This message was edited on
March 09, 2008 at
10:41:05 PM by Gary Thomas
Heat race win and 12th place finish on opening night highlight Mini Gold Cup for Jason Statler
By Gary Thomas
Chico, CA – March 8, 2008…Los Gatos driver Jason Statler got the 2008 season off and running during this weekend’s 22nd annual Mini Gold Cup at Chico’s Silver Dollar Speedway. The two-time Mini Gold Cup runner-up had a good showing on opening night before missing the cut to the A-main on Saturday by just three spots.
The Mini Gold Cup was the beginning of the ‘08 Golden State Challenge Series season and saw an ultra stacked field of 60 plus cars during both nights of the two-day event. Friday night saw Statler come out 47th in the qualifying order and he was able to turn a 12.466, placing the DF Rios Construction, D & D Roofing No. 00 19th fastest.
Statler then started from the front row in the third heat race and jumped out into the lead and never looked back as he drove off to victory. By transferring through his heat race, the former King of California had the opportunity to compete in the night’s dash which sets the line-up for the first four rows of the main event.
Statler drew the number seven pill for the dash and was able to move up one spot to set himself up with an outside row three starting spot for the feature. The track surface had developed a real thin ledge up top and made for some tricky racing for much of the distance. “The Big Guy” battled up, in and around the top 10 for much of the 30 lap main event and brought home a 12th place finish at the checkered flag.
Coming back on Saturday night lady luck wasn’t too good to the DF Rios Racing team as the 00 machine was the very last car to hit the track for qualifying. Strong winds during the day dried the surface out considerably faster than the night before and it was very advantageous to go out early on in the order. Statler’s fastest lap of 12.668 placed him 30th fastest out of 64 cars.
Issues during the heat race then forced him to run the B-main where he lined up in 14th. The always hard charging driver was on the gas early in the going and quickly moved forward to challenge for a top six transfering spot. Battling it out with the likes of Stephen Allard, Evan Suggs and Willie Croft, Statler brought home a ninth place finish, which put an early end to the night. We’ll now move on to next week and hope for better things at the team’s home track.
Next up for Jason Statler and the Rios Racing team will be this coming Friday’s Golden State Challenge Series event at the Ocean Speedway in Watsonville. The Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds track was the site of Statler’s big victory during last September’s Johnny Key Classic.
For more info on Jason Statler and the Double Zero team log onto http://www.statlerracing.com
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