From The Grandstand
by Ron Rodda
September 14, 2004

Lincoln CA…The annual racing extravaganza at Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico, known as Gold Cup Week, started 4 nights of action on September’s 2nd Wednesday with the Civil War invitational for the top 32 in points. Conveniently the 33rd in points was on hand and got to race when one car scratched during hot laps. Half of the fastest 10 did not transfer out of a heat, one being the fast qualifier, Roger Crockett. He moved from the B main to the 3rd row behind the four inversion for the 30 lap main.
    Crockett moved into 3rd on lap two, using the top of turn 4, drove into 2nd with a low pass in turn 3 on lap 8, and took the lead two laps later, using the top of turn 3 for the winning pass. Greg DeCaires was 2nd from 12th starting and Chuck Gurney Jr. was 3rd, coming from 7th for the last podium position. One yellow and one red slowed the pace but nothing slowed Crockett once in the lead.


Roger Crockett won the Civil War Wednesday main

    Mark Hall ran the event with a sore foot, damaged in a misstep at Quincy on August 8th, making him an uncertain entry for the Trophy Cup in October. Crockett was starting a very busy streak as Thursday he raced opening night of the Gold Cup, Friday was off to Lebanon OR for a NST race that he won, and Saturday he was back in Chico for Gold Cup finals. Crockett needed and got a rainout at Cottage Grove OR on Saturday to protect his NST point lead.
    Out of the fastest ten cars that made a heat race transfer, 8 of them were basically Placerville Speedway cars. That is not surprising when the history book uncovers the fact that the last six years the series champion was a Placerville regular. That trend is on track to repeat in 2004 as David Robinson Jr. has claimed the Placerville track honors and is currently leading the Civil War points. The biggest one day sprint car show in the state occurs next Saturday when Kings Speedway in Hanford hosts the Rebel Cup/Civil War combined sanctions with nonwing Sprint Bandits included. That figures to create around 75 sprint cars in the pit area. This is the show that I claim cannot make curfew, although it has in its first two years.

Tim Kaeding captured the Friday portion of the week

    Thursday through Saturday was the mostly 410 crowd in town for the 51st running of the Gold Cup. The first night had a 45 car field, 42 different cars appeared on night number two, and the points earned set the A through E main event fields on Saturday. Donny Schatz won Thursday, Tim Kaeding was absolutely superb in winning Friday, and Schatz won the finale on Saturday. Opening night of the three had a dry, slick surface for main event laps while the next two nights it was very fast. Thursday the track was overly hot lapped, leading to a new track record for Craig Dollansky at 11.423. Mark Kinser and Jason Meyers were also under the prior record, but the racing suffered later that evening due to the extra fast track for time trials.
    The memorable thing for me about this event was the tough luck that befell California drivers, starting with Brent Kaeding on Thursday. Kaeding was 11th quick until the sound meter said otherwise. The one at the end rules state no better than 17th quick can be attained, so points were lost over that. Then he had a right rear go after some abuse on the rubber laden surface with six laps left in the main, ruining a fine finish and costing him many more points. Brad Sweet had timed in 8th quick for a very promising start to his evening, but a spin in heat four left him out of the dash and too far back in points to recover

Troy Hennig is Chico's regular announcer

    Sean Becker was 11th quick, made the dash which he won, and collected enough points to 12th in the Saturday lineup. Becker made the most of his week with an excellent 8th place finish after 40 laps on Saturday. Blake Robertson was very impressive Saturday as he finished 5th after starting 21st, barely in the same zip code as the front row. These two drivers were the brightest spots for Golden State housed teams.
    Friday’s main was taken by Tim Kaeding in amazing fashion, running the quarter as if he was the only car on it, putting some of the nation’s best drivers a lap down by mid-race. He lost his pole assigned spot when a late installation of a mud plug made him late to staging and a one row penalty saw him start inside of row two. The way he ran the race, he could have started across the street at the shopping center and still won. Taking the lead on lap 11 by being first into turn one on the bottom, his performance gave local fans something to look forward to come the next night. Only one yellow slowed the pace.
    Saturday’s final, a $25,000 win waiting to be claimed, had Tim Kaeding on the outside of row two while Andy Forsberg and Stephen Allard shared row five for the closest starting locals. Becker was in row six, Steve Kent in seven, Kevin Pylant and Davey Key in row 8, with Randy Hannagan, Roger Crockett, and Blake Robertson counting as California drivers on the grid.
    What looked to be a story in the making with Tim Kaeding’s starting spot did not even last until he crossed the line to get the green. A front stretch mess left him on his side and out, deflating many in the crowd who had hoped for more of the usual excitement generated whenever Tim is on the track. After that red, 40 laps followed with only 4 yellows appearing. Schatz won by leading every tour of the high speed quarter.
    Kent and Forsberg had front stretch problems in almost the same spot at Kaeding just 12 laps into the main. Kent was making a very rare appearance in the 11H car, subbing for the still healing Paul McMahan.


Kyle Larson and Donny Schatz are Parker Store sponsored drivers

    The week gave an opportunity for two of the three racers sponsored by Parker Store to meet for the first time. Besides the somewhat older Schatz, the newest driver to sport sponsorship from Parker is 12 year old Kyle Larson of Elk Grove, CA. While only earning a dozen candles on his last cake, Kyle has several years of experience in winged karts and has many wins along the trail. He is now the first winged kart driver to ever have national sponsorship. The association grew out of exposure for the Larson racing family when they had their kart hauled to Knoxville IA last month to race at a newly created track south of town.
    While the tough breaks coming to several of the local drivers dimmed the excitement of the finale, it was still a very successful four days of Chico. It was fun to sit in the newly expanded press box and observe Troy Hennig announcing the Civil War show on Wednesday. He was multi-tasking with the best of them and his smooth and informative style is always appreciated. Chico is fortunate to still get Dennis Gage out of announcer retirement to handle to next three nights for his once a year return to the booth.
    While the 410 portion of the event was particularly efficiently run, the attitude coming over the scanner by some of the traveling officials showed that some things never change. Chico’s next action is October 7, 8, and 9 when the Pacific Sprint Fall Nationals plays out, following essentially the same format as the Gold Cup.


A campground display at the Gold Cup