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Silver Dollar Speedway season wraps up with two-day Wingless Nationals this week By Bill Sullivan |
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OCTOBER 10, 2007 --- John Padjen’s famed Silver Dollar Speedway will close the 2007 Feather Falls Casino racing season this Friday and Saturday night with the third running of the Joe Hunt Magnetos Wingless Sprint Car Nationals at the Silver Dollar Fairgrounds in Chico. The event is a two day showdown featuring wingless sprint car stars from throughout California and areas of the Pacific Northwest in one of Northern California’s highest paying events of the year. In 2007, a record total of 98 different drivers competed in the Silver Dollar Speedway/Placerville Speedway Wingless championship series. Many of those competitors are expected to return to the competitive high banks of Silver Dollar this weekend while many new faces are expected along with a few names that are very well known in the winged sprint car ranks in the Feather Falls Casino weekly championship series. Racing action will begin this weekend on Friday night with qualifying and heat races for all competitors and an invitational main event open to the top 22 drivers that transfer from the preliminary events. The 2007 event will differ slightly in format than previous years. On Friday night, points will be awarded for qualifying positions as well as heat race positions and passing points will be an added feature for the preliminary events. The evening will conclude with an invitational feature event that will pay $1000 to the winner. On Saturday night, feature events will form the race card for all drivers that competed on Friday night. Line ups for Saturday night will be determined by point totals from the Friday night program. Saturday’s A-feature will pay $2500 to the winner. The two-day format is subject to change pending weather conditions on Friday night. Such changes will be announced at that time if necessary but as of press time track promoter John Padjen was remaining optimistic about Mother Nature’s threat. “At this time we’re planning on doing what we can to get the show in,” said Padjen. “Friday there is a chance of showers early in the day and if that’s forecast holds true we’ll be ok. We won’t make any premature decisions until we get to Friday and see what Mother Nature really brings.” On both nights the pit gate will open at 2 p.m. with the grandstands opening at 5 followed by racing at 6:30. Friday night admission will be $15.00 for adults, $10 for juniors and $4 for children. On Saturday night Adult admission will be $20, juniors are $10 and children are $4. Children six and under will be admitted for free on both nights. Entering the third annual Wingless Nationals, young Brandon Davis of Rohnert Park will top the roster. Davis recently won the Silver Dollar/Placerville Speedway series championship as well as the Wingless Sprint Invitational that opened the 54th Annual Gold Cup Race of Champions. Joining Davis at the track he owned for much of this season will be Terry Schank Jr. of Antioch. As of press time it was reported that Shank would once again pilot the Matt Fontaine owned #2x that remains undefeated in the annual Wingless Nationals. Last year Schank drive to victory with the competitive team. In 2005, Herman Klein won the inaugural event driving under the ownership of Fontaine. This weekend the team looks to maintain its undefeated status and Schank could very well become the first two time champion of this exciting post season event. Drivers that have pre-registered for this weekend’s event include former Gold Cup champion Darrell Hanestad of Clayton as well as Chico drivers Kenny Bair, Sean King, Jimmy Pettit. Cody Smith of nearby Biggs has logged an entry as well as Bobby Nichols of Stockton, Jake Serven of Sacramento and Napa driver Lucas Nerlove. Additonal drivers that are also expected, but have yet to appear on the pre-registration roster include Matt Streeter of Lathrop who has had great success in 2007 aboard Wingless Sprint cars as well as winged sprints and midgets. 2006 Silver Dollar Speedway champion Bob Newberry of Concord is rumored to be logging an entry as well. All prospective entries are based on team reports and pre-registration and are considered unofficial until race day. Last year 63 drivers entered this event. Joining the wingless warriors Friday night will be two of Silver Dollar Speedway’s brightest stars, Brett Miller of Chico and Kyle Hirst of Sacramento. Both drivers compete in the weekly Friday night program at Silver Dollar Speedway as well as the Golden State Challenge Series. For additional information on Silver Dollar Speedway’s final event of the year, the 2007 Wingless Nationals, please visit www.johnpadjenmotorsports.com or contact the track business office at 916-969-7484. |
