Anderson, CA. (May 6, 2007) − Craig Raudman (Cottonwood, CA) captured the win at Saturday’s round one of the HotWood Late Model 300 at Shasta Raceway at his hometown track in Anderson. Steve Belletto (Modesto, CA) had taken the early lead and appeared to be pulling away from the field during the first 50 plus laps before Raudman worked his way through the pack and captured the lead. "This is most fun I have had for a number of years. I love running the SRL Tour cars and the competition is really tough with these racers. They make you run every lap as perfect as you can or they will be driving by you. I hope to run as many of the SRL events this year as I can that don't conflict with my obligation to the GN West team I work for." said Raudman in a post race conversation with SRL series director Steve Fensler.

The battle for third place was hard fought between Circle Chassis and Parts Rookie of the Year candidate Porter Smith (Aztec, NM) and Anderson native Ryan Foster who was a late entry. Eventually Foster found his way past Smith to capture third place. Smith made a great first impression with a strong showing in the main event after capturing the first Mid Valley Iron and Metals Pole Award of the 2007 SRL series.

“We would like to thank California Hotwood as well as George Wade and his crew at Shasta Raceway for helping us put on a great show for the fans,” said Steve Fensler, executive series director for the SRL. “Our SRL teams all showed excellence in the way they had their cars prepared for the opener and the drivers performed as the great professionals they all are.”

Jeff Belletto (Modesto, CA) won the 4 lap Performance Electric Company Inc. Trophy Dash battle amongst the top 4 main event qualifiers edging out David Mayhew, Raudman and Dave Byrd.

Other awards presented to drivers Saturday night were the “Hard Charger Award” won by Mike Mendenhall for working his way through the field from 13th to a 6th place finish and the Mid Valley Iron and Metals Hard Luck Award which went to Troy Ermish who’s night was cut short early when his 38 car found the wall in turn 4.