4/20/2019
Silver Dollar Speedway
Carrick, Peckham, and Allen all Get Wins at Chico
Tanner Carrick led all 30-laps to win the Friday night point race at Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico. It was his second career triumph at Chico. Even though Carrick did lead all the laps, he was constantly being pressured by either Tony Gualda or Shane Golobic throughout the entirety of the race. Golobic took over the second spot on lap 23 from Gualda. Carrick, an unbelieve talent behind the wheel of sprint car or midget, seemed comfortable up front and leading. His poise and maturity at such a young age is amazing. Also, to fend off such a well-respected driver like Golobic, made this win even more impressive. Give Gualda credit too, he banged the cushion all night and should of earned some new fans with his exciting driving style.
Justyn Cox turned in one of the more impressive drives tonight as he went from an 8th starting spot to finish fourth. Sean Becker started third and fell down a few spots before working back to a fifth-place finish. On lap 12, Becker and Andy Forsberg bumped wheels resulting in Forsberg flipping upside down. Forsberg was uninjured but the car was too damaged to continue. Kalib Henry drove hard all night and finished sixth. Henry was the fastest in qualifying and the only driver in the 11-second bracket. His lap time was 11.837.
A new wrinkle in the Friday night format for the sprint cars involves the top six fastest drivers go directly to a dash and bypass the heat races. Golobic led the dash wire-to-wire. By winning the dash, Golobic started inside row three in the fifth position. Heat race winners are now locked into the first two rows of the main event. Tanner Carrick won the first heat and earned him the pole position starting spot. Gualda won heat two and started outside the front row. Rico Abreu won heat three and started third in the main event. A total of 28 cars attended tonight’s show. With the large car count a B main event was needed. Casey McClain passed Brandon Powell on the opening lap and went on to win the race. Powell was second.
An impressive 21-car field of IMCA Sport Modifieds thrilled the crowd with an action packed 20-lap main event. Fourth place starting Andrew Peckham was a man on a mission tonight. He moved into the second spot on lap seven. Then shadowed Phillip Shelby for the next eight laps. On lap 14, Peckham made the race winning move and passed Shelby. It was a great win tonight for Peckham considering all the great talented drivers who attended tonight’s show. Sixth place starting Jimmy Ford climbed to the third spot by lap eight and ended up finishing there. Tenth place starting Brian Cooper climbed through the field quickly and raced his way to a solid fourth place finish. Tanner Thomas rounded out the top five.
As with the sprint cars, the Sport Mods were given a dash tonight. The track took the fastest six drivers from hot laps and put them into a six-lap dash. Guy Ahlwardt was impressive in moving up from his fourth starting spot to win the event. Brian Cooper, Tanner Thomas and Andrew Peckham all won their heat races.
Kyle Allen won the second heat, then the dash and then went on to win the 20-lap feature event in the Hobby Stock division. In our line of work, we call that a clean sweep. An overall dominant performance by the former track champion. James West started off in the lead of the feature event. Shannon Collins then grabbed the lead from lap two until five. On lap six is when Allen took the lead and went on to win. Mel Byers passed Collins late in the race to secure second place. Collins came home in third. Nick Vidovich finished fourth. West rounded out the top five. Vidovich won the first heat.
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