Manzanita Speedway
August 20, 2005
Manzanita Speedway, celebrating the 54th Anniversary since the track opened in 1951, ran trophy dashes and main events for four divisions on Saturday night. Chad was entered in two of the divisions, the AMSCA Mini Sprints and the AMRA Midgets.
Chad's started his night of racing in the Midget trophy dash. He lined up outside of the back row for the 3-lap dash, and finished in the 4th position.
Next up was the Mini Sprint trophy dash. Chad started in the fifth position and was leading by the end of Lap 1. He pulled away from the field and took the checked flag with his fourth trophy dash victory of the year. The trophy dash was a three-lap race instead of the usual four, so his time of 47:10, for an average speed of 76.433 mph, was a new track record.
The Midget main event line up was determined with the drivers picking out a coke bottle with a number on the bottom. Chad picked a bottle with #5 on the bottom, which started him on the inside of the second row for the main event. Chad moved into the lead on Lap 2, but Bugs Norbury passed him on Lap 3 moving Chad back to the second position. Chad was able to stay close, and when the field got the five to go signal from the flagman, Chad began cutting into Norbury's lead. Norbury was slowing and Chad was back out front when the yellow came out. While the field waited for the track to be cleared for a stalled car, the right rear on Chad's Midget went flat and his crew pulled him in. The green flag was waved for the restart before Chad could get back on the track. He ended up in the eight position, with a DNF.
Chad started sixth in the Mini Sprint main event, and was leading at the end of Lap 1. He never slowed down despite heavy traffic, and had a full half lap lead over Kurt Stults when he took the checked flag. Even with the traffic, Chad set a new 15-Lap record at 3:55:58, almost four seconds better than the previous mark of 3:58:94 set on November 18, 2000. The win was Chad's seventh of the year at Manzanita and was his most dominating, as over half of the field finished a lap down.
Chad now holds five records for the Mini Sprints on Manzanita Speedway's 1/3-mile track. On Saturday night, he added the 3-lap and 15-lap records to the 8-lap, 20-lap and 25-lap marks.
