Chet Danburg was the man of the hour Sunday afternoon winning the season opening race at Silver State Raceway, the Desert Rose 100. With only 14 cars in the field, the race was shortened to 60 laps, but went green from start to finish.
"The racing gods were with me today," said Danburg, who started his No. 3x 1975 Camaro from the eighth position.
"I've got to hand it to Jim Crews, my crew chief, he gave me one helluva set up today. We only put on two new Goodyear slick tires for this race, right side tires. A lot of others put on four. That played a factor in today's race."
Danburg as well as second-place finisher Craig Paulsen (65) and third-place finisher Dean Heller (27), had to work through lapped traffic beginning at lap seven. When it came down to the final 10 laps, slower traffic played a factor in Paulsen not being able to catch Danburg.
"There was a lot of traffic to contend with," said Paulsen. "But it was still a good race. I had fun. Danburg did a great job."
Heller said his car had a little bit of a push in it and was tight in the corners, but he accomplished his goals.
"I wanted to finish the race, number one. Finish the race with the car intact, and finish in the top-5," said Heller. "So I did it. I'm happy. Even with the number of cars here today, there was still a lot of traffic."
Danny Cristiani made the trip from Ukiah, Calif., and Keith Scott from Klamath Falls, Ore. Scott suffered from a broken sway bar in the main event and went down several laps to the leader; Cristiani had motor problems and went out early on.
Rounding out the field for the limited sportsman division were Mike Millard (22), Henry Hodges (89), Al Goss (3), Scott Bohemier (8), Rafael Gomez (2x), Tyler Dean (17), Chris Baker (11), Scott (74), Bill Muscanell (28), Cristiani (90), and Steve Whipple (87).
Danburg also won the 6-lap trophy dash over Paulsen, Bohemier, Millard, Baker and Hodges.
Jason Perry (45) won the 15-lap maverick main event over Randy Bauer (25) in second and James Meerly (23) third, followed by Mike Fuller (44), Dow Lazenby (86x) and Rich Rushing (86).
C.J. Bawden (50) battled his father, Jim Bawden (441) for the win in the legends division, with D.J. Krentz (22) finishing third and Billy Brown (111) fourth.
The results of Saturday evening's heat races are as follows:
Mavericks - Perry, Bauer, Fuller. Legends - C.J. Bawden, Jim Bawden, Krentz, Brown. Sportsman Heat 1 - Goss, Mike Glisson (7), Gomez. Heat 2 - Baker, Paulsen, Bohemier.
Maverick main (25 laps) - Bauer, Perry, Fuller, Meerly, Rushing, Lazenby. Legends main (10 laps) - Jim Bawden, C.J. Bawden, Krentz, Brown.
Sportsman main (25 laps) - Danburg, Paulsen, Heller, Bohemier, Baker, Goss, Glisson, Dean, Scott, Gomez, Millard, Hodges, Muscanell, Cristiani.
Racing continues at 1 p.m. Sunday, April 2 at Silver State Raceway for all divisions. For information, call 885-2079.