CALIFORNIA SPRINT CAR CIVIL WAR SERIES, OPENING NIGHT OF A FOUR NIGHT OF OPEN WHEEL RACING, DURING THE 58TH GOLD CUP RACE OF CHAMPIONS AT SILVER DOLL

CHICO, California — The opening night of the four day 58th Gold Cup Race of Champions had Greg DeCaires of Elk Grove, CA, driving the Rudy Warrington #18 - 360 sprint car in the California Sprint Car Civil War Series, to score a huge victory for this team, after taking the lead with just seven laps to go in this thirty lap event on the quarter mile high banked clay oval at Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico, CA.

"Honestly, I'm out of shape. I haven't been behind the wheel for just too many weeks. I was hoping to just make it through my heat race, then, if we could just hang in there in the front three rows, to see if I had anything left in me to make a run at it. On the twenty-third lap, Sweet (Brad Sweet) drove in too deep, missed the groove and got out of shape. I got the moisture on the bottom of the track and it was a secret weapon. Racing in third, I was able to see the moisture on the bottom of the track & I don't think that Sweet or Kyle (Larson) saw it. This is my first time here in two and a half years. I hit my marks and my car didn't let me down. The yellows came out and they helped me catch my breath. I would have been happy with third." said DeCaires.

Mason Moore of Princeton, CA driving the Harley Van Dyke #5h sprint, raced from his pole start into the lead when the first green flag was thrown. Moore raced ahead of the field holding on to the lead for the first half dozen laps or so, already into lap traffic. A brush with Cody Lamar, as he tried to pass, caused Moore to spin and it was Kyle Larson of Elk Grove, CA, racing the Brent Kaeding #99x who took over the lead. Moore returned to tag in at the rear of the field. Larson had a strong run going, but Sweet raced into second with twenty laps to go, to make his challenge for the lead. Two laps later, Sweet had the lead, Larson was in second, DeCaires third with Jeremy Burt and Kyle Hirst rounding out the top five. Sweet and Larson diced it up, with Sweet not about to give up his lead and Larson racing hard to get in front. With the race now down to twelve laps to go, DeCaires raced into second. But it still looked like the battle for the lead was still between Sweet and Larson. With DeCaires running in second Larson was trying to make his run on the top while Sweet was racing the low groove. The next thing you knew DeCaires grabbed the lead and was able to pull away enough to hang in there to take the checkered flag in first. Sweet & Larson traded spots once or twice but at the line Sweet was second and Larson third.

" My car was good but we gave it away. We had a really good car and with seven laps to go, I missed the bottom groove." said Sweet

Larson said, "It was a tough track. I made a run for it at the end. I guess we had the third best car. He (Sweet) was freed up enough around the turn. I had to try hard to get back past him. But it was fun racing with Brad."

It really was a race that had multiple drivers in place that could claim the victory of this twelfth Civil War Series race of the season.

In qualifying, Sweet raced a 12.042 second lap for fast time.

There were seven cautions in the race, due to mostly spins, or contact. No injuries were reported. Twenty-two sprints took the checkered flag and seventeen sprints were on the lead lap when the checkered flag was thrown.

Scoring in fourth was, Colby Wiesz (Colfax,CA), followed by Brett Rollag (Santa Rosa, CA), Kyle Hirst (Loomis, CA), Nicole Miller (Loomis, CA), Jeremy Burt (Grass Valley, CA), Andy Forsberg (Auburn,CA), Jimmy Trulli (Placerville,CA), Moore, Tyler Wolf (Redding, CA), Sean Becker (Santa Rosa, CA), Herman Klein (Sacramento, CA), Steven Tiner (Visalia, CA), Andy Gregg (Placerville, CA), Cody Lamar (Rio Linda, CA) Clayton Snow (Sacramento, CA), Brad Bumgarner (Chico,CA), Mike Henry (Citrus Heights, CA), Rico Abreu (St. Helena, CA) and Geoff Ensign (Sebastopol, CA).