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First Career 410 Win at Chico for Mark Hall
By: Troy Hennig
(Chico, CA 7-31-09)…It’s been the year of the veterans in the 410-sprint car Friday night Feather Falls Casino point championship series. The series point leader is 43-year old Elk Grove driver Bobby McMahan. Earlier this season McMahan won his first race at Chico since 1996 in a 410-sprint car. Tonight Mark Hall did him one better. Hall had never won a 410-sprint car main event at Chico. That’s saying something for a driver who is in the midst of his 29^th year of open wheel racing. His win could have summed up the old phrase, “better late than never.”
The 45-year old driver from Grass Valley led 24 of the 25 laps to secure his first ever 410 sprint feature win at Chico. This win now gives him four career wins at Chico but the previous three were all 360 sprint car wins. According to Hall’s friends and the stats we could find it also marked Hall’s first win in a 410 cubic inch sprint car since at least the late 80’s. Even with his first ever 410 win at Chico Hall emerged from his racecar in his normal cool demeanor and his easygoing personality. “Yeah it feels good to finally get a 410 win at Chico,” said Hall. “The last few weeks we have found something to really make this car work. The track was real fast and I knew that you had to stay pretty much locked down through the middle of the turns. I felt if I did that it was going to be hard to pass me.”
Colby Copeland ran a great race. The second year driver was glued to Halls bumper for most of the race. Copeland, in fact, led the first lap of the race before Hall passed him on lap two. Copeland’s night ended when he crossed the finish line in second. Yet, he forgot to go to the scales after the race and was disqualified. It was a sour ending to a great night of racing for him.
Jonathan Allard earned the right to start outside of the front row for the 25-lap race. However, during warm ups something broke in the motor and Allard would not make the start of the race. This moved Hall into Allard’s spot, outside the front row. Copeland took the lead on the first lap but Hall passed him during the next lap. On the track it was a two-car race between Hall and Copeland. They built up a descent-sized lead over third place on back. Vacaville driver Joey Magaruh made a rare start in the Jacob Spath owned #KR14 and drove a solid race. For all 25 laps he held onto the third spot but once Copeland was disqualified he finished second. Following Magaruh all night was Chico’s Brad Bumgarner. Putting last weekend’s misfortune behind him, Bumgarner seemed to have a new focus and drove his heart out. He officially finished in the third spot. Kyle Hirst rounded out the top five on the track but finished fourth. Hirst was coming off last weekends big Gary Patterson Memorial win at Chico. Bobby McMahan moved up the most spots. He originally started in the eleventh spot and wound up with a fifth place finish.
John Michael Bunch earned the hard luck award for the night. Coming down to receive the green flag Bunch smacked the front grandstand wall and flipped. He was uninjured but visibly upset. The only other stoppage during the main event occurred on the original start when Kyle Harris spun off the track.
Jonathan Allard and Harris each won their respective heat races.
Sean Becker earned his first fast time award of the year by turning a lap of 11.654.
Full results are posted at www.silverdollarspeedway.com
The author would like to say thanks to Tom Fisher and Robert “seadog” Seaman for their stats and information about Mark Hall.
www.sprintcarchallengetour.com
www.placervillespeedway.com
www.stocktondirttrack.com
www.thunderbowlraceway.com
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