Johnny Gray puts on passing clinic at Silver Dollar Speedway
By Gary Thomas
Chico, Ca - August 13, 2006... Whoever said passing was difficult at Silver Dollar Speedway must not have seen Johnny Gray's performance this past Friday night August 11 at the Chico, Ca bullring. Johnny expertly carved his way through the field in the feature and scored a hard charger honors on a night where the track was hooked up for most of the evening just like the Silver Dollar Speedway of old.
Johnny started the night by qualifying the Jessee Heating and Air, RPM Racing Engines No. 71 fifth quick in the 24 car field. He then ran into mechanical gremlins in his heat race and pulled into the infield on lap two.
The dnf in his heat race put Johnny in the B-main where he started on the pole. Johnny had the lead by the time a lap was completed and proceeded to give the B-main field a thrashing until disaster struck in lap traffic. Johnny had the race well in hand when contact ensued on lap 10 with a lap car that saw both sprinters hook together and bring out a caution. This forced Johnny to restart at the rear of the field and was still able to finish third due to the excessive amount of lapped cars in front of him.
He was then forced to start way back in the 18th position for the night's 25 lap feature. Randy V and the gang had the Four Seasons Roofing, Carrier Air, Ritchie Homes Maxim on a rail and Johnny had moved all the way up to seventh by a lap 13 red flag. A couple cars running front of him dropped out during the red and that bumped Johnny up to fifth for the restart. On lap 17 Johnny made his way around veteran Stephen Allard to claim fourth and on lap 22 he powered around youngster Chris Webber to move into third. He then gave second running Brett Miller a run for his money on the last lap but was unable get by and settled for an impressive third place finish.
If that wasn't enough the Gray Motorsports team car driven by defending Silver Dollar Speedway track champion Sean Becker picked up the race win! The likable driver from Oroville started fourth in the feature event and took the lead from Brett Miller in traffic with less than five laps remaining and cruised to victory in the Jessee Heating and Air, Four Seasons Roofing, Carrier Air, Gray Motorsports No. 35m.
It was an outstanding evening for Gray Motorsports with having two cars on the podium.
As Silver Dollar Speedway PR man Troy Hennig's recap stated,"The gasser of the night turned out to be Becker's teammate for one night Johnny Gray. Gray started 18th after transferring out of the B main. In the next 25 laps he raced his way into third at the finish. Great job by both cars. "
This coming Friday Gray Motorsports will be back down to one car as Becker's normal ride will be back from the Knoxville Nationals.
Johnny currently sits fourth in the Silver Dollar Speedway point standings and leads all drivers with seven top 5 finishes. He will go into Millers Glass Night this Friday looking for that elusive first win of the season. Gates open at 6pm with qualifying slated to start at 7.
Visit http://gray-motorsports.com/home.htm for more info on Johnny Gray.
