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Racing Returns This Friday Night

CHICO, CA (4-11-11) - The Wells Fargo point championship auto racing season resumes this Friday night, April 15, at the Silver Dollar Speedway. After taking the past weekend off, the winged 410-sprints, street stocks and the Joe Hunt Magnetos Wingless Sprints Shootout Series will provide a triple play of racing excitement on the quarter-mile clay oval speedway.

Pit gate will open at 4 pm. Front grandstand gate opens at 6 pm. Sprint car qualifying is slated to start at 6:30 pm with a full gauntlet of racing for all divisions to follow.

Adult general admission into the spectator side of the main grandstand is $12.00 while junior and seniors is $10.00. Children prices are $6.00.

Oroville's Sean Becker drove to the opening night victory during the 410-spint car main event on April 1. Becker landed the Sperry Motorsports / C & H Veteran Ent. /Cherry St. Mini Storage / Dan's Roofing #51 in victory lane to the delight of his large fan base. Becker has been a consistent weekly warrior at Silver Dollar Speedway for the past ten years. Becker enters his third year as the primary driver for Sperry Motorsports. Sperry was in charge of Steve Harris' racing stable that at one time featured Kyle Harris and Bobby McMahan as teammates along with Becker.

Unfortunately Harris has since past away after a long waged battle against brain cancer. He has been sorely missed around the speedway. The remarkable sight of not just one, or two but on many occasions', three cars that were all out of basically the same stable of Harris racing. In 2009, McMahan won the track championship for Harris. It was a great sight to see Harris at the end of the year awards banquet to celebrate the championship. I did not know it at the time but it would be the last time I would see Steve alive. While he is no longer with us, and the team he started has since been disbanded; McMahan and Becker are still driving sprint cars. Bobby McMahan is now racing with his son, Sean, and following the King of the West series. Kyle Harris is currently not in sprint car racing but it is nice to see Sperry and Becker in winners circle and able to continue some of the winning legacy that Harris originally started.

Roger Gleason is a man with a plan. He originally wondered how to get more wingless cars to show up at certain races. Gleason entertained the thought about starting a series like the Civil War or King of the West. Now in its second full season, the series has grown into a must attend event for fans of wingless sprint car racing. This series has traditionally averaged over 24 cars during each event at Silver Dollar Speedway last season. More money and contingency awards are on the line every time this series comes to a town near you. Open wheel Hall of Fame inductee Jimmy Sills won this year's first event last weekend. Drivers expected to contend with Sills include defending champion Terry Schank Jr., Cody Meyers and Scott Hall. Locally the top contenders will be Taylor Simas, Mitch Miller and Brian Southers.

The street stocks are also on the schedule this Friday night. It will be their second point race of the season. Chris Warner returned from a long hiatus from racing to capture the win. Redding's Scott Rogers and Chico's Phil Marino look to keep Warner out of victory lane this Friday night. The street stocks are always a fun division to watch and they entertain the fans with a lot of door banging, close knit racing that has been a tradition at the speedway for over 30 years.

All of this local action will take place this April 15. For more detailed information please visit www.silverdollarspeedway.com

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