Antioch, CA — People have been talking about the great racing taking place at Antioch Speedway, and the word has been positive. There are three races in the books so far, but Saturday night’s show will be special. It’s the first of four visits for the Hunt Wingless Spec Sprint Series.
The Pacific Coast Hobby Stocks have been delivering solid car counts so far, and they’ll be on the card this weekend along with the BCRA Lightning Sprints, Dwarf Cars, 600 Micro Sprints and Super Stocks. It’ll be six divisions of racing ahead of the following week’s 10th Annual Soares Memorial race.
Antioch Speedway is where Wingless Spec Sprint racing began in 1999, but the Hunt Series offers the best racing the division has to offer anywhere on the West Coast. The group started back in 2010, making this their 15th Anniversary season, and they’ve gotten here through great promoting and racing.
The Hunt Series followed in the footsteps of the NCMA Select Series in their ability to bring 20 plus cars to most of their races. However, the Hunt Series has taken it up a notch with increased purses and contingency prizes that racers win on any given night. That will again be the case as they come to Antioch for their third race of the season.
In three visits to Antioch last year, the wins went to reigning Antioch champion Jacob Tuttle of Oakley, two-time series champion Shawn Jones of San Jose and David Lindt II of Petaluma.
In the two races held so far this year, Jake Morgan of Fair Oaks and Josh Young of Roseville were the winners. Two-time series champion Morgan earned his win at the opener in Stockton ahead of Brentwood’s Bob Newberry and Brent Steck of Roseville. It was Young winning the Al Hinds race at Placerville, followed by rookie Bryant Bell of Oakley and Placerville’s Shane Hopkins.
With a pair of Top 5 finishes to his credit, 2021 series runner up Steck finds himself leading series rookie Braidon Moniz of Waianae, Hawaii by six points. Morgan sits third in the standings, 13 points out of the lead and five ahead of Ethon Lanfri of Milpitas. Newberry is fifth, leading Bell by just three tallies as 2023 Rookie of the Year Josh Wooten of Yuba City, Heath Holdsclaw of Loomis, Paul Vandenberg of Sacramento and Jeff Scotto of Brentwood round out the Top 10 going into the night.
In years past, it wasn’t uncommon to see the track’s regularly featured divisions competing 22 times or more each season. These days, 14 races is quite a bit for the racer who’s juggling family time with their racing. It also means that each race is that much more important to the Hobby Stock championship battle.
Nicholas Johnson of Bakersfield won the opener, but he’s not a regular at the track. The runner up that night, Grayson Baca of Brentwood, had mechanical issues early on and scratched for the evening. That night, Oakley’s Aidan Ponciano didn’t do very well either, but he rebounded in a big way by scoring the victory last Saturday night. The championship battle is wide open at this point.
Consistency is a hallmark to winning championships, and thus far, only the Oakley duo of Charlie Bryant and James East have Top 5 finishes in both races. A look atop the standings finds Bryant holding a two point advantage over East, who is currently tied with Hobby Stock veteran Chris Long of Antioch. After transmission issues at Petaluma a week earlier, Long piloted the John Keith car to a sixth place finish last week to maintain his point effort.
Drivers have stepped up their racing programs this year, and none are more evident than fourth ranked Hunter Hammett of Oakley, who is only six points out of the lead. Hammett recorded his best finish yet in third last week, trailing the night’s runner up, Jewell Crandall of Antioch. Crandall is only 10 points out of the lead, six in front of 2021 champion Larry McKinzie Jr of Bethel Island.
The Hobby Stocks are clearly the hot division in the rotation these days, and word is that there are several other cars being prepared for racing at some point during the year. Some of the drivers to watch for this week include San Pablo’s Maddie Motts and Rick Rogers, Brodie Garner of Antioch, Jesse Paladino of Brentwood and Josh Applebaum of Antioch.
Roberto Monroy of Antioch is a busy man these days. He’s competed in Dwarf Cars and Micro Sprints and still has cars in both divisions this year. Roberto ran his Micro Sprint two weeks ago, but the Dwarf Car took a little effort at the race track to get it ready for Antioch’s David Michael Rosa. Rosa got on the track knowing that he was competing just to shake the car down and not for points that night.
David’s father, Hall of Famer David Rosa of Antioch led several laps of the race before spinning. Though he eventually ended up second, it was Brentwood’s Sean Catucci who got the win. Catucci led after the Rosa spin, only to push high on exit in the final turn that night and get passed by Brandon Aylesworth of Benicia. In all of the excitement of his apparent win, however Brandon failed to report to post race tech and ended up disqualified.
Rookie David Hays of Brentwood is following in the footsteps of his father, who competed in both Dwarf Cars and Wingless Spec Sprints years ago. David was making good laps until mechanical issues ended his race prematurely. He’s planning to compete this year, and other drivers to look for include reigning champion Travis Day of Concord and Russ Sieber of Elk Grove.
In the Micro Sprint division, third-generation racer Kyle Mench of Alameda held off fellow Dixon Speedway alum Hayden Saich of Lodi to wrap up his heat and feature winning effort at the opener. Kyle is a past champion at the now closed Dixon track and a welcome addition to the Antioch roster. Petaluma racers are looking over at Antioch, which is a reason why the schedule was made in such a way that drivers wouldn’t have to make a choice between the two tracks.
At the opener, Peyton Gentry of Santa Rosa took home a third place finish after battling last season’s point runner up Ryan Dotson of Fremont, who settled for fourth. Gentry and Antioch’s reigning champion Ken Carter of Santa Rosa are regulars at Petaluma. Carter, Buddy Chappell of San Jose and Antioch’s Charlie Kight will be hoping to rebound after a disappointing season opener.
While the Micro Sprints compete with 600cc engines and no wings, the BCRA Lightning Sprints run wings and 1200cc motors. When the Lightning Sprints come to town, they bring the speed and excitement. That’ll be the case this week as the division running under California’s oldest sanctioning body makes their first of two scheduled visits on Saturday night.
Reigning champion Greg Dennett of Livermore is picking up where he left off last season as the point leader after two races. Greg kicked things off with a win at Silver Dollar Speedway before finishing second at the most recent Placerville race behind Hunter Kinney of Citrus Heights. Dennett has a 28 point lead over Kinney, but it’s 2022 champion Matt Land of Elk Grove running second, 17 points out of the lead.
Unlike Dennett, Land was shut out of the Winner’s Circle in the Antioch races last year, a track at which he has won in the past. He would like to get a win this week, but one driver who could present a challenge is Scott Kinney of Citrus Heights. Scott is a past champion in the group. Other drivers to watch for include the Placerville trio of Bradley Schmidt, Cody Dayton and Kennedy Ramirez.
Saturday night begins the 25th Anniversary season for the Super Stock division, which will run three regular races and three as part of the Tri State Pro Stock Challenge Series. One of the top drivers in the state is Petaluma’s Mike Learn. The 2023 Antioch champion has already recorded back-to-back wins at Petaluma, a track at which he’s won the last two championships. He was second in the Tri State Pro Stock season opener in Marysville earlier this year, a championship he has also won in the past.
Mike missed a race last year, taking him out of title contention at Antioch, but he still picked up two victories. He’s anticipated this week to get a little track time ahead of the Tri State Pro Stock race on May 31st, which is the annual Larry Damitz Memorial.
Danville’s Jim Freethy is a multi-time champion in the Super Stock ranks, but it appears he will be sidelined for a while after undergoing heart surgery earlier this year. Fred Ryland of Brentwood brought Jim’s car to one of the practices back in March and indicated that he may be taking the wheel for a few races. Ryland has 76 combined feature wins throughout his career at Antioch, 14 of which have occurred in a Super Stock
Saturday night’s show will be a nice combination of different racing disciplines. For open wheel enthusiasts, the Hunt Wingless Spec Sprints and BCRA Lightning Sprints will bring plenty of speed, and the Hobby Stocks will bring the fender bending excitement. With Dwarf Cars, Micro Sprints and Super Stocks also on the card, it’s sure to be exciting from start to finish.
The gates will open at 4:00 with the first race starting at 6:00.
Adult tickets are $15, Senior/Military $15, Kids (5-12) $15 and kids four and under free.
For further information, go to http://www.raceantiochspeedway.com or check out the Antioch Speedway by PROmotions Facebook page.
Previous
- April 22 – Ponciano Rebounds For Antioch Speedway Win, Ryland, Pearce, Foulger Also Victorious
- April 15 – Young, Shrader, Catucci, Mentch, Gillard Win at Antioch Speedway
- April 8 – Bobby Hogge Scores 70th Win at Antioch Speedway
- April 4 – New Championship Season Begins Saturday At Antioch Speedway
