victory lane. “I have to thank my crew and family for giving me a great car.”
During mid-week before the Friday night race King of the West Director of Communications and sprint car media guru Gary Thomas predicted a Tyler Wolf win at the Brownell. “I watched him the week before at Antioch and you can tell how competitive he is becoming in our sport,” said Thomas.
Wolf picked up $2,500 for the win because of sponsorship help from Shane Scott, Chico Honda Motorsports and Chico Scrap. Scott is the real force behind the Brownell and keeping the race vibrant.
Rico Abreu and Wolf started on the front row. Wolf got the advantage at the start of the race and never looked back. The only thing that slowed Wolf was a few yellow flags and a couple of reds. Robbie Whitchurch brought out the first caution on lap two when he stopped on the track in turn two. A few laps later Brad Bumgarner parked the family car in turn four. On lap five Jonathan Allard spun the Morrie and Katie Williams owned #0. Up to this point Wolf had continued his lead over Abreu.
The main event started to get a few laps complete until Kevin Sharrah bicycled through turn three and flipped. The red was needed and Sharrah emerged uninjured. Two laps later the night ended for Allard. Contact with another car sent him upside down in turn four. Even though the race couldn’t find a rhythm to complete a lot of green flag laps, the racing up front was still intense. At one point, Abreu was side by side with Wolf and tried to take the lead but was never able to officially lead a lap. The final red flag was needed when Abreu and David Tarter got together on the white flag lap. Tarter was sent upside down while Abreu was able to continue and keep his second place position.
Another driver who was really impressive was Cody Lamar. This year the famous Tri-C #3c is moving up into the 410 winged sprint car division. Lamar showed glimpses of brilliance tonight by holding off championship caliber drivers such as Andy Forsberg and Roger Crockett. Lamar held onto the third spot and it was his best career finish at Chico running with the 410 division.
Up front it was all about Wolf. He turned the fastest lap of the race, navigated through slower cars to perfection and showed the rest of the sprint car community that he has materialized into a championship contender for 2012.
Andy Forsberg turned the fastest lap in qualifying at a 12.548.
For full race results please visit www.silverdollarspeedway.com