CHICO, CA (9-9-05) - The King of the Outlaws Steve Kinser of Bloomington, Indiana moved a step closer to his 12th Gold Cup crown at Silver Dollar Speedway on Friday night. During the second night of preliminary competition, Kinser was the fast qualifier of the evening, placed second in his heat race and then went on to win the Stacker2 Dash as well as the 30-lap feature event.

TOP 10 RESULTS Gold Cup - Preliminary Race #2 FINISH DRIVER START 1. Steve Kinser (1) 2. Daryn Pittman (4) 3. Jason Solwold (2) 4. Jac Haudenschild (3) 5. Danny Lasoski (10) 6. Joey Saldana (14) 7. Jason Sides (16) 8. Brian Paulus (13) 9. Brandon Wimmer (23) 10. Greg DeCaires (18) Complete Results | Qualifying

TOP 10 CUMULATIVE POINTS Gold Cup - Race of Champions RANK DRIVER POINTS 1. Steve Kinser 547 2. Craig Dollansky 544 3. Tim Shaffer 541 4. Jason Solwold 532 5. Jac Haudenschild 529 6. Daryn Pittman 528 7. Jason Meyers 528 8. Donny Schatz 520 9. Brooke Tatnell 515 10. Roger Crockett 511 Complete Lineups/Points

The Gold Cup Race of Champions concludes on Saturday evening, lining up the field by accumulative points awarded to drivers the previous two nights of competition for their performance in qualifying, heat races and the preliminary feature events. The dash events are the only competition where points are not awarded towards the Saturday portion of the program.

Kinser’s performance on Friday night earned him the pole position in Saturday’s feature event. Kinser will be aiming to win his 12th Gold Cup race of champions, an event he has always seemed to win from within in the field, but never from the top position.

In qualifying, Kinser clocked an 11:361 in his Kinser Racing Quaker State #11. In the first heat race of the evening he finished second place to young Robert Ballou of Rocklin. Ballou, competing in his second Gold Cup Race of Champions at just 16-years of age had a stellar performance in the 10-lap preliminary event, taking the lead at the green flag and holding off charges from King Kinser all the way to the checkered flag.

Heat race winners in addition to Ballou on Friday included Daryn Pittman, Jason Solwold and Kyle Hirst. Rick Fowzer won the C-feature while Joey Saldana took the checkers in the 12-lap B-main, transferring into the feature with Johnny Gray, Brian Paulus and Brandon Wimmer.

After winning the first Stacker 2 Dash of the evening, Kinser was joined on the front row of the feature event by Jason Solwold who won the second dash of the evening. The two dash races determine the first six rows of the ensuing feature event of the evening.

With the drop of the green flag in the feature event, Kinser powered up from the low side of the track and overtook the top position from Solwood entering the first turn. With only five laps complete in the feature Kinser was already approaching lapped traffic in the event where tire wear became the concern of every team for the remainder of the event.

High winds and cool temperatures created an unusual climate for the Friday night portion of the 52nd Gold Cup. The unexpected weather condition created a very hard track surface that began to take rubber in the early laps of the event. When the track begins to take rubber, tire wear become excessive for those drivers who don’t maintain a conservative driving style for the remainder of the race.

For Kinser, lapped traffic played no serious threat to his lead position for the entire race and prevented him from taking any adverse action that could threaten the life of his right rear tire. However, several drivers chasing Kinser had their share of troubles including Shain Matthews, Terry McCarl and Robert Ballou. All three drivers were running strong in the feature and suffered blow outs in the final ten laps. Jonathan Allard was the final victim to a right rear tire loss. While looking at a top four finish, Allard’s tire blew in turn three of lap 30, he managed to limp his Morrie Williams #0 across the line but fell to the 16th position.

At the finish line Kinser finished a great distance ahead of second place Daryn Pittman, Solwold finished third followed by Jac Haudenschild who started third. Danny Lasoski finished in the fifth position ahead of Joey Saldana, Jason Sides, Brian Paulus, Brandon Wimmer and Greg DeCaires.

Celebrating his preliminary win in victory lane, Kinser admitted he was concerned about falling victim to the tire eating , weather hardened track surface that cost many competitors a top finish on this evening.

“When we start laying down rubber in the first few laps of the feature it just isn’t a good thing, its not something you want to see that early in a race,” said Kinser. “This is pretty unusual weather conditions for this race and I think it took a lot of teams by surprise. When your leading out there and you see a driver lose a tire, then you see another one go and then another you start to get concerned. Luckily when I got in lapped traffic tonight I didn’t run into any situations where I had to brake hard or slide suddenly and I was able to make it last.”

Kinser will start on the pole Saturday night for the Gold Cup A feature with Thursday night winner Craig Dollansky on the outside. Tim Shaffer and Jason Solwold will form the second row of the feature event. For complete line ups of Saturday’s event, checkout the new improved Gold Cup section of www.johnpadjenmotorsports.com on race day.