CHICO, CA (9-9-06) - Back in 2001 Daryn Pittman of Owasso, OK scored one of the most memorable wins of is career when he held off a hard charging Jac Haudenschild to win a preliminary race in the Gold Cup Race of Champions at Silver Dollar Speedway. This past Saturday night Pittman moved that memorable night of racing down a notch on his racing resume when he scored one of the largest wins of his racing career, the 2006 Gold Cup Race of Champions worth a $50,000 win check. To top it off, Pittman got the opportunity to fight off the hard charging efforts of his 2001 rival Jac Haudenschild to the checkered flag.

TOP 10 RESULTS Gold Cup - Race of Champions FINISH DRIVER START 1. Daryn Pittman (2) 2. Jac Haudenschild (6) 3. Craig Dollansky (4) 4. Danny Lasoski (5) 5. Paul McMahan (3) 6. Bud Kaeding (17) 7. Justin Henderson (11) 8. Donny Schatz (25) 9. Brooke Tatnell (14) 10. Chad Kemenah (15) Complete Results

“One of the biggest wins I ever had was back when I won a prelim here and I held off Jac to win it,” said Pittman. “This is a dream come true to any driver in sprint car racing, to win the Gold Cup. To win this race and hold off Jac to do it like that night back in 2001 makes it special. I don’t think it has all sunk in just yet, it’s probably going to take a few days to really hit me.”

Pittman took the lead of the 40-lap feature event at the green flag when he overtook Friday night preliminary winner Jason Solwold from the outside position to position his Titan Motorsports #21 into the lead of California’s richest race for sprint car racing.. Once in front Pittman was challenged in the early laps by Craig Dollansky, the winner of the Thursday night preliminary event who was setting his sights on the lead of this feature event in the early running with the likes of Solwold who was maintaining the third position.

With five laps complete the race went under a red flag condition when local favorite Andy Forsberg of Auburn went upside down on the back stretch along with outlaw star Joey Saldana. Neither driver was injured in the incident when was followed by Solwold slamming into the front stretch wall to end his night early as well.

Once the green flag flew again Pittman took command of the field and powered his way to a healthy lead which he maintained despite a number of caution flags in the early laps for various incidents including loss of locals Brad Sweet of Grass Valley and Sean Becker of Oroville who both fell out o contention prior to the halfway point of the event.

With 26 laps down, Pittman reached lapped traffic, which permitted Dollansky and Haudenschild to close the lead of several car lengths that Pittman had maintained for much of the event. It was during the final ten laps that Pittman likely felt the most pressure in his racing career with the two veterans hot on his tail, diving high and low in an effort to negotiate a clean pass on the leader. In the dogfight Haudenschild managed to overtake Dollansky for the bridesmaid position to clo0se in on Pittman and reenact the battle of 2001, only with much more money on the line.

Despite having the “wild Child” on his rear bumper for the closing laps, Pittman maintained the lead all the way to the checkered flag where he was followed by Haudenschild, Dollansky, Danny Lasoski and Paul McMahan.

‘I could here them coming right up on me, at least I heard someone back there,” said Pittman. “Lapped traffic determines the outcome of almost any race on a track like this. It can win you the race and it can lose you the race. Tonight it have to give credit to everyone I had to get around out here to stay ahead, they all drove a great race and held their lines for the whole night and sometimes that is not that easy to do.”

The B feature was won on Saturday night by Terry McCarl who held off Jason Statler for the win while Sean Becker finished in third. The C-feature was won by Brent Kaeding followed by Jason Sides and Becca Anderson. The D-main event was won by point leader Donny Schatz who later took a provisional to start the A-feature following his fiery accident on Thursday night which set him back in the Gold Cup starting positions. The E-main was won by local favorite Robbie Whitchurch while Jimmy Trulli of Placerville finished second. Trulli would end his Gold Cup run as the highest finishing 360 sprint car with an eighth place finish in the D-main, earning him a $1000 bonus from John Padjen Motorsports.

Mike Stallings of Fresno won the F-main event followed by James Sweeney of Placerville.

The Gold Cup Race of Champions concluded the California swing for the World of Outlaws Sprint Car tour. Tickets for the 2007 event at Silver Dollar Speedway are expected to go on sale on October 7 through the track business office at (916)969-7484.