Antioch Speedway Hall Of Fame Night Preview

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Antioch Speedway Gets Set For Third Hall Of Fame Night 

Antioch, CA...Back in 1952, the gates opened at the Antioch Fairgrounds for something special. It was the birth of Antioch Speedway. It was a Bob Barkhimer promotion with John Pershing Soares and Jerry Piper both taking stabs at promoting the track in 1952 and 1953. This was part of the California Stock Car Racing Association circuit, which was the precursor to NASCAR in California. They did run a championship race at Antioch in one of those seasons, and the races held there went towards the CSCRA State Championship.

Things seemed to go okay at the time, but the idea of keeping a racing program going in Antioch with shelved for a while. Perhaps Contra Costa Stadium in Pacheco had something to do with it? That track had a viable Hardtop and Midget program for over a decade, but they ran their last race in 1960. Progress came in the form of a freeway cutting right through the race track. This was the time when Antioch Speedway was reborn. John Pershing Soares was brought back as the promoter for Barkhimer, and the rest is history. 

The record shows that Jimmy Stewart won the first Hardtop Auto Claimers championship that year. Car count started off slowly but increased rapidly during the season. Soares used many promotional tactics to build up this program, including a locals championship. The rest is history. Racing has continued on every year since then, and champions have been crowned the whole time. Many legends were made on the race track that people knew well. Maybe not so well known were some of the car owners, crew chiefs, sponsors and officials who played such a big role in making it all happen.

We began hearing talks about the track needing a Hall of Fame night in the 1990s, but nothing ever happened. During that time, Darryl Shirk was inducted into the Hall of Fame after he passed away in 1999. Harvey Mason was also inducted into the Hall of Fame, though it didn't come with an official plaque presentation to his family until 2018. With the pandemic and everything being what it was in 2020, the Hall of Fame didn't happen that year, but it will this year. 

Taking the reigns as the Hall of Fame Director in 2020 was Antioch Speedway Days Of Old Facebook Administrator Chris Briggs. His family has been involved in the racing scene going back to the 1970s. From the moment he took over, Briggs has been consulting with different people and figuring out the best way forward. What resulted was a committee of five, who went over the criteria of what a nominee should be and then cast their votes. Earlier this year, they selected the first five inductees. 

Briggs then took the three highest point earners who didn't make the cut and allowed fans to cast a vote. After that selection was made, the committee reconvened and made one final selection to make a list of seven 2021 Antioch Speedway Hall of Fame inductees. They will be joining the 26 others who have already been enshrined. The first five, who were selected in the initial round, includes Lonnie Williams, Marv Wilson, Bobby Hogge III, Don Shelton and Steve Hendren. Debbie Clymens won the fan vote, and the committee ultimately decided to add Scott Busby as the final selection.

The list of inductees includes people who raced back in the 1960s all the way to only a few years ago. All seven of them have made an important mark on the history of the speedway. Inductees included this year have backgrounds in Sportsman, Stock Car, Modified and even Figure 8 racing. Whether they were out there winning the races or being a part of the show, they made an impact that is still felt to this day.

In the 1960s, Antioch Speedway transitioned from the Hardtop Auto Claimer class to the Limited Sportsman and eventually Sportsman division. One of the first frontrunners of the group was Lonnie Williams. Lonnie competed at Antioch and Petaluma Speedway and won at both places. He was a multi-time Top 5 point competitor, peaking with the 1967 Antioch Speedway championship. He also ranks in the Top 10 on the track's all-time Sportsman division Main Event Winner's list. Wins for many years in this division were some of the hardest contested battles seen in speedway history. Williams won 15 Main Events at Antioch alone, putting him seventh all time. 

The Sportsman division was firmly established in the 1970s when a hard charger by the name of Marv Wilson hit the scene. Marv didn't have as lengthy a career as some of the other stars of the class, but it was memorable. He was a Top 10 competitor for a couple of seasons before finishing third in 1977. He won the championship a year later and finished second to good friend Dennis Furia a year later. Marv also competed for the Petaluma championship that year and won the title. After winning the season finale 50 lap Main Event, He went out In style by selling his car and retiring. He had a dozen victories at Antioch. 

Debbie Clymens started out as a Street Stock driver when that division was established in 1978. She and husband Tom Clymens, who had competed in the Stock Car and Sportsman division, were building a family. She has three sons, Trevor, Tommy Jr and Todd, who continue to compete at the track today. She was runner up in Street Stock division points in 1980 and a multi-time Main Event winner. 

Most notable was her famed rollover at the 1980 season opener, which saw her car stand on its nose for several seconds before coming down. Other women came before Debbie, but she was the one who broke the barriers. She was never afraid to run wheel to wheel with the guys and earned their respect. She was even a Main Event winner in the Dirt Modified division in 1998 and ranked in the Top 10 twice in that class. She ranked Top 5 in the Stock Cars on two occasion and was a point runner-up one season with the Figure 8. 

Bobby Hogge III is considered by many people to be the greatest Late Model driver of all time. It's an interesting debate for sure. He is second on the Antioch Speedway Late Model Winner's list with 40 victories, trailing only fellow Hall of Famer Jim Pettit II. Bobby won his first Antioch title in 1985 and did it again in 1989. He also won a NASCAR Winston Pacific Coast Regional championship. His career might have continued, but Bobby got his son, Bobby Hogge IV, into the sport and has served in a crew chief role for him for over 25 years now. 

At the tail end of the run of the Late Model division, Steve Hendren rose to prominence. He won the last two Late Model championships at the track and was firmly committed to the division when NASCAR made the decision to cut the class from the circuit. He's also a Regional champion and ranks third on the all-time win list with 38 Antioch victories. Like Hogge, he notched many wins on the circuit. Hendren will be flying back to California to receive this honor, which happens to be taking place on his birthday this year.

In the mid 1980s, Don Shelton started his career at Antioch Speedway. He made his Street Stock debut in 1984 and won his first Main Event a year later. He became a factor in the battle from then on. He finished fourth in 1990 and runner-up in a heartbreaking season a year later. He even won a Figure 8 race during that time. Shelton left the Street Stock division with 13 wins before embarking on an even more successful Modified run.  He notched 24 Main Event wins in that division and track championships in 1998, 2000 and 2005.

It seems ludicrous that the 1990s wing of the Hall of Fame would be open this year and not put Scott Busby in the first group of inductees. After the fan vote was calculated, the committee reached an easy decision that Busby would be the seventh inductee. Back in 1979, he launched his career in the Street Stock division, winning six Main Events. There was no official point race that year, but the story goes that officials rated his performance the best and crowned him the champion. The Sportsman division was calling Busby, so he moved up a year later. He was one of the drivers who moved on to Petaluma Speedway in 1981, winning a Main Event that year.  If that's all there was to his career, it wouldn't be as noteworthy. However, Busby ended a lengthy retirement when he joined the new Dirt Modified division in 1990. 

Busby was a Main Event winner that year, but he was more notable as the Harris chassis dealer. His involvement in that endeavor helped grow the class by leaps and bounds. They needed B Mains within a couple of years, and that remained a consistent occurrence for the remainder of the 1990s. Busby won championships in 1991, 1992, 1993, 1997 and 2015 and has notched a total of 73 career wins at Antioch alone. That doesn't count all of the championships and other wins he's had elsewhere. He also gets an assist in elevating the Dirt Modified division to headline status after organizing the first West Coast Nationals in 1993, which drew a still track record 83 competitors. 

The Antioch Speedway Hall of Fame will feature a ceremony in front of the grandstands during intermission. Briggs is working on all of the final details, but one thing is known. Hall of Fame Announcer John Myers will be in town as he also MC's the Pete Paulsen promoted car show a day later. Myers has the recognition of being considered the voice of Antioch Speedway, where he announced for about two decades. In fact, he announced races that most of these inductees were a part of at one time or another.

The program will have some exciting racing as the championship battle winds down in both the Jay's Mobile Welding Service Hobby Stocks and Wingless Spec Sprints. The Super Stocks will be running the Larry Damitz Memorial race. The Hardtops and Valley Sportsman division will get to run the Chet Thomson Memorial race. This is the sixth running of that race since it was brought back from Vallejo Speedway in 2016.

If you want to get a glimpse of the heritage that is Antioch Speedway and learn a little bit of its history, October 9th will be your chance to do it right. Some of the legends through the years will be there to witness the induction ceremonies, and you may even hear a few stories from those days. To keep up to date with the happenings at the track, go to www.antiochspeedway.com. Also, check out the Antioch Speedway Hall of Fame Facebook page.

Antioch Speedway Prepares For 19th Running Of 

The Chet Thomson Memorial Hardtop Race 

Antioch, CA...Saturday night is a special occasion for the Vintage Hardtop racing community. It's the Chet Thomson Memorial Hardtop race. Several competitors from the Northern California Hardtop effort as well as the Merced Speedway Vintage Valley Sportsman group will be competing in what has been a very prestigious race through the years. Some people may not be aware of the heritage of this race and why it's truly something special. 

The race started at Vallejo Speedway in 1967. Chet Thomson was one of the top Hardtop competitors in the 1960s. He and car owner Bob Thomas teamed up to win the 1962 championship. They won races together in one of the most competitive fields anywhere in the Bay Area. Chet also had occasion to go to Antioch Speedway and won a Hardtop race out there. Sadly, he passed away in 1966. Both Chet and Thomas would eventually be inducted into the Bay Cities Racing Association Hall of Fame.

So popular was Chet that the Bay Area Racing Association created a race in his memory in 1967. This 100 lap Hardtop event was the race to win, and the winner's list reads like a who's who of some of the greats. Julian Castro, Jim Kaiser, John Viel and Phil Pedlar won the first four events before Pedlar became the first repeat winner of the race in 1971. A year later, Leroy Giving came out of retirement to win the prestigious race.  That was followed by a win for Larry Damitz in 1973.

1974 saw track champion Larry Hall get the win. Interestingly enough, the car that Hall drove is still in existence in its original state. 1975 and 76 were back to back wins for Laney Westbrook. Chet's son Tommy Thomson bears the distinction of being the last Hardtop winner of this race at Vallejo Speedway in 1977. The Hardtops did compete at the Chet Thomson Memorial in 1978 with Stan Cargo getting the win. However, the race became a Super Modified event for the final two years, won by Augie Fonseca and Skip Brown, respectively. Brown is currently working on a Hardtop to run at some point.

We know the history from there. Neighbors complained about the noise at Vallejo Speedway, and the track closed down at the end of the 1979 season. Throughout the decade of the 1980s, the track sat unused while nothing was built over the location. This remained the state of things for a good 15 years after the closure of the historic racing venue, but now houses sit over the entire location. Vallejo Speedway was the last track on the West Coast to regularly feature a Hardtop effort. The division didn't come to an end until 1979, when it was discontinued.

A few of those old Hardtops were saved, and some old bodies were collected by racing enthusiasts. One of the cars that survived was the car that Tommy Thomson drove to the 1977 victory, as well as the aforementioned Larry Hall car. In Oregon, the OTRO Hardtops premiered in the 1980s as an offshoot of the Old Time Racing Association from Canada. In the 1990s, Mike McCann raised the stakes by creating the Cascade Hardtops at Sunset Speedway and crowning champions during his run as promoter.

It wasn't until 2002 when the modern movement of the Hardtops in California was sparked by McCann and Chuck Prather, who promoted races at both Sacramento Raceway and Orland Raceway in September of that year, won by Steve Lemley. The car that Lemley piloted is now the #4 car owned by "The Rocket Man" Ken Clifford. Prather stuck around in California for a few years trying to get a movement started at Roseville and Sacramento. He eventually headed back to Coos Bay to buy that race track, but not before movements began in Bakersfield and Northern California. The Northern California group was run by Conrad Cavallero.

The uniqueness of Hardtop racing sparked the enthusiasm and imagination of several racers. Bakersfield had the thriving Okie Bowl Hardtop group, and the NorCal Vintage division was in double digits within a few years. It has since become the California Hardtop Association, and the offshoot group was the Bay Area Hardtops. They were founded by Tommy  Thomson, Dave Mackey and Ken Retzloff prior to the 2016 season, which is where the return of the Chet Thomson Memorial occurred.

Because of a few decisions that left the Antioch Speedway promoter unhappy, the Hardtops had sort of fallen out of favor. Promoter John M Soares did feel like he was instrumental it helping get the Hardtop movement going in Northern California, which is actually the truth. Promoter Mike McCann resurfaced in 2015 to try to salvage the Hardtop relationship with Antioch. McCann promoted a race in August, which included him contacting several racers and offering plaques for the heat race winners as well as Top 3 Main Event trophies. The result of that race was 14 cars and a race won by Larry Damitz ahead of the very entertaining Rob Waldrop and Thomson.

Though the 2015 race is not considered the Chet Thomson Memorial race, it certainly sparked the notion that the race could be revived at Antioch Speedway. The first race of the revival was held in August of 2016, and the Bay Area group promoted it as big as they could. This included a special Chet Thomson Memorial T-shirt with the proceeds going to the winner of the race. In this case, it was Jason Armstrong scoring the win ahead of Ken Retzloff and Dennis Armstrong. The race would have to be considered a success, and it became established as part of the schedule.

Armstrong repeated as the winner of the race a year later, trailed by Retzloff and Thomson. Running with the body of Southern Oregon Racing Hall of Famer Harold Hardesty, Terry DeCarlo Sr won the next race ahead of Kimo Oreta and Jason Armstrong. The race is noteworthy as Dave Mackey led several laps before contact between he and DeCarlo ended his run up front. It would still be considered an entertaining and successful race. The 2019 installment was won by Oreta ahead of DeCarlo and Retzloff. 

Last year, The Hardtops began a relationship with the Valley Sportsman group from Merced Speedway, which enabled the Sportsman competitors to come to various Hardtop shows. Doug Braudrick had been working hard on his Junkyard Dog to make it competitive, and that paid dividends in 2020. With Joel Hannagan behind the wheel, the team won the 2020 race ahead of Oreta and Ron Ruiz. The #16 car of Braudrick is a tribute to the car his father Dick Braudrick owned at Vallejo Speedway. You definitely see a Vallejo Speedway flavor in the field as Mackey owns the Dudley Brothers Tribute Car.

Two races have managed to rise above your average Hardtop race on the West Coast. The first is the Can-Am Challenge at Douglas County Speedway, which pits the Oregon competitors against drivers who come in from Canada. The second is the Chet Thomson Memorial. Though the drivers are not competing for points and don't run for purses in most cases, this is still a race they want to win for the bragging rights. That is expected to be the case again on Saturday night.

Hannagan comes in as the obvious driver to beat. He's won multiple races this year. There are others from the Bay Area side of things who hope to do something about that, including recent Petaluma winner Retzloff, Mackey, Thomson, Mike Slaney and Matt Taylor. From the California Hardtop Association, we've seen Ron Ruiz and Joe Shenefield both get wins this year, and they could be leading the way for their group on this occasion. Others to watch for include Ken Clifford, Jason Armstrong and the possible return of Dave Reed. 

Though the Valley Sportsman division runs the exhibition style of race with the Hardtops, they also continue to compete for championship points at Merced Speedway. They also get the occasional purse money there. The division has had better numbers this year than in recent seasons. Rick Elliott backed up his 2019 championship with another title. He and teammate and Watsonville Speedway Hall of Famer Jerry Cecil are anticipated. Cecil is the 2018 Merced Speedway champion. Two-time Merced champion Mike Friesen represents the Alley Cats team. This also includes Gary Hildebrand, Jeff West and Willie Cooper, who are also anticipated.

It's always a challenge to predict who will show up and who won't for any given race. There have been 14 different Hardtops that have run this year, not counting the Sportsman cars. Over the last six years, there have been twice as many Hardtops to have raced at least once. Who might come out and compete is anybody's guess, but a double digit turnout is a good possibility. The bragging rights are on the line in the 19th running of the Chet Thomson Memorial this Saturday night. Who's going to get the glory this time?

 

Top 5 finishers in the modern era of the Chet Thomson Memorial Antioch Speedway

2015 Larry Damitz, Rob Waldrop, Tommy Thomson, Dan Williams, Ken Clifford *

2016 Jason Armstrong, Ken Retzloff, Dennis Armstrong, Dan Williams, Jason Clifford

2017 Jason Armstrong, Ken Retzloff, Tommy Thomson, Kimo Oreta, Dan Williams

2018 Terry DeCarlo Sr, Kimo Oreta, Jason Armstrong, Ken Retzloff, Ron Ruiz

2019 Kimo Oreta,. Terry DeCarlo Sr, Ken Retzloff, Tommy Thompson, Matt Taylor

2020 Joel Hannagan, Kimo Oreta, Ron Ruiz, Gary Hilderbrand, Matt Taylor

* Not the Chet Thomson Memorial race, but regarded as the race that led to Chet's race being brought back

Chet Thomson Memorial Hardtop Race At Vallejo Speedway

 

1967 Julian Castro

1968 Jim Kaiser

1969 John Viel

1970 Phil Pedlar

1071 Phil Pedlar

1972 Leroy Giving

1973 Larry Damitz

1974 Larry Hall

1975 Laney Westbrook

1976 Laney Westbrook

1977 Tommy Thomson

1978 Augie Fonseca*

1979 Skip Brown*

 

* Super Modified race

Note: As I was putting this article together at the last minute, a thought occurred to me. I wrote an article called "The Wingless Spec Sprints Have Arrived" back in 2001. Things were going really well for the class that I had a hand in starting, so I wanted to chronicle that story. You can see it on Don O'Keefe Jr's website. 

I'm thinking it might be time to add the second part to the article as we look back on the last almost 20 years of history of this class. In any case, I wanted to preview the Wingless Spec Sprint race for Antioch Speedway this Saturday night and I thought maybe it would be a good idea to add the Super Stocks to the story.

Wingless Spec Sprints And Super Stocks At Antioch Speedway

A Tale Of Two Divisions 

Antioch, CA...This Saturday night will see the Wingless Spec Sprints and Super Stocks take part in the Larry Damitz/Donna Soares Memorial Hall of Fame event. The show will also include the popular Jay's Mobile Welding Service Hobby Stocks and the Chet Thomson Memorial Hardtop race. Antioch Speedway was at the forefront of the Wingless Spec Sprint movement, which turned out to be very successful. It was a year after that division was introduced when the Super Stocks were added to the equation.

One of the things Promoter John M Soares was looking at when he took over Antioch Speedway prior to the 1998 season was bringing things in house. He wanted everything to fall under his All Pro Series banner at the time so that he would know that any division he booked would be there. He immediately brought the Dwarf Car division under the All Pro banner, which eventually ended the Pacific Coast Dwarf Car Association. That PCDCA lives on as the South Bay Dwarf Cars that are featured at Ocean Speedway. The NCMA Modified division called Antioch it's home track for several years, and they were given an opportunity to race at Antioch for the 1998 season. In fact, the track had an NCMA Antioch championship that year, won by Scott Holloway. 

During the 1998 season, however, the NCMA drew the ire of the promoter when they double booked a date between Antioch and Placerville and chose Placerville rather than Antioch. What made matters worse was the fact that the association didn't feel the need to contact Soares to let him know there was a scheduling issue. Fortunately, Soares was notified by somebody else who was concerned about the situation. Immediately, the promoter started looking at alternatives to the NCMA that he could bring to the track in 1999. This included running four barrels and wings on the cars, and some tests were done with Rick Brophy. Ultimately, it was decided that this wasn't the direction to go. 

Before making this decision, however, Soares gave NCMA member Don O'Keefe Jr an offer to present to the NCMA at a board meeting. If they would agree to run under the All Pro banner in 1999, he would give them an identical purse to what the Dirt Modifieds were getting. This meant $600 to win and $100 minimum to start at the time. Their response was somewhat colorful, but they ultimately turned down the offer. That prompted Soares to do the tests that were done with Brophy and then to speak with O'Keefe about another option. O'Keefe was put in charge of creating the new Wingless Spec Sprint division. 

This meant going over the rules, though O'Keefe didn't make too many changes to what the NCMA had. Gone were the bodies the NCMA ran. Since these are essentially Sprint Cars, it was felt that Sprint Car bodies should be used. For one thing, it would eliminate an additional cost to the racer. These are Sprint Cars, albeit a more economical version. O'Keefe was the one who came up with the name SPEC Sprint. O'Keefe explained that SPEC stands for Spec Parts Economy Class. Racers would be getting a Sprint Car division without the big budget, and that meant opening the doors of Sprint Car racing to those who thought they might never get the chance. 

The NCMA had carried the banner for this type of racing for the previous decade. Other efforts, such as the California Dirt Cars and the Limited Sprints at Merced Speedway ultimately went away. The NCMA still exists as a pavement Sprint Car racing organization. The Spec Sprint class was meant to be a division at a race track, not an association. This is because of the sometimes political nature of an association. Drivers knew what the rules were, what the purse was going to be and all of that when the Antioch Speedway Wingless Spec Sprint class was introduced. 

Doors would be open for new racers to go Sprint Car racing. If you had a Hobby Stock background and thought you might never have an opportunity to do any type of Sprint Car racing, this was the answer. If you were a Micro Sprint or Outlaw Kart racer who couldn't afford the move into the Sprint Cars, this was an alternative. If you were a long time Sprint Car racer who was simply looking to wind down your career, this was an option. People wondered how the Wingless Spec Sprints would even get a roster, and if it would require them destroying the NCMA to do it. Ultimately, they made their own way. 

The opening point race for the Wingless Spec Sprints in 1999 produced a 12 car field. Two drivers had last minute issues and were unable to make it, or that number would have been higher. The season high was 17 cars, and the roster boasted a total of 31 different drivers that year. A good portion of the field was new drivers to the class. So popular was this effort that the 2000 season saw a B Main at the first race, and car count was such that B Mains were a regular occurrence at Antioch Speedway from then through much of the decade. The blueprint had been laid out for other tracks to follow. 

With the success happening at Antioch Speedway, Orland Raceway was the first track to introduce its own class. An association based out of Sacramento, the CSRA, started having races in 2003. There was a call for Antioch management to start a bigger series in the vein of the Civil War Series, but Antioch management wasn't interested in pursuing that. 

When Chowchilla Speedway had the Open Wheel Roundup and produced a record 32 car field for $1,000 to win in 2001, the wheels started turning with other people. The NCMA introduced the Select Series that brought everybody together at certain venues. When the association headed for the pavement, this idea was taken up by the leadership of the Hunt Wingless Spec Sprint Series, which has now been around for over a decade.

One by one, other places decided to get involved with their own classes. This included Ocean Speedway, Silver Dollar Speedway, Marysville Raceway and Petaluma Speedway. John Padjen at Silver Dollar Speedway was the promoter who took it up a notch with his own special end of the year race. Car counts exploded into the fifties with a count in the 70s on one occasion. Even Kyle Larson took his turn behind the wheel of a Spec Sprint before going on to bigger things. 

However, it was Antioch Speedway leading the way with their show for several seasons. Dan Gonderman is on record as being the first champion in 1999, and he was followed by Travis Berryhill a year later. Berryhill went on to race Midgets in Indiana. BCRA legend Terry Tardidi won the title in 2001 before Sprint Car legend Darrell Hanestad got involved and wrote his name into the record books as the first two-time champion. For several years, he was the all-time winner in division history before two-time champion Jim Perry Jr surpassed him. Other drivers who have won a pair of championships in Wingless Spec Sprint competition at Antioch include Bob Newberry, Billy Macedo, and DJ Johnson.

Soares is a Stock Car guy at heart, but he had a dilemma. He wanted Late Models at Antioch Speedway. However, he made an agreement with his father, who was promoting Petaluma Speedway at the time. Certain divisions would be promoted by his father, and others would be promoted by him. Petaluma was the Late Model and Winged 360 Sprint Car track. Antioch was the Wingless Spec Sprint and Dwarf Car track. 

Wanting Late Models, John had the perfect solution. He would introduce Super Stocks to the equation in 2000. The division would look suspiciously like the Late Model division that ran at Antioch Speedway in the early 1990s, but for good reason. They were mostly built from chassis that still remained in existence after that division faded away a decade earlier.

Ron Brown had been racing at Antioch for years and competed in Sportsman, Stock Cars and Street Stocks. In more recent years, he had been the crew chief for wife Lori Brown and was always quick to give a helping hand to others. He loved the idea of the Super Stock class, which was a division he had been pushing for throughout the 90s. Ron's role in helping the class get started was that he was the guy tracking down chassis to get other people involved. He wrote his name in the record books as the first champion in 2000 and backed it up with the title the following year. However, getting the division started was more important to him than any of the on-track accomplishments he had earned.

It was hoped that the Wingless Spec Sprint blueprint could be used to make this a successful class. To a point, they were getting good numbers. They never rose to the level of a division that needed B Mains, but getting car counts in the teens was something that did occur in the mid 00s. The success Antioch was having led to Ocean Speedway and Chowchilla Speedway starting their own classes, and Promoter George Steitz sponsored a series between the three tracks for a couple of years. Drivers like John Asher, Lori Brown, Mike Gustafson, Jeff Silva and Ty Duggins wrote their names in the books as champions.

Gustafson is a two-time champion who spent much of his career just winning races and having fun. Titles were never a goal. Though Larry Damitz went on to win five Super Stock championships, Gustafson still has more wins than him in Antioch Speedway Super Stock history. Both drivers were tough to beat. In the last seven years of his career, Damitz was the benchmark for whether you were successful or not. If you beat him, you knew you earned it. He was forced to finish runner up in the standings twice in his last seven years, once to Mitch Machado and the other time to current point leader Jim Freethy.

It was around 2008 when the Super Stock numbers dropped to a dangerous level. Perhaps the fact that the track was running a Late Model division contributed to that as the divisions didn't really blend well together. A similar thing happened at Ocean Speedway, which at one time had Crate Late Models, Super Stocks and Street Stocks. Within a few years, all three divisions disappeared from the roster. That's baffling to people in the Watsonville area, who could point to several cars that remained parked. Antioch Speedway was heading down that path when management decided to merge the Street Stocks with the Super Stocks in 2009. 

The numbers supported the Street Stocks, who averaged a dozen cars and still had the capability of producing a 20 car field. Even on a good day at that time, it was tough for the Super Stocks to get 10 cars. The decision was made to merge the two classes. While a couple of Street Stock racers got in the spirit of building cars competitive with the renamed Limited Late Models, most of the drivers were parked. There were enough cars to have Limited Late Model races, but getting double digits was still a rare occurrence. It did keep the division going throughout the 2010s.

On Saturday night, we see two divisions at different trajectories in their existence. The Wingless Spec Sprints have had a bit of a renaissance under new Promoter Chad Chadwick. They've had multiple car counts in the 20s. The Super Stocks, however, are lucky to have six cars on any given night. Word is that we could be looking at the final season for the division at Antioch Speedway. The division has just sort of sputtered along since Damitz passed away prior to the 2017 season. He had won the previous championship and was intent on coming back at 87 years old the following year. Protege Kimo Oreta won the first of his two championships that year. 

The Larry Damitz Memorial was created in 2017, and Pete Paulsen donated a big trophy for the winner. The first two races were won by Mark Garner, who also won the 2018 championship. Last season, Mike Walko picked up the win in the big race, and he used it to secure his first career championship. Mike has only run selected races this year, but it's possible we could see him for an attempt to defend his race championship. 

It's also possible we could see a driver or two from Petaluma Speedway or the Tri State Pro Stock Challenge Series, which supported a race earlier this year that was won by Richard Brace Jr. Four-time winner Jim Freethy has already secured the championship over Joey Ridgeway. With Oreta not likely to be there, Chad Hammer is poised to move into third in the standings. 

The Wingless Spec Sprints have had a more competitive battle after 10 races. Ryon Siverling leads Bob Newberry by 32 points. Should Newberry find a way to overtake Siverling, he would be the first three-time champion in the division's Antioch history. Newberry has won two of the 10 races this year. Other winners include three-time winner Geoff Ensign, two-time winners Kevin Box and Shawn Jones and Jimmy Christian. Siverling has seven Top 5 finishes as he looks for his first ever win. The grandson of NCMA Hall of Famer Bert Siverling does have a championship at Petaluma Speedway.

Tony Bernard, who is a past Petaluma Street Stock and Dirt Modified competitor, has a two point lead over James East in the battle for third, while Jeff Scotto holds an 18 point lead over Box and ageless veteran Roy Fisher in the battle for fifth. 

This is the 23rd championship season for the division, and things seem to be looking up for them lately. Nobody is expecting there won't be a 24th season. In fact, Spec Sprint champions will be crowned at Petaluma, Orland and with the Hunt Series this year, and there have been spot races for the division at Chico and Marysville. This type of racing is alive and well. 

There is a movement on the West Coast to do something about Super Stock/Pro Stock racing. Tri State Pro Stock Challenge Series Promoter Roy Bain has been leading the crusade, and numbers are up everywhere this group goes. They've had races at Antioch for the past two seasons and could be back again for an appearance or two next year. 

Whether or not the Super Stock division survives is the big question. Management is also taking a look at the Placerville rules Crate Limited Late Model division and had 14 cars for the show earlier this year. The division will make an appearance on Hobby Stock Nationals weekend at the end of October.

Some people are saying that the Super Stock spot on the roster will be taken up by the IMCA Stock Car division. The cars running with the Super Stocks wouldn't be legal for the division, but it is gathering momentum. At last weekend's Bill Bowers Memorial show, the division produced 14 and 15 car fields for the $1,000 to win races. There may be some change in the air. Management will certainly be considering all of the moves that need to be made during the offseason 

For Saturday night, people will get to see some legends get inducted into the Hall of Fame. Then, it's time to go racing. Larry Damitz/Donna Soares Memorial night is an occasion on which people want to get the win, so the competition in the Wingless Spec Sprints and Super Stocks should be good. Throw in the Jay's Mobile Welding Service Hobby Stocks and Chet Thomson Memorial Hardtop race, and it should be a good show. For further information, go to www.antochspeedway.com. You'll also be able to order the pay-per-view at www.antiochspeedway.tv if you are unable to attend in person.

October 9th At Antioch Speedway Is An Important Night

 A Special Editor's Viewpoint 

I realize I have a tendency to ramble on when I do one of these Viewpoint columns, and adding a special column specifically for October 9th at Antioch Speedway is one of those cases where I feel this race night is important for a few reasons. Therefore, I'm putting one of these columns together specifically just for this special occasion and why it's so important. I know it's Hall of Fame night, but that's not the only reason this night matters so much to me. I feel it should matter to the racing community as well.

A little back history. It's still bittersweet to look back on the Hall of Fame, knowing that Chris Briggs is running it now instead of me. Make no mistake, I'm very confident in him and excited for what he has in store for the track that night. I'm not necessarily happy about the circumstances that led me to make my decision as I felt I was forced to do so. However, I feel very good about the future of the Hall of Fame because Chris has taken over as the director. 

The thing is, Chris has every intention of doing this the right way. I admit that the way I did it was imperfect, but it was the only way I saw to get it started. Chris might make a few mistakes along the way, but so did I. What he's trying to do is figure out the formula that will make this thing even better. He's taking input from people he should be listening to and doing his best to set the proper course into the future. He also has the community behind him in a way that makes the future so exciting for Hall of Fame night.

I remember how I looked at San Jose Speedway in wonder. They had their Hall of Fame night where they honored the greats. Sometime during the 1990s, Watsonville decided to put Ray Johnson into the Hall of Fame, or so I was told by Antioch General Manager Brynda Bockover at the time. Ray was certainly deserving of the honor. I remember starting a conversation with Brynda back then. Antioch Speedway needs to have a Hall of Fame. The track had been around for over 30 years by then, so there was plenty of heritage to honor. So many great drivers deserved that honor, not to mention people behind the scenes.

Let's think about that for a moment. Many of the people deserving of the honor were still alive then. If we had delved into the early days of the track and started putting people in who deserved that honor, they might have been there to receive the awards. That's my biggest frustration. Antioch was one of the tracks I felt should have a night like this, and it wasn't happening. Time catches up with us all, and eventually we start losing those people. However, Brynda was unsure of how to do it, and it never went anywhere. 

I don't want to drag this on, but I started having conversations with Promoter John Michael Soares back when he took over the track in 1998. There was always this talk about how we were going to do it. What's the criteria? Do we have a committee? Just lots of talk. I started to realize that somebody had to grab the bull by the horns and get it going, or all it would ever be was talk. When the BCRA came to town for the London Bash/Hall of Fame Picnic in 1999, the light switch went on. This is how you do it. A Hall of Fame picnic and induction ceremony, then introduce the honorees to the fans at the track that night. That was the way I wanted to do it.

I didn't start a committee then. Maybe I should have? I'm not so arrogant that I believe I'm the only one who knows how to do this. I do know the history, but so do others. I just happen to have documentation of a lot of that stuff. Others know the actual stories behind the statistics, so their input was important to me. I had conversations with several people who had been there through the years, and I came up with a list of about a dozen people. Somewhere around here I have that list. This was done in 1999, because I was thinking 2000 would be the time to do it or 2001.

I made one key mistake. I threw the list at John instead of saying this was where we were going to start. John disagreed with a couple of the names on the list. Who the names were isn't important. What I wanted to know was what he thought should happen and what names were missing that should be there. Let's figure this out and move ahead. I wanted it to happen, but I wasn't getting a very good vibe from John. Truthfully, things were starting to fall apart between he and I, and we know what happened. The idea was shelved at that point. I always hoped that I could get back to it, but I didn't know if I would. 

The idea that Southern Oregon racing was going to have a Hall of Fame at Southern Oregon Speedway was what sparked my interest in doing it at Antioch again. When I came up to Medford, that was one of the two ideas I seriously pitched, and both ideas happened. We got Oregon racing historians Kurt and Denny Deatherage involved in this to get us started. They had done Cottage Grove Historical Night for years and had created The Cottage Grove Speedway Wall of Fame that you see when you walk into the grandstands. Very cool stuff. 

It was streamlined with Kurt and Denny. They came up with the inductees and got the awards. They created some very cool newspaper clipping display boards that were put up there for the fans to see, adding a new one every year. They invited legends to the track for free, and people saw faces in the grandstands they hadn't seen in years. There wasn't a picnic. There wasn't a Hall of Fame building, per se. Just the little Hall of Fame display that's viewable on any given race night and the boards they put up on Historical Night.

I was proud of what we did in Medford. Though I didn't know the history as well as everybody else, I knew it well enough to find the starting point. Mike and I consulted with a panel of three members that we put into place, and we did three years of this. After the 2017 edition, I knew I wanted to do this at Antioch Speedway. I had a good idea where to start, and I did take input from a lot of long time racers. Sadly, some of the people I wanted to see put into this deal had passed away, but that's what time does to us. I knew this was going to happen one way or the other, and I was going to be hands-on in getting it going.

The biggest challenge I had was being up in Oregon and not being on the scene in Antioch. I had $0 to work with. This meant that even when I created the list of inductees, I didn't have the money set aside at that point to buy the awards or create the logo for the awards. I didn't have the money to pay for the display boards I had in mind, although I was assembling the clippings. We ended up doing a pretty good job on a shoesting budget, and I had Diana Panfili to thank for that. She used her crafting skills to make them pretty nice for what they were. 

Even at that time, the community started to rally behind me. It's sort of the philosophy of doing the right thing and knowing that it will be provided for. Oh heck, I'll just say it. God provides. Frankly, that was the philosophy that led me back to racing when I was in desperate need of help. Though it didn't go perfectly for me, I'm still here. I have a roof over my head, and I'm still somewhat engaged in the racing scene. This was the philosophy I used in getting the Hall of Fame started, and we inducted 10 people that first year. 

I'm not going to say it was perfect, but every name on that list deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. That's what matters. I got most of the people I felt needed to be put in during those first two years, though there are some names that aren't in that should be. I knew I'd be back again the second year, though once again I didn't have the budget. Again, I got help from a community that wanted this to happen. I went a little bit overboard on inductees, but I still feel good about who was put in. That was the 60th year of operation for the track, and I kind of felt like it warranted something special. 

John pretty much let me decide when and what I was going to with this thing. John didn't tell me how I was going to do it, and he didn't even set up a date. He let me figure all of that stuff out and gave me the ability to do what I did both years. If he had stood against this in any way, it never would have happened. I knew the date to use. We lost Donna Soares, and I wanted Hall of Fame night to be on the night we remembered her. The Donna Soares Memorial Hall of Fame night had a nice ring to it. 

I know people have a love/hate relationship with that family, but they need to understand something. Racing might not even be at Antioch Speedway if it hadn't been for that family. John's dad was Bob Barkhimer's man on the scene to establish the program, and he ran it successfully for 20 years. John ran the place for 21 years. So yeah, I intentionally wanted to have the family name on Hall of Fame night. Besides, whatever people might say about John, people loved Donna. I know I did. 

That's the backstory for how the night was set up the way it was. I'm going to give an assist to Larry Adams. Larry's brain is always going with one idea or another, and quite frankly I miss having those conversations with him in person. I'm not even saying I agree with everything, but it would be boring if we did agree on everything. He cares about that track, and he's a guy that will get down in the dirt and do what needs to be done to make the show go. This Hobby Stock race on October 30th for $5,000 to win that has just gotten bigger and bigger? Thank Larry for taking it to that level. He won't go around and take a bow, because he's too busy making things happen. 

When John sold the track, everything went into limbo. In fact, I was told that Chad Chadwick wasn't even interested in a Hall of Fame night. I didn't hear that from Chad, so take it for what it is. Larry was the one pushing to make sure the date happened, and he went with the Donna Soares Memorial night. At that point, I had every intention of overseeing the third year and installing a committee to help make these decisions. However, we had to deal with the virus stuff, and I wasn't going to travel down there in those conditions and do something like this when we couldn't have fans in the grandstands. I'm not going to rehash it anymore than that. 

Chris Briggs put a committee in place and had a process set up. He did the best he could, and he admitted that he learned some things to apply to next year that will make it even better. In the end, the inductees we will see on October 9th include Lonnie Williams, Marv Wilson, Bobby Hogge III, Debbie Clymens, Don Shelton, Scott Busby and Steve Hendren. Hendren is flying out to be there for the occasion, and it also so happens to be his birthday. October 9th is going to be special.

I feel like Antioch Speedway might have overdone it by throwing so much stuff into that night. You can clutter it so much that you're in danger of overloading the evening. Nothing really gets the attention it deserves. It really only needed to be Donna Soares Memorial Hall of Fame night, and neither the Larry Damitz Memorial portion of the show, nor the Chet Thomson Memorial Hardtop race should have been included. Those two events should have been put on their own nights. If you think about it, I think you would agree with that assessment. If the Hardtops were still included on Hall of Fame night, which isn't a bad idea, do so without including Chet's race.

The thing is, Chet is a legend and a Hall of Famer with the BCRA. In fact, his car owner Bob Thomas is also in that Hall of Famee. They didn't get to race as much as they could have, because we lost Chet to Cancer. He won his share of races, and also won at Antioch Speedway. He was a Vallejo Speedway champion. He was so beloved by the community at Vallejo Speedway that they created the Chet Thomson Memorial race back in the late 1960s. This was the signature race for the track, and it ran all the way to the last season in 1979. 

The race might have stayed there, but there was a philosophical difference going on with the Hardtop people. Dave Mackey, Ken Retzloff rand Chet's son Tommy Thomson got together and brought this race back at Antioch. They also created the loosely run Bay Area Hardtop group. There wasn't a lot of leadership here, but they came out with both guns blazing in 2016 for what turned out to be a very successful race. They even had a cool t-shirt, which I'm happy I have in my collection. Dave even gave me a Bay Area Hardtops hat, which I also have. 

They have added five more years to the heritage of the Chet Thomson Memorial. There's even a nice trophy, which has been sponsored by Hardtop car owner Pete Paulsen. I do wish we could see his beautiful red, white and blue #66 Hardtop at the track again. Pete always did build a beautiful race car. I love this race, but I don't think it gets quite the emphasis it should get. Having it on its own night would be an added bonus.

The thing is, there is a lineage between the current Hardtops and Vallejo Speedway. I remember seeing people running around the grandstands wearing Vallejo Speedway shirts at this race back in 2018. Tommy Thomson is still running the car that started out at Vallejo Speedway. He won Main Events in that car. Dave Mackey runs a tribute car to the Dudley family, who are legends of Vallejo Speedwayy. Steve Cloyes has a car that goes back to Contra Costa Stadium in Pacheco. The first two cars built for the Northern California movement were tributes to the legendary Johnny Franklin and Leroy Geving. There's heritage here.

What I wanted to do was keep this race at the end of September. I knew there was an issue where Antioch needed something at the end of the month and couldn't book the IMCA stuff or Hobby Stocks on top of the Pat and Jim Pettit Memorial Dirt Track Shootout at Ocean Speedway. There's still a demand for the track to book over 30 races, so the Hardtops could have kept the date there. Of course, there would have needed to be leadership in the group that assured a good car count for this particular event. They've been letting the Valley Sportsman cars run with them, and I'm sure there will be some guys from Merced there on October 9th. 

Some of the vision I had was to create display boards for people to look at on Chet Thomson Memorial Hardtop night. Not only a tribute to Chet, but a glimpse at some of the greats of Vallejo Speedway. There's so much information out there that some very cool display boards could be created. Do this one up special. When Mike McCann promoted the big Hardtop race at Antioch in 2015, there were trophies awarded to the Top 3 finishers. Something like that would be cool. The point is, this race could have been done up a little bit bigger.

Allow me to take a look at the schedule for October 9th before I continue. The Jay's Mobile Welding Service Hobby Stocks will be there, which I'm sure will be the class that provides the biggest car count. There will also be Wingless Spec Sprints, which could also produce a huge field of competitors. I don't know if this is a point night for both divisions, but it could be possible. Also included will be the Hardtops and Super Stocks. This is the busy schedule that has been booked.

You know I'm going to talk about the Larry Damitz Memorial race and the Super Stocks. Larry Damitz is a Hall of Famer. There are multiple Hall of Fames that have included him. He's one of the greatest drivers of all time, and he's known for having probably the longest career of anybody in California racing history. He just kept racing and racing, and you assumed you were going to see him every season. People didn't even take note that he was 87 years old when he won his last championship. He intended to be back to defend it, but time catches up with us all. It was a no-brainer that a race for Larry would be included on the schedule, and this was intended to happen around his birthday.

I think the April/May time frame needs to be when the race for Larry happens. It's another case of the race sort of losing its meaning because of what's going on with the October 9th date. I also believe this race should under no circumstances be an IMCA special. Larry didn't run IMCA classes. In fact, you can make a better case for this being a Dwarf Car race than a Modified race, because Larry did actually run a Dwarf Car for a brief time. It needs to remain a Stock Car oriented show, whether that's full on Late Models, Crate Limited Late Models, Super Stocks or Hobby Stocks. You can have the Hardtops that night as Larry ran them for a good portion of his career.

This brings me to the Super Stock division, and we all know what's going on here. Their days are numbered. The car count hasn't been great for a while now, but it's gotten worse. Frankly, I'm amazed that the division has been included on this night. It could be the last dance for Super Stock racing, and what better way to go out than to remember Larry. I'm hoping everybody who can be there will be there. I'm also hoping perhaps a few Tri State Pro Stock racers will come to give it some support. It would be nice to see it reach double digits. 

I know Mark Garner took a lot of pride in winning the first two races. When I saw what was going on and how the Super Stock division was sort of being ignored in favor of the Late Models, it bothered me. Larry ran the last part of his career in this class, and they should damn well get the special. I'm not even saying the race needed to be $1,500 to win or anything like that. $500 to win would be plenty, and working a deal to get Petaluma racers involved should have happened. It didn't, but it should have. Even now the two tracks should try to work together, but that's for another day.

I simply started making a little bit of noise, and the next thing you know Pete Paulsen donated a huge trophy. He did that for the first two years of this race, going specifically to the Super Stock winner. Garner claimed both of those, and he wanted to defend his title. For some inexplicable reason, the track dropped both the Super Stocks and Late Models from the race, which watered down the race significantly. This probably made it easier for the current management to move Larry's race to October, but it doesn't belong there. 

If the Super Stocks don't last, and they may not, hand this race off to the Limited Late Models that use the Placerville rule set. That is if the track wants to continue to do something there, which it seems like they do. Otherwise, make it a Hobby Stock race. I know some IMCA Stock Car people will start yapping about how they should get the race. Okay, I wouldn't argue against that, because that is Stock Car racing. I am against the IMCA Modifieds or IMCA Sport Modifieds getting this race, and you're not going to convince me otherwise. This is a Stock Car race, and those two divisions have enough special stuff as it is.

I want Larry's race to have its own night so that we can honor him properly. Frankly, I'm not very confident in the announcers knowing how to properly talk up these legends that get honored at the track. They're not versed on the history of the track, and the guy that's been there the longest doesn't seem interested in the least in brushing up. Maybe there's hope for the new guy as he seems eager to learn. You put Larry's race back in April or May and talk it up. Leave Donna Soares/Hall of Fame night where it is and move the Chet Thomson Memorial Hardtop event up a little further. The track benefits with three special occasions instead of doing all of them in one night.

When you are trying to book so many races, you can make occasions more special by doing something meaningful. There's more incentive for people to want to be there. Every little bit you can use to sell the fans on the idea that they need to be at Antioch Speedway is a good thing. This is simple promoting. Larry's race is in it's fifth year, so there's a heritage being established. It should be built upon.

I'm at a loss as to why the Super Stock/Pro Stock thing is struggling the way it is at Antioch. It doesn't make a lot of sense that this style of racing should have such a difficult time. Has IMCA corrupted racing so badly that these cars are no longer viable? I would have liked to have seen Antioch and Petaluma pool their cars together and do something, but that requires promoters who want to sit down and work it out. I wouldn't mind seeing the Larry Damitz Memorial race become a Tri State Pro Stock Challenge race in 2022 if the parties involved could make that deal. 

In any case, October 9th will be a special occasion for Antioch Speedway. I know there's the danger of fall off after the Bill Bowers Memorial West Coast Nationals from a week earlier. Some people want to head down to the other big race, so on some level I understand why they're throwing everything but the kitchen sink at this thing with so many different things happening that night. The Hall of Fame in itself is special enough, and there are other things that can be done to enhance the night for them and still move some of the other things to their own nights. 

Regardless, I'm proud and yet humbled at the role I played in establishing things that are taking place on this occasion. I wasn't even located in Antioch, and yet I'm still treated like a part of the family. There are days when that really lifts me up, and I'm grateful for the fact that I've gotten to be a part of this track for so long. The memories and the friendships are things I will never forget and will always appreciate. Though I'm not going to be there for this race for various reasons, I'm not ruling out a return in 2022. You never know what can happen. 

That's all for now. Until next time...