The 72nd Mike Curb Gold Cup Race of Champions will have a distinctly different look this weekend at Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico, Calif., as the prestigious event moves away from the split-field format used in recent years.
Instead, all 50-plus entrants will compete each of the three nights, beginning with Thursday and Friday preliminary programs that will determine Saturday’s lineup for the $100,072-to-win finale. All three nights will also award full Interstate Batteries High Limit Racing championship points.
What’s Different This Year?
The biggest change is simple: the field is no longer split between preliminary nights.
Every entered driver will compete Thursday, Friday and Saturday, putting much greater emphasis on accumulating points across both prelims rather than having only one preliminary program count toward a driver’s Saturday position.
Thursday and Friday will use the same format, with qualifying, heat races, consolation races and an A-main. Points from both nights will then be combined to determine Saturday’s lineup structure.
Thursday And Friday: Qualifying and Heats
Each preliminary night begins with the entire field qualifying in one group.
Quick time earns 100 points, second receives 99, third gets 98 and so on.
Four heat races follow, with the top 24 qualifiers placed into the heats and each race using a six-car invert. The top five finishers from each heat transfer directly to the A-main.
Drivers finishing sixth through ninth move to the B-main, while those finishing 10th through 13th go to the C-main.
Heat race points begin at 100 for the winner and decrease by two points per position.
How The Preliminary A-Main Is Set
The 20 heat race transfers are ranked by their combined qualifying and heat race points.
There is another inversion waiting for the highest scorers.
The top eight in points are inverted to establish the first four rows of the A-main, meaning the highest point-earner starts eighth rather than from the pole.
Four more drivers advance through the B-main to fill rows 11 and 12.
The B-main consists primarily of drivers finishing sixth through ninth in their heats, but the front row is reserved for the two highest-scoring drivers who failed to transfer directly into the feature.
Two drivers also transfer from the C-main into the B-main.
Feature Points Carry Most Weight
Thursday and Friday’s A-mains award the largest point totals of the preliminary programs.
The feature winner receives 200 points, with each position decreasing by three points — second gets 197, third 194 and so on.
Drivers who fail to make the feature can still accumulate points through the B- and C-mains.
B-main points begin at 120 for the fifth-place finisher and decrease by three per position, while C-main points begin at 70 for third and also decrease by three.
Those totals are added to each driver’s qualifying and heat-race points.
Four Drivers Lock Into Saturday
Once Friday’s program is complete, points from both preliminary nights are combined.
The top four drivers in overall points earn guaranteed starting positions in Saturday’s $100,072-to-win Gold Cup feature.
For everyone else, Saturday becomes another race-in program.
Saturday Starts With Four Qualifiers
The remaining field is divided into four qualifiers, lined up straight-up according to the combined Thursday-Friday point standings.
The top four finishers from each qualifier transfer directly to the A-main, adding 16 drivers to the four already locked in.
That establishes the first 20 drivers in the championship feature.
How Saturday’s Top 20 Are Lined Up
The first eight starting positions will be determined by a redraw wheel.
The four drivers who locked in through preliminary points redraw for positions 1-4, while the four qualifier winners redraw for positions 5-8.
Positions 9-20 are then lined up straight-up according to qualifier finishes.
That means strong preliminary points can guarantee a driver a feature berth, but not necessarily the pole.
Final Chance Through The B-, C-Mains
Drivers finishing fifth through eighth in Saturday’s qualifiers move to the B-main.
The two highest point-earners among the drivers who haven't already transferred will start on the B-main front row.
Qualifier finishers ninth through 12th are sent to the C-main, with the top two advancing into the B-main.
The top four B-main finishers then claim the final four starting positions in rows 11 and 12 of the 24-car Gold Cup championship feature.
Why The Change Matters
The return to a full-field format creates three straight nights in which every contender races against the entire Gold Cup entry list.
It also makes Thursday and Friday equally important. A poor opening night can be overcome with a strong Friday, while two consistently strong prelims can allow a driver to bypass Saturday’s qualifiers entirely.
And because the field is no longer split, all three nights will award full Interstate Batteries High Limit Racing championship points.
Preliminary-night ties are broken by qualifying times, while ties in cumulative points entering Saturday are broken by preliminary feature finishes.
The three-night Gold Cup begins Thursday at Silver Dollar Speedway before culminating with Saturday’s $100,072-to-win finale.