CHICO, Calif. — Corey Day picked up where he left off during last year’s Mike Curb Gold Cup Race of Champions at Silver Dollar Speedway.
Day, who won last year’s event, drove his Jason Meyers Racing No. 14 winged sprint car from eighth on the grid to win Thursday’s opening preliminary feature for the 70th running of the grand event at the quarter-mile race track.
Day held off Spencer Bayston, who started third in a race through lapped traffic.
“When we get to lapped traffic, you just kind of try to run and hide from the guy behind you,” Day explained. “When you get to lapped cars, you have to pass those cars. That’s more cars he has to pass until he gets to you. I was trying my best there, but they were running a different lane every single corner.”
Day and Bayston were the top point earners on the night and are locked into the dash for Saturday night’s $100,070-to-win event.
Polesitter Chase Johnson finished third, with Chris Windom and Shane Golobic completing the top five.
Day was also the fast qualifier for the 33-car field.
The second half of the field will hit the track on Friday night.
The finish:
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 14-Corey Day[8]; 2. 5-Spencer Bayston[3]; 3. 24C-Chase Johnson[1]; 4. 55-Chris Windom[4]; 5. 17W-Shane Golobic[9]; 6. 26-Zeb Wise[11]; 7. 92-Andy Forsberg[15]; 8. 7B-Sean Becker[2]; 9. 18-Dylan Bloomfield[12]; 10. 73-Ryan Bernal[19]; 11. 21-Cole Macedo[24]; 12. 49-Brad Sweet[5]; 13. 42X-Justyn Cox[13]; 14. 13-Justin Peck[7]; 15. 9P-Parker Price Miller[20]; 16. 83T-Tanner Carrick[14]; 17. 2K-Gauge Garcia[18]; 18. 18T-Tanner Holmes[22]; 19. 2XM-Max Mittry[23]; 20. 21P-Robbie Price[21]; 21. 45M-Jake Morgan[16]; 22. 15-Nick Parker[10]; 23. 45-Landon Brooks[6]; 24. 88A-Joey Ancona[17]