RED BLUFF, Calif. -- Former track champion Sean Becker was flawless Saturday night in the 30 lap A Main for the Open Outlaw Karts as he was a wire to wire winner from the pole at the Red Bluff Fairgrounds. Pete Johnston chased S Becker for all 30 rounds and point leader Brian McCain ran third after establishing a new track record for the third time in four races in time trials. After having successfully tried dirt modifieds earlier in his driving career, S Becker moved into the winged sprint car action in the 2002 season and is recognized as a quickly emerging talent in that arena. He looks forward to his first full season of Golden State Challenge winged 410 action in 2004. He is one of the many drivers using engines built by grandfather George Becker and the multi-kart Becker team is crewchiefed by father Delno Becker. Brother Daniel Becker was 2003 Open Outlaw champion at Cycleland Speedway. Only racing on a part-time basis in Red Bluff, Garrett Mills enjoyed his best night of his rookie Open Intermediate season as he led all 20 laps of the main event after earlier placing second behind Oregon's Chadd Noland in both his heat and the dash. Mills was the 2002-2003 Indoor Season track champion in the Box Stocks at Chico before making the big jump to the 500 cc powered Open Intermediates this winter. Point leader Justin Reinolds had another huge night as his quick time was just a tick off the mark established by B McCain and he ran second behind Mills in the A Main ahead of Noland and Cody Braund.

Nearly 50 Open Outlaws raced and amazingly, the top 8 qualifiers were all quicker than the old track record of 8.369 held by B McCain. B McCain dropped the mark to 8.266 while QRC All Star Tour champion Tyler McCain ran a 8.297. Steven Gannon clicked off a 8.300, Matt Menne had a 8.326 and Robbie Whitchurch a 8.346. David Wilson, D Becker and Ryan Foster were also under the old mark and S Becker settled for 10th fast behind Johnston. Whitchurch was the dash winner ahead of Wilson and B McCain. The highly competitive heat action sees five kart inversions and only advances the top two finishers into the 30 lap A Main. B McCain came from fifth to win heat 1 over Beau Perkins. The Weststeyn team from Oregon placed 1st and 3rd in heat 2 as Richard Weststeyn won and D Becker nipped Joe Weststeyn for second. Ryan Schuppert outdueled Foster in heat 3 and Michael Hubert III won heat 4 over Johnston, who passed Jasen Webb on the final lap. Brian Eady flipped in this event. Heat five saw Dennis Azevedo get upsidedown twice with Danny Tompkins and Tyler Schohr also flipping. Tyler Spath made a rare Red Bluff appearance and won ahead of S Becker and Whitchurch. Despite his sprint car success, S Becker takes his outlaw kart racing very seriously and was seen walking the track during the red flags in the preceeding main events studying how to turn his pole start in the 30 lap A Main into a quick lead. After having problems with his own kart in the dash, T McCain borrowed Joe Shrock's kart for the remainder of the night. He ran second behind race long leader Menne in the 20 lap B Main. Menne is looking forward to his first full season of winged sprint car action in Medford in 2004. Dash winner Whitchurch advanced with a third ahead of Kyle Cattanach, Keith Hill and Josh Zander. It was a tough night for point title contender Gannon as his engine locked up on lap 1 of the B Main after he won the D Main and placed second behind Wilson in the C Main. D Main runnerup Josh Chartier was third in the C Main ahead of K Hill. Michael Tarter flipped in the C Main. Eady rebounded from his heat race flip to finish third in the D Main ahead of Eureka's Troy Combs. Tyler Wolf won the E Main ahead of Eady and John Bunch, who made a quick tow north after placing second in Chico earlier in the day.

The quickest five to advance through the heat races were inverted at the front of the 14 kart A Main grid and that put S Becker and Johnston on the front row ahead of Foster, D Becker and B McCain. The talented field ripped off the 30 laps with just four caution flags. S Becker did take a quick lead over Johnston, D Becker, Foster and B McCain. A lap 8 tangle between D Becker and Foster forced both to restart in the rear with B McCain up to third ahead of Hubert and 13th starter Whitchurch. Schuppert spun and got hit by Spath for a lap 9 yellow. The field then raced to lap 20 before Schuppert and Foster tangled for a caution flag. The final yellow came with just two laps to run as Perkins spun out. S Becker controlled the field on the single file restarts as he stayed out front for the win. Johnston ran second ahead of B McCain, Hubert, Whitchurch, Cattanach, T McCain, Menne, D Becker and Foster.

The Open Intermediates finds the younger drivers moving up the outlaw kart ladder wheeling the same 500 cc machines as the Open Outlaws and Reinolds quick time of 8.295 established a new track record and ranked second only to the new mark of B McCain. Brett Miller was second quick in the 13 kart field with a 8.411 and Micah Parmer ran a 8.587. Wheeling his 250 cc entry, Noland won the dash ahead of Mills and Parmer. Reinolds won the first heat with Parmer second ahead of William Lyons. Noland took heat 2 with Mills second ahead of B Miller. The five kart inversion for the 20 lap feature put Jerryd Stanley and Mills on the front row ahead of Parmer, Miller and Reinolds. Parmer spun to force a restart and Mills raced into the lead over Stanley and Reinolds. Dylan Greenleaf threw a wheel for a lap 1 yellow and a multi-kart tangle slowed the action on lap 3 with Reinolds now second ahead of Braund. In his best run, Lyons raced into third on lap 5 with Parmer rebounding to fourth on lap 7. Parmer beat Lyonds to the flag for third and Noland made a late charge, gaining fourth when Lyons spun on lap 16. Stanley and Lyons crashed for the last yellow flag on lap 18. Mills ran a flawless race for the win with Reinolds a solid second. Parmer lost third with his last turn spin as Noland claimed the spot. Braund was fourth ahead of Miller, Steven Rogers and Parmer.

The Jan 10th race will be the annual Perpetual Trophy night with the winners of all the A Mains taking one year possession of the six foot tall trophies.

RESULTS

OPEN INTERMEDIATE
Fast Time-Justin Reinolds 8.295 NTR
Dash-Chadd Noland, Garrett Mills, Micah Parmer.
Heat 1-Reinolds, Parmer, William Lyons, Jerryd Stanley, Reyna Krueger.
Heat 2-Noland, Mills, Brett Miller, Brent Hamilton, Cody Braund.
Main-Mills, Reinolds, Noland, Braund, Miller, Steven Rogers, Parmer, Tyler Ritcheson, Stanley, Lyons, Hamilton, Krueger, Dylan Greenleaf.

OPEN OUTLAW
Fast Time-Brian McCain 8.266 NTR
Dash-Robbie Whitchurch, David Wilson, B McCain.
Heat 1-B McCain, Beau Perkins, Bubba Hill, Todd Carmichael, Jaime Becker.
Heat 2-Richard Weststeyn, Daniel Becker, Joe Weststeyn, Tyler McCain, Keith Hill.
Heat 3-Jason Schuppert, Ryan Foster, Kyle Cattanach, Josh Zander, Sally Long.
Heat 4-Michael Hubert III, Pete Johnston, Jasen Webb, Matt Menne, Brandon Aldred.
Heat 5-Tyler Spath, Sean Becker, Whitchurch, Robbie Ritcheson, Michael Tarter.
E Main-Tyler Wolf, Brian Eady, John Bunch, David Tarter, Joe Shrock, Dennis Azevedo.
D Main-Steven Gannon, Josh Chartier, Eady, Troy Combs, Chuck Herman, David Lewallen, D Tarter, Brandon Mansfield, Joel Courage, Wolf.
C Main-Wilson, Gannon, Chartier, K Hill, Eady, Combs, J Becker, Aldred, Scott Burgess, Long. B Main-Menne, T McCain, Whitchurch, Cattanach, K Hill, Zander, Wilson, Carmichael, J Weststeyn, B Hill.
A Main-S Becker, Johnston, B McCain, Hubert, Whitchurch, Cattanach, T McCain, Menne, D Becker, Foster, Schuppert, Perkins, R Weststeyn, Spath.