World of Outlaw Sprint Series, second race, at Silver Dollar Speedway's Gold Cup Race of Champions 58th Anniversary

CHICO, California — The very competitive four nights of open wheel racing on dirt during the 58th Gold Cup Race of Champions, ended with the World of Outlaw Sprint Series feature race victory scored by Kyle Larson of Elk Grove, CA to claim his first Gold Cup Race of Champions win and is now the second California driver, to have ever won this big event.

This also is Larson's very first WoO career win and his smile could not have been broader. Not only did Larson take this win, he ran the quarter mile, high banked clay oval, in the lead to dominate the entire forty lap race, driving the Brent Kaeding owned #99 410 Sprint, at the Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico, CA.

"I woke up this morning knowing that this is the biggest sprint car race in California and I wanted it. My crew had the car perfect on every line. I was nervous racing the Dash. I was nervous every time the yellow came out in this race and nervous at every restart. I also was nervous racing in the slower traffic. I wish Brent (Kaeding) was here. Brent's best finish as a driver racing the Gold Cup was a second place and now as an owner he has first place. Brent has been here all week, but had to leave and go back to San Jose, CA, where he was meeting with some of the Sharks Team (San Jose Sharks, National Hockey League), who were going to try and help resolve some issues with the shoulder and leg injuries that Brent had sustained a few weeks ago in a sprint car race he was competing in." said Larson. This was a huge night of racing for Larson, as Larson also won his heat race and the dash. In qualifying, Larson posted a 12.487 second lap for thirteenth fast out of the fifty teams that qualified.

Racing in second for all forty laps was Jason Sides of Bartlett, TN. Sides a full time WoO driver, raced a strong run, looking for any chance to pass into the lead but ran out of time, finishing in second.

"The track was good, you could race the bottom or the top. There wasn't any rubber down either. If I could have found something when we were racing in traffic, but he (Larson) was better, cleaner and he won it". said Sides. Sides had won his heat race, finished in second in the Dash and qualified eleventh fast with a 12.485 second lap.

Third place was also picked up by a California driver, Andy Gregg of Placerville. Gregg started in third and like Sides, he looked for a chance to move forward but neither Larson or Sides made any mistakes in their runs and with the speed they were all racing, it probably would have had to have been a mistake or one of them getting behind a slower car while racing in traffic. Gregg was twelfth fast in qualifying with a 12.487 second. Compare these three drivers qualifying times and you can see they were almost equally fast. Gregg also won his heat race and finished third in the Dash. What a very tight and exciting race.

"This was forty laps of torture. The track was really good tonight. You could hammer down. This was only my fourth time in this car. I'm really glad to be able to have this podium finish for Bill Bell's, Coors Lite #1x." said Gregg.

Sammy Swindell racing the Quiring Big Game Tree Stands #1 was the fastest driver during qualifying, racing a 12.215 second lap to put him at the top of the leader board. Swindell raced the first heat race and finished it, in seventh. With only the top four finishers transferring into the "A" Feature, Swindell had to race the "B" Main, to earn a transfer into the "A". Swindell won the "B", transferred into the "A" finishing in thirteenth.

Fourth place in the feature was earned by Jac Haudenschild of Wooster, OH. Haudenschild driving the Paul Silva #57, had his own race going with Craig Dollansky who drives the Quiring Big Game Tree Stands #7 sprint. These two drivers diced it up, trading spots while staying close enough to challenge the front runners if a chance came their way.

Trey Starks (WA) brought out the first caution before the first lap was scored, when he went off the track racing out of the first turn. Starks tagged the rear and the second green had the field under way. Around the nineteenth lap the caution flew again, this time for Roger Crockett (OR) who slid off the track in the fourth turn and stopped at the fence. Crockett also was able to tag the rear of the field. The race returned back to green but soon was yellow when Paul McMahan (TN) who was racing in twelfth, got to high racing into the first turn and got off the track. A second try was also nullified this time it was for Kraig Kinser who lost a right front tire in the second turn. K. Kinser was racing in the top twelve at the time as well. With about a dozen or so laps left to go Kerry Madsen (AUS) racing into the fourth turn got off the track and ended up out of the race, leaving on a hook. Also at the same time Jonathan Allard (CA) and Evan Suggs (CA) got together in the first turn spinning. No injuries were reported.

The race returned to green and crossing the start finish line behind Larson, Sides, Gregg, Haudenschild and Dollansky, were Donny Schatz (ND), Steve Kinser (IN), Lucas Wolfe (PA), Jason Meyers (CA), Tyler Wolf (CA), P. McMahan, Tim Kaeding CA, who raced from a twenty-third start to have this twelfth place finish. (I believe Tim was the hard charger of this race.) The fans went wild as T. Kaeding raced the top groove passing as many sprints as he could. Swindell was thirteenth followed by Bud Kaeding (CA), Brad Sweet (CA), K. Kinser, Suggs, Allard, Jason Statler (CA), Shane Golobic (CA), Chad Kemenah (OH), Jason Solwold (WA), K. Madsen, Starks and Crockett.