Chad Boat ran his first race with the Arizona Mini Sprint Car Association on Saturday night at Manzanita Speedway. Thirty-three mini sprints checked into the pits for their season opener, and only 20 cars make it to the Main Event. Chad will have #30 on his car this year, since #15 was already being used by another car in the AMSCA, and duplicate numbers are not allowed.

Chad is considered a rookie with the Mini Sprint club, so he had to tag his heat race, and was lined up on the inside of Row 4 in the third heat race. At the wave of the green flag, he started working his way through the field. By Lap 2 he was running in the 4th position, and he had moved to 3rd by Lap 3. Since the heat races are only 6 laps, Chad ran out of laps before he could catch the leaders and finished in the 3rd position. The top 3 positions of each heat race are automatically moved to the Main Event, so Chad had already made his first Main Event on his first attempt with the AMSCA.

Because of his rookie status, Chad had to also tag the Main Event. He started on the inside of Row 10, in the 19th position for the 15-Lap Main Event. By Lap 2 Chad had moved up to 15th, and by the end of Lap 6 he was running 12th when a yellow flag flew for a car stopped on the track. On the restart Chad made a move to the inside coming out of Turn 4 and picked up two more positions.

Another yellow flag was waved on Lap 9, and Chad was running in the 9th position. After the restart, he started passing cars and by Lap 11 he had moved into the 5th position. The rest of the race was run under the green flag, and Chad ran out of laps as he was running down the leaders. Chad gained 14 positions after starting at the back of the field, and drove an excellent race. The points haven’t been posted yet by the AMSCA, but because the AMSCA gives passing points (5 points per position gained) it is possible that Chad is leading the points after his first race. Brandon George, who started in the 5th position, came away with the victory.