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CHICO, CA (9-7-07) - Brownsburg, IN’s Joey Saldana gave the Silver
Dollar Speedway crowd something to cheer about after a thrilling victory
from the 12th starting position during Friday night’s preliminary
feature at the 54th annual Gold Cup Race of Champions. The driver of the
Open Joist No. 9 ran the high side of the Silver Dollar bullring during
the entire 30 lap distance and methodically picked off cars one by one
on his march to the front.
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| FINISH |
DRIVER |
START |
| 1. |
Joey Saldana |
(12) |
| 2. |
Steve Kinser |
(1) |
| 3. |
Brooke Tatnell |
(2) |
| 4. |
Daryn Pittman |
(3) |
| 5. |
Tim Shaffer |
(11) |
| 6. |
Sam Hafertepe Jr. |
(5) |
| 7. |
Terry McCarl |
(7) |
| 8. |
Brent Kaeding |
(18) |
| 9. |
Evan Suggs |
(6) |
| 10. |
Jeremy Campbell |
(8) |
| Complete Results
| Qualifying |
|
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|
|
| RANK |
DRIVER |
POINTS |
| 1. |
Joey Saldana |
538 |
| 2. |
Jonathan Allard |
538 |
| 3. |
Brad Sweet |
537 |
| 4. |
Sammy Swindell |
536 |
| 5. |
Steve Kinser |
535 |
| 6. |
Brooke Tatnell |
527 |
| 7. |
Tim Shaffer |
524 |
| 8. |
Jac Haudenschild |
522 |
| 9. |
Craig Dollansky |
516 |
| 10. |
Sam Hafertepe Jr. |
513 |
| Complete
Lineups/Points |
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The 30 lap Gold Cup Race of Champions prelim main event started off
with pole sitter Steve Kinser getting the jump aboard the Q Oil’s No.
11. The 20-time WOO champ looked strong during the early parts of the
race as he ran the low side of the speedway to perfection. Many of the
competitors chose to run the bottom early, but Saldana was obviously not
going to follow the rest as he powered around the high scary side. By
lap 12 Saldana was up to seventh and closing in quickly on the leaders.
Midway through the 30 lapper Saldana moved into the top four and
began to hound Tim Kaeding for the third position. The Brownsburg Bullet
ran the high side lap after lap and was finally able to dispatch of
Kaeding for the spot on lap 21. Lap 22 saw a caution fly for Matt
Shelton and it moved Saldana right up to the bumper of the top two cars
and as the green came back out, he powered around the outside of Daryn
Pittman to claim second. After that Saldana quickly moved in on Kinser
and the leaders went side by side on lap 25. Kinser was low, but Saldana
had the high side wired and blasted into the lead at the flagstand on
lap 26. The Bloomington, IN veteran had nothing of it however, and slid
back underneath Saldana on the back stretch to re-claim the lead.
As the crowd was on their feet cheering and screaming, Kinser got
loose off turn four on lap 27 and it allowed Saldana to fly on by to
take back the top position. The final caution of the race came with just
two laps remaining when T. Kaeding slowed to a stop in turn four with
left rear damage suffered in an altercation with Pittman just a couple
laps prior. T. Kaeding had just taken over the third spot from Pittman
before the contact occurred.
The green/white/checkered restart saw Saldana drive on to victory and
pick up his second career Silver Dollar Speedway win. Kinser followed
along in second with Australian Brooke Tatnell stealing third from
Pittman off the last corner. Rounding out the top 10 was Tim Shaffer
from Aliquippa, PA; Sam Hafertepe Jr. from Sunnyvale, TX; Terry McCarl
from Altoona, Iowa; 18th starting Brent Kaeding from Campbell, CA; Evan
Suggs from Scotts Valley, CA and Jeremy Campbell from Monroe, Michigan.
Salinas veteran Ronnie Day captured the evenings 12 lap B-main with
Shane Golobic, Matt Shelton and Justin Henderson transferring into the
feature. The 10 lap C-main was captured by 2006 Silver Dollar Speedway
track champ Andy Forsberg of Auburn. Because the large field of cars a
non qualifiers race was needed and it was picked off by Chico resident
Kevin Sharrah.
Steve Kinser won the eight lap Crane Cams Dash to earn the pole for
the 30 lap main event and heat race winners during the night included:
Terry McCarl, Jeremy Campbell, Daryn Pittman and Tim Kaeding. Picking up
a surprising fast time award was Evan Suggs who toured the 1/4 mile in
11.738 seconds. Suggs is in his first year of running a winged sprint
car and looked very good all night to earn enough points to secure a
starting birth in Saturday night’s 40 lap Gold Cup Race of Champions
A-main event.
With prelim action done there is a tie atop the Gold Cup point
standings heading into Saturday night as Joey Saldana and Jonathan
Allard each scored 538 points during the prelim night’s. Saldana will
start on the pole, however, because of winning the tie breaker which was
based on qualifying times.
Racing action is expected to get underway at 7:00 pm tommorow night
to cap off the 54th annual Gold Cup Race of Champions at John Padjen's
Silver Dollar Speedway.
Log onto http://www.johnpadjenmotorsports.com
for more news and info from the Gold Cup Race of Champions
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