(Photo by Wildlight Motorsports Photography)
Inside Line Promotions – CHICO, Calif. (March 11, 2021) – Robbie Price finished a season-best second during Saturday night’s 32nd annual Silver Cup finale hosted by Silver Dollar Speedway.
The runner-up result backed up a solid seventh-place outing in the Friday night opener for the Cobble Hill, B.C., native in his 2021 debut behind the wheel of the Demo Mittry owned No. 2x sprint car.
“The way we ended last season put a bad taste in my mouth so to come out here early in 2021 with some positive results is a great feeling,” Price said. “For it being my first time in their car, to end up second is a great accomplishment and it’s got me excited going forward.”
Price kicked off Friday night’s racing activities by timing in 24th quickest among 37 cars in attendance with a quickest lap of 13.189 seconds. He then advanced two positions in a heat race to finish third and lock himself into the night’s feature.
Lining up from the 11th starting spot, Price was on the move early as he advanced to the seventh position by Lap 5. He moved as high as sixth in the running order before slipping back to eighth on Lap 20. With three laps to go in the 25-lap feature Price was able to regain the seventh position as he posted his first top 10 of the season.
“The bottom line is I buried us from the get-go by not laying down a good lap in qualifying and that pretty much was the story of our night,” he said. “We had a lot of speed and we were able to pass cars, but we needed better track position to really be able to capitalize on it.”
Learning from his mistakes the night before, Price laid down a lap of 11.909 seconds to secure the third fastest qualifying time on Saturday. He then led all eight laps of a heat race to score the win and qualify for the feature redraw, in which he randomly chose the fourth starting position for the feature.
Price moved into a podium position on the opening lap of the A Main before dropping to fifth a few laps later. He battled just inside the top five for most of the race before using a Lap-19 restart to move back into the third position. With five laps to go Price maneuvered to second. A late-race caution gave him a shot at the leader with two laps to go, but Price settled for second at the checkered flag.
“When you qualify well, you set yourself up for success and I was really happy with our performance and the speed we had right off the trailer,” he said. “We passed some cars early and we put ourselves in a position to maybe get a win. I had a really good shot there on that last restart, but ultimately we were just a second-place car and that’s nothing to hang our heads about.”
Price will return behind the wheel of the Mittry 360ci sprint car this Friday and Saturday at Keller Auto Speedway in Hanford, Calif., with the Kings of Thunder 360 Winged Sprints. On Saturday he’ll look to take home the $3,500 top prize during the 2nd annual Greg “Spanky” Matthews Memorial Race presented by Meyers Construction.
“Racing is always more fun when you’ve got a fast car and you're in contention and I think we’ve got a car capable of winning,” he said. “I’m grateful for the opportunity and hopefully we can end up one spot better this weekend in Hanford.”
QUICK RESULTS –
March 5 – Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico, Calif. – Qualifying: 24; Heat race: 3 (5); Feature: 7 (11).
March 6 – Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico, Calif. – Qualifying: 3; Heat race: 1 (1); Feature: 2 (4).
SEASON STATS –
5 races, 0 wins, 1 top five, 2 top 10s, 3 top 15, 4 top 20s
UP NEXT –
Friday and Saturday at Keller Auto Speedway in Hanford, Calif, with the Kings of Thunder 360 Winged Sprints
MEDIA LINKS –
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/RPrice21
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rpracing21/
SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT – Wildlight Motorsports Photography
Wildlight Motorsports Photography takes images throughout events in Western Canada and on the West Coast. For more information, visit https://www.facebook.com/Wildlight-Motorsport-Photography-260251824183578/.
“Don is a really good guy who takes great photos,” Price said. “I really appreciate his help throughout the last few years. He’s turned into a good friend.”
Price would like to thank Beaufort Self Storage Ltd., Millstone Heating & Sheet Metal, Shark Racing Engines, Triple X Race Components and Champion Brands for their continued support.
INSIDE LINE PROMOTIONS –
Inside Line Promotions specializes in affordable public relations and media management for motor sports drivers, teams, sponsors, tracks, series, events, organizations and manufacturers. ILP Founder Shawn Miller leverages professional journalism with new media technologies and social networking to improve your exposure and the return on investment for your sponsors.
To meet the media relations needs of your program by joining Team ILP, contact Shawn at 541-510-3663 or Shawn@InsideLinePromotions.com. For more information on Inside Line Promotions, visit http://www.InsideLinePromotions.com.
- Shawn Miller on Mar 11, 2021
- Article Date: 3/11/2021 by Inside Line Promotions