PETERSEN MEDIA- Checking in at Silver Dollar Speedway for the first Mini Gold Cup since the 2019 season, Sean Becker and the Bjork Motorsports team had good car speed during both nights of action as Becker picked up a pair of seventh place finishes, including a charge from 22nd on Saturday night.
“Friday I was really happy with our car speed all day,” Sean Becker said. “I made a couple of costly mistakes in our heat that kept us out of the redraw and put us mid-pack on a really tough track in the feature.”
With the curtain raising on Silver Dollar Speedway’s 2024 season on Friday night, Becker kicked the Mini Gold Cup of by timing the Bjork Motorsports entry in second fastest in his qualifying flight.
Taking the green flag for his heat race from the front row, the Roseville, CA driver needed to finish inside the Top-Two to earn a spot in the redraw. Settling into second as he took the green flag, Becker hooked a rut in turns three and four that upset his car enough to slip back to third.
Doing all he could to get back into second, once the field strung out heat race passes were ultimately non existent. Finishing third, Becker was locked into the 30-lap feature event where he found himself 11th on the starting grid.
When the feature came to life on a very tricky surface, much of the field settled into the bottom groove of the speedway that was much smoother than the top and clicked off the first 27-laps in rapid fire fashion.
A couple of late issues set up a couple of restarts and they allowed Becker to pick up a few positions late in the race as he capped the night off with a seventh place finish.
Returning to the speedway on Saturday night for the NARC season opener that offered a $10,000 top prize, Becker timed in ninth in his qualifying session on this night and lined up in the third row of his heat race.
Falling out of the transfer when the race went green, Becker’s sixth place finish put him in the 12-lap ‘B’, but a second place finish in the semi moved him into what turned out to be a very wild 40-lap feature event.
Before things really got wild, Becker had a great start that saw him surge his way forward and into 14th within the first couple of laps. Then yellows and reds took over havoc ensued.
Working his way through the field and staying out of trouble, ‘The Shark’ found himself up in third late in the race. However, a misstep on his part on the 35th lap saw him come to a stop in turns one and two, as he was able to restart with 5-to-go.
With how wild the race had been up until this point, the back of the pack was only 11th, so Becker still had plenty of time to a solid finish.
Picking up a few spots in the final stanzas, Becker capped his night off with a seventh place finish as well as the Hard Charger award.
“Saturday we didn’t quite have the same speed early in the day, but Brad Bumgarner did a great job of making some great adjustment,” Becker added. “It was a little disappointing to have to run the ‘B’, but it gave Brad another opportunity to tune on the car and it paid major dividends in the feature. I was heartbroken that I made another mistake late in the feature that cost us a podium, but it was a good start for our season with that much speed.”
BY THE NUMBERS: Starts-3, Wins-0, Top 5’s- 1, Top-10’s- 3
ON TAP: Becker’s next event is TBD.
STAY CONNECTED: If you can’t be at the track, make sure to give Sean a follow on Instagram at @BeckerRacing23.
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