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84 Cars Pack Pit Area Night One

84 Cars Pack the Pit Area for Fall Nationals Night One! Shane Golobic & Chance Crum Claim Friday Night Victories

By: Elijah Jones

(September 29th, 2018) ………. On a crisp, windy night in Chico, CA we saw 84 race cars pack the pit area at the Silver Dollar Speedway for Night One of the 2018 Fall Nationals. On hand were the Northwest Focus Midgets and Winged 360 Sprint Cars. Both classes electrified the crowd all evening long before crowning winners at the end of the night.

Shane Golobic bested the field of 54 Winged Sprint Car entries to score the $3,000 victory in the 30 Lap Main Event. At the drop of the green flag Golobic grabbed the early lead from his Pole Position starting spot. On Lap 2 however, Tanner Thorson would make the move around the outside to take over the race lead. He would pull away and lead until about Lap 19 when Shane Golobic found a fast line on the bottom in Turns 1 & 2. He was able to get by Sean Becker and Tanner Thorson to go from third to first in two laps. Just when it looked as though Golobic had the race wrapped up, a yellow flag would wave on the final lap of the race. That would bunch the field up once again and give Tanner Thorson one last run at Golobic. On the restart with two to go Golobic went to protect the bottom of the racetrack. As he took the White Flag, Thorson was mounting one last charge. The two motored through the first set of corners and down the back stretch. Golobic dove to the bottom, Thorson let it all hang out on the top. At the line it was a drag race and Shane Golobic got the victory by just .151 seconds over Tanner Thorson. The win was the first for Shane Golobic since climbing behind the wheel of the Matt Wood owned, Elk Grove Ford #17W sprint car. Despite leading the most laps, Tanner Thorson would settle for second in the Tri-C Machine #3C. Dominic Scelzi made his return from a broken leg to round out the podium in the Third Position in the Scelzi Enterprises #41S. Sean Becker charged from 15th to finish in the 4th position. He was at one point up to the second spot and battling for the lead before a caution would fly. Brad Furr would round out the Top Five in fifth. It was good to see the red #2 back at the Silver Dollar Speedway.

In preliminary action Willie Croft set the overall Fast Time in Time Trials with a lap of 11.473 seconds, which was awfully close to the 360 Track Record of 11.406 seconds held by Andy Forsberg. Heat Race action saw Tanner Thorson score the victory in Heat Race #1. The second Heat Race was claimed by the #21 of Michael Ing. Ing had a good night going until spinning early in the Main Event. Fast Qualifier Willie Croft would win Heat Race #3 by more than three seconds. While Tanner Carrick claimed the fourth and final Heat Race of the night for the Sprint Cars. The first of two C-Main Events was won by Lucas Ashe, who went on to transfer all the way to the Feature Event where he would finish 19th. The second C-Main saw Shawn Conde get the victory. Kyle Offill made Crew Chief Jonathan Allard proud by winning the B-Main Event and moving himself into the Feature where he would finish in the 17th Position. The 6 lap Dash was won by Shane Golobic giving him the Pole Position for the night’s Feature Event.
The Northwest Focus Midgets put on a great show all night as usual. The 25 Lap Main Event saw Chance Crum best the field of 30 entries to win the Friday Night Portion of the Fall Nationals for the second year in a row. This time driving for car owner Bob Scott who used to be a regular Sprint Car driver at the Silver Dollar Speedway. It was great to see him back in the pit area fielding a race car at Silver Dollar Speedway. Ross Rankine hounded Crum the entire race but was never able to make a pass stick as the two rolled the bottom of the racetrack to perfection. Tristin Thomas pounded the cushion for the entire 25 laps but was never able to make enough headway to gain ground on the leaders and he would have to settle for third. Jonathan Jorgenson would finish fourth followed by B-Main Event Winner Nick Evans who battled all the way up to finish fifth. Heat Race action for the Focus Midgets saw Nick Larson, Hannah Lindquist, Matt Loving, and Jonathan Jorgenson pick up victories.

We will be back in action tonight at the Silver Dollar Speedway with our season closing Fall Nationals Finale in tribute to Stephen Allard. We expect 50+ Sprint Cars once again and another strong field of Northwest Focus Midgets should bring the total car count to close to 90 cars! Grab a friend and head out to the racetrack. For ticket information and/or directions to the racetrack please visit our website at www.silverdollarspeedwa

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