CHICO, Calif. — Shane Golobic still vividly remembers the first time he locked into Silver Dollar Speedway’s Gold Cup Race of Champions.
It happened 14 years ago when he was only 17 years old.
After devoting many Fridays to making laps at the Chico bullring in Brian Sperry’s No. 51 sprint car, the Fremont, Calif. native secured a spot in his home state’s most prestigious race.
“It was 2008, I believe, was one of my very first Gold Cups, and I was driving for Brian Sperry,” Golobic reflected. “I was just this young kid, and we kind of had run Chico on Friday nights that year with the 410 and tried to cut our teeth just for Gold Cup. You don’t see that kind of thing anymore except for guys going to Knoxville (Iowa) just for Knoxville Nationals. We came here just for Gold Cup and locked her in the show.
“That’s something I’ll never forget,” Golobic continued. “I got to come in and park with all the A-main cars down at the end and was parked between all of these (World of) Outlaws guys. It’s definitely something that, even to this day, I still remember like yesterday.
“To be one of the lock-in guys I was walking around just thinking I was the coolest kid ever.”
Fast forward to this year, and Golobic is primed to be one of tonight’s top contenders as the NOS Energy Drink racer looks to earn a Gold Cup title for the first time — a dream for any California kid.
“Gold Cup is huge being from California, especially northern California,” Golobic said. “It’s the premier race.”
Last night Golobic climbed aboard the Kevin Kozlowski-owned and Paul Silva-wrenched No. 57w for the first time and nearly assembled a perfect night in his Gold Cup prelim.
The 31-year-old set quick time in qualifying and charged from sixth to win his heat race, lining him up eighth for the feature with the format’s invert. A dramatic, final corner move saw Golobic drive between Ryan Bernal and Blake Carrick right before the main event’s checkered flag to finish fourth.
Golobic tallied just enough points to book his ticket to start in the front two rows of tonight’s dash.
“It was awesome,” Golobic said of wheeling his new ride. “Anybody who races in California probably wants to try and drive the 57 at some point, so that was pretty cool to be able to give that a shot. Right off the bat they had me comfortable, which says a lot about those guys. They know what they’re doing. The car is really fast and really comfortable.”
The performance allows Golobic to rest easy as he won’t have to compete in one of today’s heat races and instead gets to wait until the dash before he hits the track, knowing he’ll start no worse than eighth in tonight’s finale.
Golobic has picked an ideal time to position himself so favorably, with this year’s edition of Gold Cup generating a significant amount of buzz. It has begun to feel like the Gold Cup of old.
This year marks the 68th running of the historic event. It was once the most coveted on the west coast, but went through a slump in recent years. The event has been quickly revitalized by the leadership of the track’s new promotional group consisting of Brad Sweet, Kyle Larson and Colby Copeland — SLC Promotions.
They’ve made decisions, such as implementing split-field prelims and upping the purse, both with the hope of attracting cars and of restoring tradition to the marquee Golden State event.
“It was pretty cool. They got 100 cars back then and had the split-field deal,” Golobic said of his early Gold Cup memories. “It was a big event, and it seemed like it got a little lackluster there for a few years. It’s kind of back. At least, they’re working at getting it back to what it was back then. Hats off to those guys for doing all of this.”
Ever since making his first Gold Cup start back when he was a kid just thrilled to make the show, Golobic has been a steady competitor every September when the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars invade Silver Dollar Speedway for Gold Cup.
In that time frame the always consistent Golobic has produced many solid efforts, but he’s never been so primely positioned to chase a checkered flag in California’s crown jewel and make a dream come true.
“This just means a lot,” Golobic said. “I’ve been on the podium at the Gold Cup a couple times in prelims and then the final night been close-ish over the years, so this is kind of the best opportunity I’ve got so far here.”