Paul McMahan led wire-to-wire in winning Friday night's World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series Gold Cup Race of Champions Weekend opener at Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico, California.

"To get a win here in front of (team co-owners) Dennis and Teresa Roth is huge for this team,” said McMahan. “The dash draw really helped us and it meant we got to start up front which was key. The track started taking rubber early on (in the night) and they worked it a little bit after time trials. For the feature, it still had a lot of rubber so I was trying to be patient as I worked my way around here. I knew Jason (Meyers) would give me a run for my money near the end and I had to keep him at bay. Great win tonight but we want to be golden tomorrow night.”

Meyers made a last lap run on McMahan but settled for second on his home turf.

“I think they have it mixed up and the trophy girl should be standing next to me since she’s taller than Paul,” joked Meyers. “It wasn’t quite the show we wanted to put on for the fans tonight but our DDNi/Media-Tile/All-Star Performance car was fast all night. Hat’s off to the crew and everyone around here. It’s great to race in front of these fans since I’m from here and hopefully we can pull off a win tomorrow night.”

Shane Golobric finished third followed by Chad Kemenah and Jonathon Allard.

The World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series returns to action at Silver Dollar Speedway in tonight's 58th Gold Cup Race of Champions finale.

World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series Results Friday, September 9, 2011

A-Main - (25 Laps)
1. 83-Paul McMahan[1][$8,000]; 2. 14-Jason Meyers[4][$4,000]; 3. 121-Shane Golobic[2][$2,500]; 4. 63-Chad Kemenah[3][$2,200]; 5. O-Jonathan Allard[10][$2,100]; 6. 57-Jac Haudenschild[8][$2,000]; 7. 11-Steve Kinser[9 [$1,800]; 8. 99-Kyle Larson[5][$1,600]; 9. 1-Sammy Swindell[15][$1,500]; 10. 5H-Mason Moore[14][$1,300]; 11. 55-Trey Starks[18][$1,200]; 12. 5W-Lucas Wolfe[11][$1,100]; 13. 83JR-Tim Kaeding[17][$1,000]; 14. 33E-Evan Suggs[22][$700]; 15. 7S-Jason Sides[19][$600]; 16. 25-Jason York[20][$600]; 17. 6-Kraig Kinser[24][$600]; 18. 9-Brad Sweet[6][$600]; 19. 1X-Andy Gregg[16][$600]; 20. 44W-Austen Wheatley[21][$600]; 21. 7-Craig Dollansky[13][$600]; 22. 2-Kyle Hirst[23][$600]; 23. 17-Justin Sanders[7][$600]; 24. 15-Donny Schatz[12][$600]

Lap Leaders: Paul McMahan 1-25

KSE Hard Charger Award: 33E-Evan Suggs[+8]

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