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Allard, Pettit and Marino Get Opening Night Wins at Chico |
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(Chico, CA 4-3-09)…Chico drivers clean swept the opening night Feather Falls Casino point championship main events. Jonathan Allard, Jimmy Pettit and Phil Marino all scored wins at their hometown ASA Member Sanctioned Silver Dollar Speedway. Allard now has 36 career main event wins at Chico. That puts him all alone in the fifth position all-time at Chico, passing the legendary Jimmy Sills. Pettit is coming off last year’s four main event wins and so far in 2009 he looks as strong as ever. Marino is a former two-time track champion and charged to the front to pick up his exciting win. Allard is $2,000 richer thanks to our
good friends at Bell-Carter Olive Co. The night was filled with heavy hearts as we recognized the passing of 17-year old Christian Stover of Apline, CA. Stover raced at our track many times last year and was scheduled to drive a sprint car tonight. Stover will be sorely missed. His friend Willie Croft came out to do a memorial lap for Stover. Croft also led the main event field for one lap before the start of the race in a missing man formation. It was an emotional night and we are saddened by this terrible loss. It is great to have Bobby McMahan racing full-time in 2009. McMahan was a mainstay in the 1990’s racing with the Northern Auto Racing Club and King of California. McMahan was missing in action the past few years until landing with the Steve Harris owned, www.racingforthetroops.com #26b. McMahan led the early part of the race on a hooked up fast racing surface. On lap two Allard passed Chico’s Brett Miller to take over the second spot. Allard shadowed McMahan for the next thirteen laps until the two began to negotiate lapped traffic. On the next circuit McMahan was pinned behind a slower car. This gave Allard the opening he needed and he pounced at the opportunity. It was a lead that Allard would never relinquish. The mover and shaker of the night was Kyle Hirst. The Gary Perkins owned #6 driver put on the charge of the night. After getting upside down on the first lap of the race, Hirst and team made repairs and sent him back on the speedway for the restart. It was clearly evident that Hirst was one of the, if not, the fastest car on the track. He moved and grooved his way into position for a top five finish. He ultimately finished in the sixth spot but he provided the fans with some thrilling passes. Up front it was all Allard. Nothing could stop his march toward victory lane. A late red flag on lap nineteen was the final stoppage of the night. The single file restart allowed Allard to extend his lead even more. McMahan held on to finish in second. Miller was a factor all-night and finished in the third spot. Grass Valley’s Mark Hall had a top five car and finished in the fourth spot. Chico’s Jason York ran solid and finished fifth. BJ Martin was the man to beat tonight in the wingless main event. The Orland driver won the second heat race and led the start of the feature event. Jimmy Pettit and Taylor Simas followed Martin. All three drivers raced nose to tail for the first 13-laps. Unfortunately for Martin, lap 13 lived up to its unlucky namesake. Martin came out of turn two with the lead, yet, he quickly lost power heading down the back straight. Behind him, Pettit and Simas used cat like reactions to split the slower car. Pettit dove to the bottom while Simas made the save of the night and rolled off the back straight and continued on. The top two stayed the same with Pettit control the racetrack. Simas was just as fast but unable to get close enough to make the pass. Brandon Davis finished in the third spot. Scott Hall ran fourth while Jay Youngman ran fifth. The street stock once again put on a great 20-lap main event. Up front it was all about Richard Workman. The Cottonwood driver led the charge for over three-quarters of the race. Chico’s Heather Bartlett was in second and race cleanly in hopes of making a great pass. Charging into the mix was Chico’s Phil Marino. All three drivers for the later part of the race ran nose to tail and thrilled the crowd. Lap 15 saw a shake up between Bartlett and Marino. The raced side-by-side coming out of turn four and a little contact ensued. Marino moved into the second spot and began to challenge Workman for the lead. On lap seventeen Marino shot around Workman on the front stretch and passed him for the lead. Marino stretched the lead out and went on to win. Bartlett passed Workman on the final lap for second but was too far behind Marino to mount a charge. At the line it was Marino then Bartlett. Coming off turn four a big bellow of smoke came from the engine of Workman’s car and he stopped just short of the finish line. He was still scored in the third spot. Chico’s Brad Bumgarner started the night off by turning the quickest lap at 12.681. Mason Moore, Sean Becker, Kyle Harris and Brendon Boyce won heat races. Matt Shelton dominated the 12-lap semi-main event. A total of 28 winged cars participated in opening night racing. For complete results please visit www.silverdollarspeedway.com |
