By Troy Henning
(Chico, CA 8-20-13)…This Friday night, we say goodbye to the 2013 Wells Fargo Friday night point season and we remember and celebrate the life of 2011 Silver Dollar Speedway sprint car champion Tyler Wolf. Five divisions will finish the weekly racing season led by the 410 winged sprint cars, street stocks, Perma-Zyme wingless sprints, mini stocks and dirt modifieds. Champions will be crowned in all five divisions during point race #17.
As always, the Friday night front gate will open at 6 pm. Adult general admission is $13.00. Juniors and seniors are $11.00. We offer a Chico St., Butte College and Military discount. Pit gate will open at 4 pm. Racing is slated to start around 7 pm.
Main event winners on this night will win the annual 6ft tall Pepsi night perpetual trophy. However, the sprint car drivers are in for a treat. Last year Tyler Wolf won this race. He was able to take home the lucrative trophy. Unfortunately, Wolf perished in a sprint car crash at Calistoga in October of last year. At that time it was decided that the trophy would stay with the Wolf family. In Tyler’s honor, a new trophy has been handmade and will forever be known as the Tyler Wolf Perpetual Trophy. It will be given to the 410 sprint car main event winner this Friday night.
It has also been requested that in honor of Tyler, we do a four wide salute before the start of the 25-lap main event with the song Hungry Like a Wolf playing over the speakers. With the help of Cherry St. Mini Storage and friends of the Wolf family, Friday night’s sprint car main event should pay the winner a minimum of $2,500. If fans attending this race want to add extra money please contact me or Gary Thomas before the race on Friday.
The David Tarter Rookie of the Year award is as tight as it can get. David’s younger brother, Michael, holds a five-point advantage over Keith Bloom. The award is in honor of David Tarter who passed away last June. Bloom drivers the Chuck Wolf sprint car. This season the car has been at every weekly show in honor of Tyler.
Sean Becker is on the verge of consecutive track championships and the third for his career. Becker has had another solid season driving the S&S Racing engines #27. Auburn’s Andy Forsberg is on the brink of finishing second in the driving standings for the third year in a row. Tarter and Bloom sit third and fourth respectively. Bud Walberg is trying to hold on for a fifth place finish in points.
The closest championship battle we have going is in the dirt modified division. Duane Cleveland leads Ryan McDaniel by four points. McDaniel is fresh off his Late Model championship last Friday night. Tied with McDaniel for second is Richard Papenhausen. Three drivers will enter; one will emerge as the champion.
Ron LaPlant has an outside shot at catching Rowdy McClenon in the Perma-Zyme wingless point’s battle. McClenon holds a 15-point advantage over LaPlant.
Once Jake Vantol takes the green flag during the street stock main event this Friday he will win his second consecutive street stock championship. Last Friday night the entire division ran in honor of Kevin Ward.
The same goes for Misty Castleberry. Once she takes the green flag during the mini stock main event she will wrap up her second consecutive mini stock championship.