5/9/2009

Silver Dollar Speedway

Allard's Last Turn Pass Gets Him Bradway Jr. Win

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="420"] HRP Photos by Steve Cox[/caption]

This was the 19th running of the Dave Bradway Jr. Memorial at Chico. Allard's win now gives him four Memorial wins that places him in a tie with Brent Kaeding for the most of all-time. While the Hirst family helped start the tradition the Durica family has helped keep this race not only alive but thriving. Each lap in the feature and semi-feature paid lap money to the top three. Allard's win earned him $4,000 off the top. Add in the $1200 in bonus money and it raises it to $5200. Earlier in the night Allard set fast time with an amazing lap of 11.119. The lap broke his old King of California qualifying record of old. That single lap earned him an extra $1500 because of the annual qualifying bonus for the Dave Bradway Jr. Allard and the Morrie and Katie Williams owned #0 took over $6700 out of Chico during this one night of racing. Sweet, while still probably feeling a little down, had to be happy to finish second. With all the laps led and the second place payday in a King of California race he won nearly $3500.

HoservilleCA played an important once again at the Dave Bradway Jr. Memorial. For the sixth year in a row the Internet Message board fans of sprint car racing donated a right rear tire, sleeves of tear-offs and a plaque to each heat race winner. The heat race winners also stopped on the front stretch for an interview and to give a trophy to one young fan. This year that young fan was also taken to the front stretch to take a picture with the winner. The four heat race winners included Andy Forsberg, Sean Becker, Robert Stice and Kyle Hirst. Heat race winner trophies donated by Arnolds for Awards.

Many great fans throughout the night of racing came up to donate extra money to the racing program. Big Daddy's Race Center added $100 to the final finisher in the C main that turned out to be Jason Statler. Also adding money to the B main were racing fans Roger and Linda. Qualifying sponsors were in no particular order; NMI Industrial Contractors, F & F Racing, John's Racing Photos, GT Promotions, Graph X Designs, HoservilleCA, CarWash Mike and Stumble, GT Trends.com, The River Glenn, Dennis Thomas, ManCamp, Fry's Metal, and Chowchilla.

The semi-feature was won by Mark Hall. His 12-lap win gave Hall an extra $600 because of the lap money. Evan Suggs finished in the second spot and will receive an extra $340. Willie Croft finished third and should get an extra $260. The final three transfer spots went to Shane Golobic, Wayne Johnson and Bud Kaeding. Even though he finished sixth, Kaeding roused the crowd with a last lap pass over Jason Solwold for the final transfer. Kaeding would go on to start dead last in the main event. Kaeding was able to use his experience and work his way into a seventh place finish. That was good enough to earn the Southern Pacific Farms hard charger award and an extra $500. Other event product sponsors were BR Motorsports, Scribner Plastics and NorCal Performance.

Bobby McMahan dominated the eight lap C main event. Pat Harvey finished second and joined McMahan in transferring into the semi-feature. Mike Stallings finished third.

The six-lap dash was won by Allard. The only glitch in Allard's night was his fourth place finish in the first heat race. As already documented, Allard was quick-time, won the dash and win the main event. Miller finished second while Tyler Walker ran third. Sweet finished in the fourth spot and Jason York rounded out the top five.

The original start saw Brett Miller spin off the track in turn one. Sweet moved into the outside front row and got the advantage over Allard on the next start. Sweet led the first ten laps until Willie Croft brought the yellow on lap ten. Seven laps later Andy Forsberg had issues and another yellow was needed. Up to this point the leaders were involved with some traffic but each caution allowed the track to clear in front of them. On the next restart Shane Golobic ended up on his lid in turn four. Colby Copeland's restart did not treat him well and he too flipped. During this red flag the teams were able to add fuel to cars so it would not be an issue later in the race.

The race resumed with the top three being Sweet, Allard and Tyler Walker. Kyle Hirst up to this point was moving through the field. He started 17th and ran up to the eighth spot. Up to this point he was the leading contender for the Hard Charger. But on lap 21 he was in the wrong place at the wrong time and spun off the track. The driver starting to move up the track just a bit in turns three and four was Tyler Walker. The always exciting driver started closing on Allard for second. At one point Walker ran sided by side with Allard through the third and fourth turns. On the next lap Walker went back to try the high side but he entered a little too high and he slid off the track. At this point Allard then moved to the line Walker was running and tried it to see if it worked. Walker restarted in the rear and drove back up to finish in the fourth spot. The final caution waived on lap 31 when Andy Forsberg slowed on the front stretch and Hirst ran into the back of him. Both cars would not return to the race. It is important to note that on this yellow Allard once again used this opportunity to try the top of the track. It was something that would play a factor in the dramatic finish.