CHICO, Calif. — Landon Brooks smoked the field for the Tyler Wolfe Memorial at the Silver Dollar Speedway on Friday night. The Rio Oso, California youth drove the Tiner/Hurst house car No. 94X beating out Shane Golobic and Chase Johnson in the 30-lap contest.
Brooks started on the pole for the feature which also served as the fifth stop on the Western Sprints Tour which began in Oregon on Monday night. Brooks quickly took the lead over Johnson and Golobic much to the delight of the Chico crowd as the car owner’s race shop sits on the highway off the second turn.
Brooks picked up $2,500 plus an additional $190 for leading lap 19, Wolfe’s car number, thanks to Mittry Construction.
Besides Brooks, all eyes were on Willie Croft who after winning the Dash, took the Tyler Wolf Challenge, also put up by MIttry Construction, which put Croft in the 19th starting position for the main event. Croft would be given $190 per car he passed. In addition, if Croft would get past the sixth finishing spot, he would then earn $380 per position once he was inside the top five.
Croft passed six cars on the opening lap but would only make up to run eighth, where he finished.
Brooks took a commanding lead over Johnson and Golobic, however the track would go red when Gauge Garcia caught the cushion in the fourth turn and took a wild looking flip over the banking on the fifth circuit. The Lemmore, California driver was able to walk away from the wreck, but would finish in last place.
After the restart, the top-three places remained the same, however a good battle was developing between Ryan Bernal, Tanner Carrick and Kinzer Cox for the sixth position. Bernal would win that battle. By lap 12, Brooks once again got into slower cars allowing Johnson and Golobic to close in. By the halfway point, those three were running nose-to-tail.
The race would be slowed as Cox would slow to a stop on the frontstretch. He would end up the third car to retire from the race. Brooks was leading Johnson and Golobic while Croft had moved up to the ninth spot.
Justin Sanders made a three-wide move on the frontstretch on the 17th lap to take the fifth spot in the Mittry Construction No. 2X. Croft gained one more spot by lap 20.
Andy Forsberg slid off the track and came to a stop at the entrance to pit row to bring out a caution on the 21st lap. Brooks had to give up a straightaway lead over Golobic who had passed Johnson.
As the laps wound down, Golobic turned up the heat on Brooks but up coming driver held off the veteran.
Feature Finish (30 Laps)
Landon Brooks, Shane Golobic, Chase Johnson, Ryan Bernal, Justin Sanders, Dominic Gordon, Dylan Bloomfied, Willie Croft, Ashton Torgerson, Braden Chiaramonte, Tanner Carrick, Colby Johnson, Shane Hopkins, Chance Grasty, Johnny Burke, Ashlyn Rodriguez, Andy Forsberg, KInzer Cox, Josh Wiesz, Gauge Garcia