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PRESS RELEASE, Silver Dollar Speedway – Chico, CA
FROM THE OFFICE OF JOHN PADJEN MOTORSPORTS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, Monday, April 9, 2007
MEDIA CONTACT: Troy Hennig [email protected]
INTERNET INFORMATION: www.johnpadjenmotorsports.com
Points Race Number Three Serves as GP Development Night at the Races
The 2007 Feather Falls Casino / Hoosier Race Tire / Coors point championship season continues this Friday night at Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico. Four divisions will highlight the night of racing. The 410-winged sprint cars, dirt modifieds, pure stocks and wingless spec sprints all will compete on the same night for the first time in 2007. The night will feature a $2,000 payday for the winged sprint car main event winner. GP Development, of Sacramento, is owned by Gary Perkins and is the night's individual sponsor of the sprint car main event.
After years of sponsoring all forms of racecars, this year Perkins formed his own sprint car team and hired Brad Sweet to drive. The team has a website and it is located at www.garyperkinsracing.com/. Sweet and Perkins currently sits only a few points out of the championship lead as they head into this weekend's race. Sweet wants nothing more than to give his car owner the win on their night of sponsorship. "It would mean a lot to this team to be able and get GP Development / LRB Manufacturing / Circle Race Wheels #6 into victory lane, especially on the night we are sponsoring," said Sweet. On opening night Sweet finished second to Jonathan Allard and last Friday night they ran seventh. "Silver Dollar Speedway has always been Gary's favorite place to go and so far we have ran real good up there," said Sweet. The team is also following the Golden State Series King of California tour before heading to the Midwest sometime in early June. They plan on spending a few months on the road before heading home and racing at the Gold Cup Race of Champions in September.
Front grandstand gate will open at 6 pm. Sprint car qualifying is slated to start at 7 pm with racing to follow. Adult general grandstand admission is $10.00. Juniors and senior's are $8.00 while children are $4.00. Pit gate will open at 4 pm.
Sprint car driver Brett Miller scored his second career main event victory of his career at Silver Dollar Speedway last Friday night. With the win he unofficially moved into a tie for third in the point standings. Leading the point battle is the defending champion Andy Forsberg of Auburn. Forsberg and second place driver Jason Statler of San Jose are the only two drivers to finish in the top five on both nights of competition this year. Statler is only three points behind Forsberg for the lead. Miller is currently tied with Robbie Whitchurch of Chico. Whitchurch is in his second season of driving sprint cars at Chico and right now is the leading candidate for most improved driver of the early season events. Whitchurch drives for Lowell Moural Sr., owner and operator of Cycleland Speedway just South of Chico. Cycleland is a feeder system for many of the sprint car drivers at Silver Dollar Speedway. Whitchurch is also one of those drivers who enjoyed success driving outlaw karts.
The dirt modifieds will return to the speedway after taking a week off. Durham's Mike Sohnrey leads the division into this Friday night's race. Sohnrey is in search of his first ever championship in the modified division. Right on his tail and only one point behind is Chico's Joe Flower. Chico's Richard Papenhausen and Scott Lenz are tied for the third spot. Chico's Mark Abouzeid rounds out the top five. Look for Abouzeid to get a win soon as he continues to get acquainted with the modified division after sporadically racing the past few years.
Grass Valley's Billy Wallace won the most recent main event in the wingless spec sprint division. Wallace is known as a winged driver for most of his career, however, this year he is concentrating on the wingless series this year. Wallace has always been in my opinion one of the most under appreciated and over-looked drivers in Northern California racing. Always a front-runner, Wallace has earned championship at Placerville driving a winged sprint car. Billy is a second-generation driver who learned the ropes from his father Larry.
Marysville's Jeremy Blackshere is back at Silver Dollar and winning races. Blackshere led and dominated the pure stock main event. He also drove in the Dwarf Car division last Friday. Blackshere finished second in the pure stock division last year and won a handful of main events. He made his 2007 debut at Chico a success and looks to continue his winning ways. Heather Bartlett of Orland seemed to be the crowd favorite in this division. She received most of the applause during introductions and racing. Hopefully she will continue racing at Silver Dollar Speedway. It's hard to miss her hot pink colorful #99.
For more information and updated points check out www.johnpadjenmotorsports.com
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