By Stephanie Deatherage
CHICO, Calif. (May 8) – Clint Reichenbach and Tyler Bannister won feature events while Ethan Dotson and Jason Nation won championships Saturday night.
Reichenbach and Bannister topped IMCA Modified and Karl Kustoms Northern SportMod features at Silver Dollar Speedway while Dotson and Nation wrapped up titles in those respective divisions on the final night of the California IMCA Speedweek presented by Hoppes Motorsports.
In the first-ever Speedweek visit to Chico, Troy Foulger pulled away from the rest of the IMCA Modified pack before forced to deal with lapped traffic while Reichenbach delt with a charging Nick DeCarlo in the latter’s bid for the runner-up spot.
A caution on lap 22 bunched the field up for the only time of the main event and Reichenbach again tried to rail around the high side of the leader. Foulger and Reichenbach drag raced to the white flag, with Reichenbach having the advantage at the line.
Reichenbach rode his momentum up top to hold off Foulger for his third $1,000 win of Speedweek. Foulger ended the race a strong second, with Buddy Kniss third. DeCarlo hit the wire fourth over Ryan McDaniel by way of the ‘B’ main.
In the 25-lap Northern SportMod feature, Nation beat Phillip Shelby for the point on the initial start before Bannister came to the party to make it a three-car race for first.
Nation got back on the throttle following a lap seven restart when the green flag came back out and pulled away from the pack. Bannister took over second, then caught and passed Nation for the lead on lap 14.
Bannister mastered a pair of lap 21 restarts and opened some breathing room. He had a tad bit of pressure by Nation on the final lap beat the competition to the checkers for his third win in the last four Speedweek shows.
Two-time winner Nation was second for the fourth time over the course of Speedweek while Tyler’s father Jason earned the third spot. Andrew Peckham and Tyler Thomas completed the top five.
