Chet Danburg (3x) is Silver State Raceway's 2000 Tri-Holiday Champion. But while his second place finish on Saturday night was more than enough to secure the title, it wasn't a smooth ride getting there.
Early race leader Mike Manch (22) was pulling the train of the front six cars until Scott Bohemier (8) caught him snoozing coming into lapped traffic and sped by on the outside coming out of turn 2 on lap 18. While Bohemier was then mandating the race, trouble hit a couple drivers. On lap 7 coming out of turn 4, Craig Paulsen (65) was racing to the outside of Stuart Moon (00) and Brian Colodny (14). Colodny moved high to the outside striking the rear of Paulsen, sending him sideways in front of Moon.
Having nowhere to go, Moon struck Paulsen putting him front-end first into the wall on the front stretch, then T-boned his front into Paulsen's passenger side. The right front-end and side of Paulsen's car were heavily damaged and he would not return to the race. Moon was able to continue until his motor "became toast" on lap 46. On the restart the top-5 positions belonged to Bohemier, Manch, Mike Millard (22x), Melissa Davis (71) and Danburg.
On lap 85 trouble again hit the front stretch. as Danburg passed Millard on the outside coming out of turn 4, Millard pushed Danburg high into the wall, lifting the left front end of Danburg's car just a bit. With both cars pushing against each other into the infield of turn 1, Danburg kept solid control of his car, driving out of the skid and back onto the track holding his same position. Millard spun to the infield and came to a stop, ensuing a caution flag and going 1 lap down to the leaders.
Bohemier was holding a three-car length lead over Manch until disaster hit his ride - a blown motor on lap 104. At the restart, the five lead cars were Manch, Danburg, Shane Kline (89), Josh Bews (5) and Davis.
The final laps of the race were green and clean, with Danburg putting charges on Manch and coming close to passing several times on the outside. With Kline in hot pursuit directly behind him since lap 9, Danburg backed off and safely finished the race in second place behind Manch with Kline in third.
Rounding out the field were Bews, Jim Courage Jr. (33), Ron Cross (90k), Dave Lester (34), Henry Hodges Jr. (9), Davis, Al Goss (3), Randy Hirschbock (K9), Millard, Junior Roddy (41), Colodny, Rob Loucks (15x), John Pedersen (24), Keith Scott (74), Bohemier, Steve Planka (10), Chris Baker (11), Virgil Miller (21) and Paulsen.
"I really just took it easy there throughout the race," Danburg said. "You want to keep safe, but at the same time try to win the race. With Shane as close as he was, I figured it'd be best to just stay where I was behind
Manch, because if I went to the outside and got caught in traffic, he'd be under me in a second."
Bohemier was the winner of the 6-lap late model trophy dash over Paulsen, Kline, Bews, Davis and Courage.
In the Maverick Tri-Holiday challenge it was Randy Bauer (25) finishing high enough in the twin-25's to take the victory over second-place runner Mike McMordie (77).
In the first 25-lap race it was Bill Gould (37) taking the win after controlling the race from start to finish. McMordie finished second with Bauer in third, Danny Kemp Jr. (11) in fourth and Marco Glush (30) in fifth.
Rounding out the field were: Joel Worley (9), Mike Fuller (44) and Rick Garmann (74).
In round two for the mavericks, Fuller led from the start to take the win with Bauer coming in for second and McMordie third. Rounding out the field were Glush, Gould, Worley, Kemp and Garmann. After compiling points for each race, plus heat finishes and trophy dash, Bauer was declared the winner.
Kemp was the winner of the trophy dash over Bauer, McMordie and Fuller. In the first of two heat races, Gould was the winner over Glush and Garmann.
Bauer won the second heat, followed by Fuller in second and Kemp third. Both Danburg and Bauer won a video poker machine courtesy of Cactus Jack's in Carson City, along with other contingency prizes and cash.
The 2000 championship points series continues this Saturday at Silver State Raceway. McMordie and Bauer will battle for the lead and Fuller while Gould go for the third spot in the points in the maverick division, and Chet Danburg will look to take yet another championship in the limited sportsman division.
Gates open at 5, qualifying is at 6 with racing at 7:30 p.m. For information, call 885-2079 or check the track out on its Web site, www.silverstateraceway.com.