CHICO, Calif. — It seems nothing, not even the weather, can prevent Justin Sanders from parking in victory lane at Silver Dollar Speedway’s annual Silver Cup.
After an afternoon downpour threatened the racing program and necessitated lengthy track work, Sanders capped last night by driving the Mittry Racing No. 2x to victory on Silver Cup opening night, his third straight in the event after sweeping the 2021 edition.
The triumph also marked his 10th overall at the Butte County bullring.
Sanders will also go down as the inaugural winner under the historic facility’s new regime as yesterday signaled the first night of racing with SLC (Sweet, Larson, Copeland) Promotions in command.
Kaleb Montgomery and Oregon native Tyler Thompson led the field to green for the 30-lap main event, but the action was quickly halted by a pileup in turn two involving Chase Majdic, Daniel Whitley and Colby Johnson.
On the complete restart, Thompson jumped ahead on the topside and paced the opening three circuits before the yellow flag waved again on lap four as Chase Johnson spun on the backstretch.
Racing resumed with 27 laps remaining, and Montgomery, who was making his debut aboard the F&F Racing No. x1, snatched the lead from Thompson and began to set sail.
As the race approached halfway Montgomery navigated slower traffic and stretched his advantage over Thompson in the process while Willie Croft, Andy Forsberg and Sanders, who had fallen back as far as sixth after lining up third, waged war for the final step on the podium.
While battling, the trio caught up to Thompson and each made their way around him with Croft leading the way as he claimed second on lap 16. On the next lap Sanders used his continually improving race car to move by Croft and into the runner-up spot.
“I don’t know if the car came in or if I started finding better lines to make my car work or not, but I kind of got in a rhythm,” Sanders explained. “I started really catching people going into (turn) one. Everybody was kind of top or bottom, and I was kind of going right through the middle as hard as I could and trying to catch it on exit.”
Disaster nearly struck for Sanders on lap 19 when the lapped machine of John Clark slowed in front of him out of turn two.
In the process of avoiding him, Sanders lost a few spots, but the yellow flag flying for Clark’s stopped car before the lap was completed allowed Sanders to retain the second position.
The following restart brought the winning move as Sanders ripped around the outside of Montgomery out of turn two and never looked back, leading the final 11 circuits and topping Montgomery by 1.6 seconds when the checkered flag waved.
“My car just kept getting better and better,” Sanders said. “Then on that restart, once Kaleb went to the bottom and I could get enough speed to smoke by him, I thought I was going to be pretty good.”
While he was disappointed to lose the race on a late restart, Montgomery came away feeling satisfied overall with a runner-up on his maiden voyage with the team.
“We got beat by a really good driver in California, nothing to shake my hat at,” Montgomery said. “First night with a new team this year, so a second-place that’s really good.”
Forsberg rounded out the podium while Croft and Shane Golobic completed the top five.
The finish:
Feature (30 laps): 1. 2x Justin Sanders 2. x1 3. 92 Andy Forsberg 4. 29 Willie Croft 5. 17w Shane Golobic 6. 14w Ryan Robinson 7. 17wx Ryan Bernal 8. 7 Tyler Thompson 9. 4 Jodie Robinson 10. 01jr Kalib Henry 11. 2xm Max Mittry 12. 22x Sean Becker 13. 37 Steven Kent 14. 5r Ryan Rocha 15. 83t Tanner Carrick 16. 3c Casey Schmitz 17. 5a Daniel Whitley 18. 5c Trent Canales 19. 12j John Clark 20. 83sa Isaiah Vasquez 21. 20 Chase Johnson 22. 5h Colby Johnson 23. 35m Chase Majdic 24. 6w Billy Wallace