MADERA, California -- Madera Speedway hosted the inaugural races for the Gold Rush region of the AllStar Race Truck Series tonight. The AllStar Race Truck Series ran two features in Madera Speedway’s format emphasizing longer feature races.
In the first race Keith Hopkinson of Newcastle, CA came from fourth place on the next to last lap to beat the Jim Serdahely owned SAS Safety Chevrolet Michael Pennington of Foothill Ranch, CA who was down on horsepower due to engine problems, but was able to hang onto second place. Keith said "we had problems in practice and were slow in qualifying, but my Chevy came to me in the last few laps and I knew Michael was having problems and I got some room to get the win."
In the night’s second feature, 1998 and 1999 regional champion Michael Thomas had to run on the outside of Hopkinson for the last six laps to finally get the win by half a truck length. Michael said "I was looking forward to coming back to Madera after winning here in 2000. My crew chief, David Rinehart and I went back and looked at our notes from then and set the truck up. It was pushing in the first race, so we loosened it up for this race and went for it. Keith drove me real clean and gave me room. I always like running here because you can run that second groove and give the fans a great show. I’m looking forward to coming back for the July 31 race."
Bret Anderson finished a close third driving in his first AllStar Race Truck Series event guided by crew chief Dean Kuhn. Bret said "It was great to be competitive in my first races in these trucks. They are great to drive and I was looking for my chance, but Michael and Keith drove great and didn’t slip up."
The next Gold Rush region AllStar Race Truck Series race is Sunday, April 18 in Carson City, NV at Champion Motor Speedway.
