Untitled Document

Chico Friday Night Series - Crockett

(Chico, CA 3-29-02)…Roger Crockett continued his California hot streak by leading the 20 lap sprint car main event, wire-to-wire, to open the 2002 Friday night race season at Silver Dollar Speedway. Crockett, who moved to Eugene, OR, has opened the season with three wins, two of them at Chico and the other was the opening night race for the Civil War Series at Marysville. To put this more into perspective, he has so far been the only winged sprint car winner in Northern California this season.

Crockett found himself on the pole position by drawing the “0” inversion pill that he earned the right to do by being the fastest in time trials on the night that saw 32 sprints qualify. Crockett started along side Peter Murphy but quickly jumped into the lead and never looked back. Murphy began to battle with third place starter Brent Kaeding. Chico’s Ryan Flynn also was a player and moved into fourth. By lap four, Crockett had emerged into slower back markers that are usually such interference for the lead cars on Chico’s tacky quarter-mile, but tonight was no problem for Crockett. With the best in the business behind him, Crockett drove a solid race in getting by the lapped cars with ease. While Murphy and Kaeding were battling with a slower car, Flynn emerged to take the second spot away from both of them.

The hard charger of the night goes to Jonathan Allard as he started in the 16th spot and by lap 18 he was in sixth spot trying to pass Chad Riolo for fifth. Andy Forsberg and Jason Statler sliced and diced with each other for a good part of the race until Forsberg gained the advantage and finished in seventh while Statler came home eighth.

Up front the story was all Crockett. He began to open up a sizable lead on now second place Ryan Flynn. At the line it was Crockett, Flynn, Kaeding and Murphy.

With 32 sprints cars in attendance a B Main event was staged with Roseville’s Chad Riolo picking up the 12 lap win. Destiny Hays battled with Steve Ferhman all race long to gather second spot while Ferhman finished third. The fourth and final transfer was Gridley’s Bryan Amos.

Results:

Fast Time: Roger Crockett: 13.557

Heat 1: Jonathan Allard, Tim Kaeding, Jason Statler, Crockett, Destiny Hays

Heat 2: Jason York, Peter Murphy, Bud Walberg, Rick Hirst, Robert Stice

Heat 3: Dan Menne, Brent Kaeding, Doug Lippincott, Billy Wallace, Kyle Schild

Heat 4: Garret Ishii, Stephen Allard, Andy Forsberg, Ryan Flynn, George Graham

B Main: Chad Riolo, Destiny Hays, Steve Ferhman, Bryan Amos, Sean Becker, Andy Greg, Stice, Schild, Graham, Mike Funkhouser, C.J. Humphrey’s, Troy Hovey

A Main: Crockett, Flynn, B. Kaeding, Murphy, Riolo, J. Allard, Forsberg, Statler, Hays, T. Kaeding, S. Allard, York, Wallace, Ferhman, Amos,

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