The Wolf Beats the Rest of the Pack for the Win
(Chico, CA 4/20/12)…Defending Silver Dollar Speedway driving champion Tyler Wolf showed tonight why he will be a threat this year to win it all again. Wolf led all 25-laps to win the action packed 410-winged sprint car main event Friday night. It was an impressive win considering some heavy hitters in attendances who were trying to win the coveted 5th Annual Bill Brownell Memorial. “This feels great,” said Wolf in victory lane. “I have to thank my crew and family for giving me a great car.”
During mid-week before the Friday night race King of the West Director of Communications and sprint car media guru Gary Thomas predicted a Tyler Wolf win at the Brownell. “I watched him the week before at Antioch and you can tell how competitive he is becoming in our sport,” said Thomas.
Wolf picked up $2,500 for the win because of sponsorship help from Shane Scott, Chico Honda Motorsports and Chico Scrap. Scott is the real force behind the Brownell and keeping the race vibrant.
Rico Abreu and Wolf started on the front row. Wolf got the advantage at the start of the race and never looked back. The only thing that slowed Wolf was a few yellow flags and a couple of reds. Robbie Whitchurch brought out the first caution on lap two when he stopped on the track in turn two. A few laps later Brad Bumgarner parked the family car in turn four. On lap five Jonathan Allard spun the Morrie and Katie Williams owned #0. Up to this point Wolf had continued his lead over Abreu.
The main event started to get a few laps complete until Kevin Sharrah bicycled through turn three and flipped. The red was needed and Sharrah emerged uninjured. Two laps later the night ended for Allard. Contact with another car sent him upside down in turn four. Even though the race couldn’t find a rhythm to complete a lot of green flag laps, the racing up front was still intense. At one point, Abreu was side by side with Wolf and tried to take the lead but was never able to officially lead a lap. The final red flag was needed when Abreu and David Tarter got together on the white flag lap. Tarter was sent upside down while Abreu was able to continue and keep his second place position.
Another driver who was really impressive was Cody Lamar. This year the famous Tri-C #3c is moving up into the 410 winged sprint car division. Lamar showed glimpses of brilliance tonight by holding off championship caliber drivers such as Andy Forsberg and Roger Crockett. Lamar held onto the third spot and it was his best career finish at Chico running with the 410 division.
Up front it was all about Wolf. He turned the fastest lap of the race, navigated through slower cars to perfection and showed the rest of the sprint car community that he has materialized into a championship contender for 2012.
Andy Forsberg turned the fastest lap in qualifying at a 12.548.
An action packed night of racing saw great battles in all four supporting divisions at Silver Dollar Speedway during the 5th Annual Bill Brownell Memorial. Travis Moore used the high scary side to win the 15-lap wingless main event. Ryan McDaniel won the dirt modified race. Randy McDaniel was all smiles in victory lane after winning the Limited Late Model event. Misty Castleberry got back to her winning ways in the Mini Stock division. All in all these drivers put on an entertaining show for the fans in attendance tonight.
“It’s an honor to win tonight’s race during the Bill Brownell Memorial,” said an enthusiastic Travis Moore. “I have so many great stories about Bill and he was a great man for the local community.” Moore passed Brett Youngman on lap eight by using the high line through turn four. It was an aggressive but smart move by Moore. “You have to go where they’re not,” said Moore. Youngman held onto the second spot at the finish. Rowdy McClennon finished in the third spot. Rookie Taylor Nelson was fourth. Angelique Bell rounded out the top five. An ugly incident happened during the wingless heat race when three cars crashed in turns one and two. Tony Richards suffered the worse for wear and violently flipped through the air. A mini-altercation happened after the wreck between drivers and crew members but cooler heads prevailed and it was just part of the frustration of the wreck.
Brad Magenheimer led the early laps of the Limited Late Model main event. However, he was soon being challenged by numerous time dirt modified track champion Randy McDaniel. The two swapped the lead on laps five, six and seven until McDaniel finally gained control of the race. From here on out it was all about McDaniel as he extended his lead. Late in the event Jerry Bartlett began to pick his way through the field. With five laps to go, Bartlett passed Magenheimer for second. “That was a lot of fun,” said a thrilled Randy McDaniel. “I’d like to see some of the modified guys move into this division and try to build this thing up.” It was nice to see McDaniel so pumped up about the win and the future of this class.
Randy’s son Ryan wasn’t exactly as thrilled with his win in the dirt modified division. “We need to do our homework,” said McDaniel in victory lane. McDaniel was a third place car most of the night but benefitted from an accident involving Jeff Olschowka and Richard Papenhausen. Both cars were the class of the field tonight. Yet, on lap 10, Olschowka spun going through turn one and collected Papenhausen. Also involved was Oreste Gonella. Only Gonella continued on. This was the second point race where Olschowka was snake-bitten. He led the opening night main event but as with tonight circumstances prevented him from wining the main event. Ryan was the new leader on lap 11 and went on to win the main event. Randy McDaniel applied some race pressure on the restart but with five laps to go he faded to a three second deficit at the finish line.
Misty Castleberry and Jason Clayton put on the show of the night. Clayton took the early lead of the event and was flying around the race track. The only other driver that was as fast as him was Castleberry. The two engaged in an epic battle that thrilled the fans. Castleberry moved around Clayton and assumed the lead. Clayton never gave up and tried everything he could to pass Castleberry back. But in the end Castleberry had too much for Clayton and she won her first main event of the year at Chico. “I love racing here,” she said. “The first race didn’t turn out the way we wanted and it feels good to get the win here tonight.”
Full results are available at www.silverdollarspeedway.com
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- troy hennig on Apr 22, 2012
- Article Date: 4/21/2012 by Troy Hennig / Steve Cox Photo