CHICO, Calif. — Colby Copeland won the opening night of the Platinum Cup portion of the 67th annual Gold Cup for the 360 sprint cars on Wednesday night.
Copeland drove the white No. 01jr for Brown Eagle Racing owned by Brian Brown to a $2,500 payday at the historic Silver Dollar Speedway. It was the team’s first victory.
Kyle Hirst drove the Tinner-Hirst No. 94th house car to a runner up finish while Joel Myers Jr. brought his family-owned No. 46jr home in the third position. Sean Becker had a strong drive after starting mid pack in the No. 83v, while Shane Hopkins completed the top five.
Twenty-three cars took the green flag as Corey Day failed to make the start as he pulled off the track right after the pre-race warmups. Brock Lemley quickly jumped to the lead over Myers from his outside-front-row starting spot. The race would go four laps before the first caution would wave when Dominic Scelzi spun off the fourth turn.Â
On the restart, the green flag would quickly turn red when Chase Majdic flipped off the third turn while battling Myers for second. The race would then stop on the seventh circuit when Brian McGahan Jr. flipped over the fourth turn while battling with Scelzi. Copeland had moved up to the second spot after starting eighth. Scelzi pulled off the track on lap 13 as Copeland took over the top spot.
The caution lights would come on during lap 15 when Drake Standley stopped on the high side of the track in turn four. Third-place-running Landon Brooks pulls off the track ending an excellent run. One lap later, Andy Forsberg pulls off the track without bringing out a caution. But a red flag appeared when sixth-running Tanner Carrick flipped in the middle of turns one and two.
The next caution would slow the race on lap 18 when Travis Coelho would stop off the banking in the second turn. On lap 20, Hirst passed Myers to take over second. The race slowed on lap 21 when a car would stop off the turn-three banking. On the restart, Dlyan Bloomfield took a nasty looking flip off the third turn. The race stoppage turned into an open red allowing the cars to refuel.
Once restarted, the last nine laps were run incident free and there were no changes in the top five runners.      Â
The finish:
Colby Copeland, Kyle Hirst, Joel Myers Jr., Sean Becker, Shane Hopkins, Jesse Schotfildt, Max Mittry, Justyn Cox, Dustin Freitas, Nick Larson, Brock Lemley, Ashlyn Rodriquez, Dlyan Bloomfield, Tanner Carrick, Brad Bumgarner, Travis Coelho, Drake Standley, Andy Forsberg, Landon Brooks, Dominic Scelzi, Casey Schmitz, Brian McGahan Jr., Chase Madjic, Corey Day