Antioch, CA — The dog days of summer have hit, and last Saturday night saw the fans brave 100° plus temperatures to check out some racing at Antioch Speedway. This Saturday night, however, forecasts are calling for around 90° and seven divisions competing for Main Event glory.
After an exciting Wingless Spec Sprint show last Saturday night, the Speedway gets its second and final appearance of the Hunt Wingless Spec Sprint Series. The Figure 8 was postponed from two weeks ago to maintain a solid car count for the fans.
Also back in action will be the IMCA Modifieds and Stock Cars, Pacific Coast General Engineering Hobby Stocks, Print Club Mini Stocks and the WMR Midgets. It’s a night of racing that is sure to end the month of July on a positive note.
It’s also worth pointing out that on August 5th, it’s Fan Appreciation Night. It’s a $5 admission price to come check out six divisions of racing along with bike giveaways and Hot Wheels for the kids and several other promotions, including a live band. More details will be forthcoming.
When the NCMA went exclusively to pavement and retired their popular Select Series, that left the Spec Sprint racers without a big series to bring the drivers together. This is when the Hunt Series was formed. The best drivers in the state gather at various tracks to give the fans a bigger show.
The last time the series was in Antioch, they had over 30 cars with Antioch leadfoot Shawn Arriaga piloting the Dave Johnson car to victory. Shawn has made the series his priority and is in the midst of the title battle. He trails past Petaluma champion Nick Robfogel by 16 points.
Jacob Tuttle drove the Ted Finkenbinder #3 Spec Sprint to his third win of the season. Photo by Katrina Kniss
Jake Tuttle of Oakley has been impressive with three wins at Antioch this season, including last Saturday night. He put on a driving clinic, using the extreme outside groove, to get the job done. He is currently third in the Hunt Series standings, 25 out of the lead. DJ Johnson of Stockton is fourth in the standings, 40 points back, while Brent Steck of Roseville is 44 tallies arrears in fifth.
Another interesting note is that the four races held so far have been won by four different people. Wins have been recorded by Arriaga, Johnson, Bradley Terrell of Sebastopol and Shane Hopkins of Placerville. The win for Terrell at Petaluma was the Randy Larson Memorial race and paid $5,000.
You can’t help but notice that there has been a bump in attendance when the exciting and sometimes crazy Figure 8 is on the schedule. That has been the case twice this year. When it was discovered that some of the drivers were unable to make the show due to not having the July 15th race on their schedule, it was moved to this Saturday to accommodate them.
DJ Keldsen of Newman has been the star of the show so far with both wins. Last time out, he took the championship belt back home with him, but he’ll bring it back to put it on the line this Saturday. Chasing him across the line was the instigator in bringing this race back, Jimmy Robbins of Concord.
Jimmy has a third and a second to show for his effort so far, keeping him second in the standings behind DJ. The question is, can he or anybody else knock the third-generation racer out of the winner’s circle?
Angela Brown of Antioch has been a major booster of this race by bringing in sponsorship money and other contingencies. She also brings two cars. The second car has a second place finish with Chester Kniss of Antioch behind the wheel. More recently, boyfriend Chris Long of Antioch had a third place effort.
Others to watch for this week include Dakota Keldsen of Watsonville, Mike Conley Jr of Antioch, David Rosa of Antioch and Dennis Keldsen of Newman. Reportedly, there could be a surprise entrant coming from Watsonville this week.
Troy Foulger of Oakley is knocking on the door to destiny as he pursues both an IMCA Modified and IMCA Stock Car championship. He would be the first driver to win two championships in the same season if he can pull it off. Even when he’s not running at his best, as was the case last time in the Stock Cars, he still pulled off a podium finish.
Troy has used his six IMCA Stock Car Main Event wins to build a 26 point lead over Rio Vista’s Jason Robles. Robles has three second place finishes to his credit this year, but he’s still searching for his first win.
Jason’s son Kenneth Robles won the season opener, but he was missing for a couple of races. He returned last time out for a second place finish behind impressive winner Terry DeCarlo Jr of Martinez.
Kenneth finds himself four points behind third place driver Travis Dutra of Concord. Scott Foster is fifth, 11 points ahead of Jeff Bentancourt of Brentwood.
In the Modifieds,Troy finds himself being pursued by Andrew Pearce of Oakley. Pearce is competing for National Modified Rookie of the Year honors and has two wins at Antioch to his credit so far. He is 23 points behind Foulger at the moment.
Andrew got the opportunity to drive a Late Model last week. He crossed the line second, but that was elevated to a win when Oakley’s Buddy Kniss was disqualified for his rear deck height.
Nick DeCarlo is trying to make a double division effort similar to that of Foulger. However, his Stock Car is still getting dialed in. After leading several early laps last time, he had a motor issue that caused him to turn the car off to save it from worse damage.
After a late start, DeCarlo is third in the Modified point battle, 47 points behind Foulger. Other drivers to watch for include Jeff Browne of Oakley, Randy Schafer of Vacaville, Bobby Motts Jr San Pablo and Kniss.
The Hobby Stock race is being led by Grayson Baca of Brentwood. Baca leads the field with three victories to his credit, giving him a 52 point advantage over Colten Haney of Brentwood. Ken Johns of Antioch is two points behind Haney, while Oakley’s Kevin Brown is 12 points out of second.
Jared Baugh currently holds fifth in points, but he will be missing some races soon. He’s here to win when he can, and his car actually has three victories to its credit so far. Kenneth Robles got the first win, and Jared has won the last two races.
Jess Paladino of Brentwood is within striking distance of fifth the standings 32 points behind Baugh and eight ahead of James Graessle of Antioch.
The Print Club Mini Mini Stock division has gotten interesting. Due to issues with the race track in Orland, two of its Mini Stock stars have been racing in Antioch this year. In fact, multi-time champion Tom Davis of Los Molinos has overcome the fact that he missed the season opener. With five-straight wins, he has taken a 33 point lead over two-time reigning champion Tom Brown of Santa Rosa.
Both Brown and incoming third-ranked driver Dana Gardner were unable to make the call in the last Main Event, and rookie David Carson is now 25 points behind Gardner in the race for third. Carson isn’t too comfortable in fourth with Pittsburgh’s Don Abitz 10 points behind him and Tony Quinones of Corning 12 points behind Carson.
The WMR Midgets make their lone appearance at the speedway. The Ecotec motor package that they use for these cars is designed to make the division more affordable and get new people into Midget racing. Midget car count has struggled in recent years, and the WMR has given it a much needed boost. It has a rules package that Series Director Mike McCluney learned about when he was up in the Pacific Northwest.
This division has made it possible for drivers to move up from the 600 Micro Sprint ranks into something a little faster. A look at the standings finds Logan Mitchell of Surprise, Arizona leading Bryant Bell of Oakley by 22 points. Only 24 points out in third is multi-time champion Blake Bower of Brentwood.
Kyle Hawse of Las Vegas, Nevada and Todd Hawse of Moor Park make up the balance of the Top 5. Bower, Bell and Drake Edwards each have three wins on the circuit, and Bower and Edwards recently had $1,000 wins at the Howard Kaeding Classic in Watsonville. Bower will be piloting both a Midget and a Spec Sprint this week.
With seven divisions of racing, Saturday night is going to be a show you won’t want to miss. The Spec Sprints and Midgets will be bringing some open wheel excitement, and the Figure 8 is sure to end the evening with a bang. Add in the IMCA classes, Hobby Stocks and Mini Stocks, and there will be plenty of variety for everybody to enjoy. Plus, the weather will be cooler this week.
The gates will open at 4:00 with the first race starting at 6:00.
Adult tickets are $20, Senior/Military $15, Kids (5-12) $15 and kids four and under free.
For further information, go to www.antiochspeedway.com or check out the Antioch Speedway by PROmotions Facebook page.
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