CHICO, Calif. — Though Sean Becker has made countless trips around Silver Dollar Speedway, he had some trouble finding his footing at the quarter-mile early in Thursday’s 68th Gold Cup Race of Champions prelim.
A native of nearby Oroville, Calif., Becker is a seven-time Silver Dollar track champion with 66 Chico victories to his credit, but “The Shark” felt a little lost aboard Dave Vertullo’s No. 83v as the green flag waved in his heat race.
Becker was in need of a top-five finish to transfer into the main event.
“I seriously, like, lost my roadmap,” Becker explained. “It got a little close-quarters there in the first corner and I kind of bounced off the track and got back on and thought I could at least run up and get into fifth, but, man, I wasn’t going anywhere.”
The problems persisted as Becker started the B main on the pole with a top-four result being the ticket to the feature.
“In the B-main I got a bad start and fell to third,” Becker said. “I got to second and then lost my roadmap again and just drove it off the track.”
While he managed to secure the final A-main transfer, Becker and company couldn’t help but feel a little down as their performance to that point left them confused. Multiple swings taken at the car’s setup hadn’t yielded what they’d hoped.
“We were kind of down in the dumps after that because we were making a lot of changes from qualifying to then,” Becker admitted. “We were kind of scratching our heads and had our noses down in the dirt a little bit.”
After a few more adjustments ahead of the feature, Becker rolled out unsure of what to expect, especially lining up at the rear of a World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series field.
Over the 30 laps, Becker turned the night around as he methodically worked his way up from his 24th starting position. The savvy veteran picked his spots, kept his nose clean and when the checkered flag waved, he crossed the line in eighth, earning the night’s hardcharger honor.
Becker even acknowledged he wasn’t sure how far he could move forward considering the competition level.
“It’s so funny, sometimes you start in the back of the pack and you kind of look at guys around you and say, ‘I can maybe get up to 16th or 15th or something with no problem,” Becker explained. “Now, I’ve got Outlaws in front of me. I see Sheldon (Haudenschild) right there and (Logan) Schuchart, and I was like this is going to be a lot more work to get through this field.”
If work was what was required, then Becker put in a full day’s worth plus a few hours of overtime as he advanced 16 spots. The charge helped him stay in a decent position in Gold Cup points as he sits eighth after night one which should put him in a solid spot in his heat race on Saturday.
“Whatever we threw at it for the main event, it woke this thing up,” Becker said. “The thing was rolling really good. We missed a couple accidents right in front of us, so we kind of lucked out with that. The car felt great, and that was a very big recovery.”
The feature served as a morale booster for Becker and Vertullo entering Saturday’s Gold Cup finale. The two were partnered for all of 2021 before parting ways at season’s end. Becker only recently returned to the seat of the familiar yellow sprint car.
Perhaps more important than the positive morale effect is the fact that last night allowed them to pen some helpful pages in the notebook.
“I think we’re good,” Becker noted. “All of the changes that we made throughout the night I think we learned a lot. So with where we were for the main event we can kind of go from there and tweak on it a little bit depending on track conditions.”
The team can breathe a little easier after salvaging a decent points night after what could’ve been a disastrous evening. Becker won the 2012 Gold Cup prelim but is chasing his first title in the historic event’s finale.
“I think this is a huge confidence booster,” Becker said. “It’s nice that we learned as much as we did and I think now we’ve got a better base and, hopefully, I won’t lose my roadmap next time I get on the track.”