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Hillenburg Wins Friday Night Prelim, Unofficially Earns Saturday Pole
by Bill Sullivan

Friday, September 17 Results
Qualifying Results

Andy Hillenburg celebrates in victory lane after winning the feature event in the 2nd preliminary race of the Gold Cup.

CHICO, CA (9-17-99) - A total of 49 entrants completed the second half of the qualifying field on Friday night for the 46th Annual Gold Cup Race of Champions at John Padjen's Silver Dollar Speedway featuring the Pennzoil World of Outlaws sprint car series. When the checkered flag flew on the 25-lap preliminary feature event, the driver celebrating on the front stretch was no stranger to the Silver Dollar Speedway victory circle as former two-time Gold Cup champion Andy Hillenburg of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma reaped the rewards of a victory that unofficially earned him the pole position for Saturdays feature event.

At the waving of the green flag the early lead went to second place starter Danny Lasoski of Dover, MO as he powered ahead of pole sitter Tim Shaffer on the front stretch while third place starter Hillenburg began challenging Shaffer for the second position just as a yellow flag came out to allow Peter Murphy of Sydney, Australia to return to the track after drifting off the second turn   following brief contact with Steve Kinser's #11 Quaker State Maxim on the backstretch in traffic at the conclusion of the opening lap.

With one- official lap in the record book, the single file restart had Lasoski resuming his lead position as he powered the Dennis Roth Racing Beef Packers #83 Eagle ahead of Shaffer at the front stretch restart pylon. As early as the first set of turns Lasoski was faced with the challenges of a hard-charging Hillenberg who overtook Shaffer for second and began challenging "The Dude" for the lead. After driving side by side for the next three lap, Hillenberg overtook Lasoski in the third and fourth turns on lap four and had his Luxaire #2 Klein machine in the thick of lapped traffic by the seventh lap.

Hillenburg's No. 2 set the pace and maintained a comfortable lead in the feature event.

While Hillenberg continued to run the high groove of the track, Lasoski maintained a somewhat distant second position within the many lapped cars that both he and Hillenberg had overtaken while Shaffer maintained the third position ahead of Stevie Smith Jr. of New Oxford, PA and Jeff Swindell of Memphis, TN. With 12-laps in the record book a yellow flag for a stalled Brooke Tatnell regrouped the field for a single file restart which place Lasoski back with striking distance of Hillenberg for the restart with the lapped car of Murphy between the two top runners for the restart.

When the green flag came out once again, Hillenberg again powered his way to a healthy lead over Lasoski and once again was in the thick of lapped traffic by the 16th lap. Lasoski, however, had his hands full for the bridesmaid position as both Smith and Shaffer moved in to challenge the "The Dude". just prior to one final yellow flag on the 19th lap, Smith overtook Lasoski for the second position and sat behind Hillenberg for the ensuing restart.

When the final green flag of the event came out Hillenberg appeared to be well aware of Smith's presence behind him as he once again accelerate to an extremely healthy lead as early as the first and second turns and moved into lapped traffic one lap later where he was able to maintain the top spot all the way to the checkered flag. Smith finished second in the event followed by Lasoski, Shaffer, Jac Haudenschild and Dale Blaney.

"The way we've been running this feels real good to win this one," said Hillenburg. "Whenever your running with someone like Danny it's always a good race. The car just rolled wherever I wanted it tonight. Tomorrow is a long race," added Hillenberg, referring to his unofficial pole position in Saturday's feature. "There's just no way to predict the outcome of that one but Chico has been good to me and we'll see what happens. We gave the fans a good show tonight and hopefully Sammy and I can do the same for them tomorrow."

In preliminary competition on Friday night the Channellock Dash was far from lackluster as Jeff Swindell took a nasty tumble off the third turn to bring out the red just after the official green came out. Once an official start took place, Tim Shaffer took command of the eight-car field ahead of Andy Hillenberg where he remained for the entire 7-lap event. Danny Lasoski overtook HIllenburg for the second in the waning laps to earn his second place starting position for the main event followed by Hillenberg, Dale Blaney, Jac Haudenschild and Stevie Smith Jr.

The 12-lap B-main event saw Jim Skinner of Discovery Bay take the win in a caution flag plagued event. Despite the multiple yellows, Skinner held off the challenges of Colby Weisz to the line. Eric Rossi finished third ahead of Mark Cooper.

In the 10-lap C-feature event a caution flag came out shortly after the green when Shane Scott of Chico and Dennis Farr collided on the third circuit and as a result Scott went upside down to bring out the red flag. When racing resumed, Tony Souza and Rich Tiner took up battle for the lead but it was the red flag prevailing once again two laps later when Dennis Harvey of Citrus Heights went upside along the front stretch.

In heat race competition, victories went to Tim Shaffer, Jeff Swindell, Andy Hillenburg and Danny Lasoski. The first three heat races went somewhat trouble free. The fourth 10-lap preliminary qualifier didn't go quite as smooth as a series of caution flags delayed the official start. The first incident brought out the red flag when Butch Bar of Lincoln, Nebraska flipped end-over-end on the front stretch. When a second attempt was made on the start Mark Zieske and Duane Bonini Jr. tangled in the fourth turn which sent Zieski upside down. On the third attempt another red came out immediately after the green when Mark Kinser stopped on the front stretch.

The Gold Cup Race of champions will continue on Saturday night, September 18 with the third and final night of competition featuring main events for all of those who qualified on the two previous nights. Action is set to begin at 7 p.m. For further information contact the track office at (530) 891-6535 or log on to www.johnpadjenmotorsports.com where you will find all the news both on and off the track from the 46th running of this short track classic.