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"The Shark" Swims to Victory During Silver Cup Night One

CHICO, CA (3-7-14) - Sean Becker completed the clean sweep of the friday night portion of the Silver Cup by charging from the 8th starting position to take the victory aboard the Menne Motorsports #75 machine. "Every time I strap in to this car I feel like we can win." stated a very excited Becker in Victory Lane. The track was like the Silver Dollar of the 1990's Rough, Rutted, Fast, and Fun to Watch. The win marks his 47th career win at the Speedway. Other winners during the Friday night portion of the Silver Cup included Rio Linda's Scott Hall in the Wingless Sprint Car division, and Nick DeCarlo from Martinez, Ca. Took home the victory in the Dirt Modified class.

At the start of the Winged 360 Sprint Car A Main it was a good old fashioned dog fight between Jayme Barnes and "Mr. Excitement himself, Andy Forsberg. Jayme would hold off Forsberg's many attempts to move past on the low side of the track until lap number seven when Forsberg was able to finally clear Barnes and move into the top spot. But the night would turn to disaster for the veteran driver on the very next lap. Forsberg entered turns 3 and 4 right in the middle of the track trying to glide over the ruts when the car hooked violently and barrel rolled in a vicious cycle of flips thus ending his bid at the win and handing the lead back over to Barnes. Forsberg climbed from the car and rode the quad back to his pit. On the restart it was Barnes who would hold off Steven Tiner, but the show was Sean Becker at this point. Sean restarted in the 4th position on lap eight, and in the next few laps would do battle with Tiner, and Shane Golobic for the second spot. Once he cleared those two he set his sights on Barnes. Becker was able to finally track down and clear Barnes in turn two on lap number 16 and would drive on to victory. Fremont, Ca.'s Shane Golobic was also able to get by Jayme Barnes for the 2nd spot. Barnes came home 3rd. Steven Tiner had a strong showing tonight coming home in the 4th spot, and Roger Crockett from Medford, Oregon rounded out the top five. Sean Becker set the fastest time in time trials with a time of 12.265. Heat Race victories were claimed by Becker, Jayme Barnes, and Andy Forsberg. The B-Main was claimed by Colin Baker after leader Chase Johnson spun on the white flag lap.

Albert Gill led the Dirt Modifieds down to the Green Flag in A Main competition. Gill would lead the first two laps before Jeff Olschowka would overtake him for the lead. Olschowka however would only lead two laps before he would make contact with the white tire in turn two thus ending his bid at victory early in the race. With Olschowka out of the race, on the restart that left Nick DeCarlo in the lead. Nick DeCarlo would go on to lead the final 16 laps of the main event bringing home his second straight friday night victory at the Silver Cup. DeCarlo was chased across the line by the defending Track Champion Duane Cleveland in 2nd, defending Street Stock Track Champion Jake Vantol in 3rd, the 11k of Kyle Casson in the 4th position, and Albert Gill would finish 5th after starting on the pole. A rare treat only done at Silver cup saw the Modifieds do group qualifying with Nick DeCarlo set the fastest lap with a time of 15.501. DeCarlo also had the clean sweep of the night by way of setting fast time, winning heat race number one, and claiming the main event. Heat race number two was won by Duane Cleveland, and Heat 3 was claimed by Jeff Olschowka, and heat race number four was claimed by the #68x Jay Sears. A B-Main was needed tonight for the modifieds. That race was claimed by Chico's own Richard Papenhausen.

Scott Hall won his third Silver Cup Weekend main event victory in as many years in the Wingless Sprint Car class. Hall took the lead early in the race and held off hard charges from Shane Myhre and defending track champion Rowdy McClenon. In the last five laps McClenon was right on the tail tank of Hall. But Hall continued to hit his line lap after lap, thus making it impossible for McClenon to get around him. McClenon would hang on to finish in the 2nd position, Shane Myhre would finish in the 3rd position, Dustin Thompson drove his #337 machine to a 4th place finish while Don Emery was scored in the 5th position. Group qualifying also took place for the wingless cars, with Angelique Bell setting the fastest lap with a time of 14.621. The lone Wingless Sprint heat race was won by Anderson, California's Rowdy McClenon.

Most people thought, "No way we are racing this weekend. Its gonna be too wet." Dennis Gage is not "most people". Dennis had it set in his head that racing would go on as scheduled this weekend and he did everything in his power to make sure that happened. Dennis and the SDS crew worked sun up to sun down trying to pump water out and dry the pit area. They did a wonderful job making sure the show went on.

The Silver Cup Continues tomorrow night, Saturday, March 8th, with the 360 Sprint Cars returning, the Joe Hunt Magnetos Wingless Sprint Car Series, and the Nor-Cal Modifieds all ready to do battle on the � mile clay oval. The pit gate is set to open at 2:30pm and the Main Grandstand gate is set to open at 5:00pm. Thank you all for joining us tonight at the Silver Dollar Speedway and we hope to see you again tomorrow for Night Two of the 2014 Silver Cup!

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