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Saldana wins thriller during Friday night Gold Cup prelim
By Gary Thomas
Chico, CA - September 7, 2007... 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.
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
Results:
54th annual Gold Cup Race of Champions
Friday, September 7, 2007
World of Outlaw Sprint Cars
Qualifying- Fast time: Evan Suggs 11.738
Heat 1: Terry McCarl, Steve Kinser, Evan Suggs, Willie Croft, Sean Becker, Danny Bullock, Korey Lovell, Johnny Gray, Matt Petty, Mark Workentine
Heat 2: Jeremy Campbell, Mike Monahan, Paul McMahan, Kerry Madsen, Barry Martinez, Shane Stewart, Andy Forsberg, Justin Henderson, Peter Breshears, Tyler Spath
Heat 3: Daryn Pittman, Brooke Tatnell, Tim Shaffer, Jason Statler, Robert Ballou, Ronnie Day, Shane Golobic, Taylor Malsam, James Sweeney, Kevin Pylant
Heat 4: Tim Kaeding, Sam Hafertepe Jr, Joey Saldana, Jon Maiwald, Brent Kaeding, Kyle Hirst, Matt Shelton, Shain Matthews, Eddy Lewis, Jeremy Burt
D-main: Kevin Sharrah, Brad Bumgarner, Mark Tabor Sr, Shawn Arriaga, Brandon Carey, Cody Meyers, Brett Bjork, Mark Haynes, Josh Kehely, Adrien Betournay, Josh Keheley, Tony Silveira, David Silveira, Bill Cornwell, Rick Wright Jr, Brian Boswell
C-main: Andy Forsberg, James Sweeney, Kevin Sharrah, Eddy Lewis, Brad Bumgarner, Shawn Arriaga, Peter Breshears, Mark Tabor Sr, Jeremy Burt, Matt Petty
Dash: Steve Kinser, Brooke Tatnell, Daryn Pittman, Tim Kaeding, Sam Hafertepe Jr, Terry McCarl, Jeremy Campbell, Barry Martinez, Mike Monahan
B-main: Ronnie Day, Shane Golobic, Matt Shelton, Justin Henderson, Kyle Hirst, Andy Forsberg, James Sweeney, Taylor Malsam, Tyler Spath, Shain Matthews, Shane Stewart, Johnny Gray, Korey Lovell, Mark Workentine, Danny Bullock, Kevin Pylant
A-main: Joey Saldana, Steve Kinser, Brooke Tatnell, Daryn Pittman, Tim Shaffer, Sam Hafertepe Jr, Terry McCarl, Brent Kaeding, Evan Suggs, Jeremy Campbell, Jason Statler, Paul McMahan, Ronnie Day, Mike Monahan, Sean Becker, Barry Martinez, Kerry Madsen, Justin Henderson, Shane Golobic, Matt Shelton, Tim Kaeding, Jon Maiwald, Robert Ballou, Willie Croft
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