CHICO, CA (9-7-06) - The “crowd please” Craig Dollansky of Elk River, Minnesota pleased a number of his fans at Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico, California Thursday night. For the second straight year, Dollansky won the Thursday night preliminary feature event to secure a healthy starting position in Saturday’s $50,000 Gold Cup Race of Champions.

TOP 10 RESULTS Gold Cup Preliminary Race #1 FINISH DRIVER START 1. Craig Dollansky (1) 2. Danny Lasoski (2) 3. Andy Forsberg (3) 4. Paul McMahan (5) 5. Mike Henry (4) 6. Dan Menne (9) 7. Justin Henderson (11) 8. Brooke Tatnell (7) 9. Chad Kamenah (6) 10. Randy Hannagan (16) Complete Results | Qualifying

TOP 10 CUMULATIVE POINTS Gold Cup - Race of Champions RANK DRIVER POINTS 1. Jason Solwold 536 2. Daryn Pittman 533 3. Paul McMahan 532 4. Craig Dollansky 531 5. Danny Lasoski 530 6. Jac Haudenschild 527 7. Andy Forsberg 524 8. Mike Henry 516 9. Brad Sweet 512 10. Stevie Smith 512 Complete Lineups/Points

“There is just nothing like racing at Chico, I love this place,” said Dollansky. “This place is one of my favorites. It’s a lot of fun to race on and it makes for a real good tie for us and the fans.”

After winning the 8 lap dash earlier in the program, Dollansky started the 30-lap feature event on the pole position with Danny Lasoski on the outside of the front row and the second row consisting of local favorites Andy Forsberg of Auburn, the defending Silver Dollar Speedway champion and Oroville native Paul McMahan who started in fourth.

Thursday’s event took several attempts at an official start. While poor starting conditions forced the yellow flag out a couple of times, one red flag flew before an official lap was scored when Brent Kaeding of Campbell took flight off the first turn. Kaeding was uninjured in the crash but his hopes of a top finish on the track he calls home were eliminated with damage.

The official green flag saw Dollansky power into the lead ahead of Lasoski to take the top position he relinquished only once when Lasoski passed him traffic on lap six and led the race until the 12th lap before Dollansky redeemed his position in traffic.

. As early as six laps into the event, Dollansky maneuvered his way into lapped traffic to secure his position within the back markers from Lasoski. While the two nationally known drivers dueled for the top position in traffic, many eyes in the stands were focused on Forsberg who was running the third position.

Driving his trademark high line, which he refers to as “The Fonz,” around the track he was crowned champion at just two weeks ago, Forsberg dueled with fellow local Dann Menne of Minden, NV for the third position for much of the 30-lap affair. In the end he became the highest finishing local driver and secured one of the best starting positions of his career in Saturday’s A-feature.

“We’re really happy with our run tonight,” said Forsberg. ‘For so many years we sat here on Friday night with a tenth place finish or so biting our nails to see if we made it into the A-main. Tonight we know we are in and we have a good shot at this deal for a change.”

Dollansky went on to win Thursday’s event for the second straight year and was followed across the line by Lasoski at the line. The Gold Cup race of champions operates under an accumulative point system to determine starting positions for Saturday’s feature event. With the win, Dollansky is in good position for the money race.

“We started our year off slow and have been making a few changes as we go along,” said Dollansky. “Now it feels like we are heading in the right direction. There is nothing I wouldn’t like more than a win in the Gold Cup, it would mean a lot to this whole Karavan Trailers teams. Tonight we had a lot of traffic and that’s when you have a great race. It makes it fun for the drivers and great for the fans. Danny got me in traffic once and it was in traffic that I got him back and that makes a great show.”

Prelminary competition had a scary moment Thursday night when World of Outlaws point leader Donny Schatz of Fargo, ND was racing for position in the fourth heat race and collided into the back stretch wall. The collision caused damage to the fuel tank of Schatz’ Parker Stores #15 that flew through the air in a ball of flame before coming to rest on the back stretch where it continued to burn until several fellow drivers and on track safety personnel extinguished the blaze. Schatz climbed from the wreckage shaken. He suffered minor burns in the incident according to World of Outlaws officials. The team is expected to return on Saturday night to defend their series point lead.

Local favorite McMahan was the fast qualifier on Thursday, posting a lap time of 11:689. Heat races were won by Lasoski, Randy Hannagan, Kaeding and local start Johnny Gray. The C-main was claimed by Dennis Harvey and the B-feature was won by Justin Henderson.

The World of Outlaws return to Silver Dollar Speedway tonight for the second night of preliminary action and will conclude their California swing on Saturday night with the $50,000 Gold Cup Race of Champions event.