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Photo by Johns Racing Photos
Andy Gregg moves from rear to 8th in Chico on Friday night
By Gary Thomas
Chico, CA – August 11, 2008…Competing in his fourth Feather Falls Casino 410 point race of the season Placerville’s Andy Gregg charged from the 20th starting position to finish in the eighth spot this past Friday night at the Silver Dollar Speedway. Gregg, who last season was named most improved driver at the Chico based track & finished third in points, hadn’t been in action during a regular weekly point event at the speedway since winning his first 410 sprint car main event on June 27.
With no 360 engine currently however, he headed for Silver Dollar Speedway during this most recent Friday to try his luck once again competing with the 410 powerplant under the hood. A field of 23 winged sprint cars signed in for the third to final 410 point race of the season at the Silver Dollar Speedway and Gregg began the event by clocking the 12th fastest lap of the evening in qualifying aboard the Myers & Sons Drywall, Dale Miller Plumbing No. 16x.
Gregg then lined-up in the third position during the nights final heat race and was running comfortably in a transfer spot when he got over the cushion in turns three and four, which resulted in him falling to the rear of the field. He got back onto the surface and gave a valiant charge to get back up to a transfer, but came up one spot short and was forced to run the B-main.
The Placerville racer started from the outside of the front row in the scheduled 12 lap contest and saw near disaster occur on the start as the pole sitter tried to move up at the flag stand, but Gregg was right there and the driver on the pole contacted the left front on the Comstock Mortgage, Straight Line Roofing Maxim.
Gregg was able to keep going and settled into second until the left front wheel came flying off and very nearly caused him to get upside down while trying to get the car stopped. The Guts Racing team tried to get things fixed, but weren’t able to do so in the allotted time and he was placed sixth in the rundown, one spot shy of a transfer.
A bit of luck shined down however, when the fifth place finisher in the semi scratched for the night and it allowed Gregg to start the main event in the 20th position. Early on in the 25 lap contest the black No. 16x sprinter was on the move and carved his was forward quickly. The well prepared quarter-mile created some great racing throughout the main event and at the checkered flag Gregg was able to make his way up to the eighth position.
The finish marked Gregg’s third top 10 in four Feather Falls Casino point race starts this season. “We would have liked to finish a little higher but we can’t complain with rolling the car into the trailer and coming from the back to eighth,” he said. “The issue in the B-main kind of hurt us because we would have started the main event in 12th if we would have finished where we were running before the wheel came off. It was just one of them deals though and we’ll move on and try to get a win before the months out.” Gregg concluded.
This coming Friday Gregg is expected to return to the Silver Dollar Speedway as he continues to get his 410 program dialed in for the upcoming Gold Cup Race of Champions, which is less than a month away. This Friday's event will be the next to last winged sprint car point race in Chico and the “Hurricane” will be gunning to put the Team Guts Racing machine into victory for the second time this season.
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Placerville's Andy Gregg putting the Guts Racing, BR Motorsports No. 16x through its paces at the Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico. Photo by Graph X Designs
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