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Dwarf Cars Prepare For Big Show Antioch Speedway
Antioch, CA...Under the threat of rain this weekend, Dwarf Car competitors are hoping to get the show in this Saturday night at Antioch Speedway. It's one of the biggest Dwarf Car events that Antioch Speedway has ever had. Also on the card are the All Star Series B Modifieds and the Hobby Stocks.
Since John M. Soares has been promoting the speedway, he and Western States Dwarf Car Association guru Frank Munroe have spoken about the possibility of having a big Regional or National event. They've never been able to make it work, but there was a break in the negotiations during the offseason. The WSDCA has decided to start a special King Of California series, and competitors from the NorCal Dwarf Car Association, South Bay Dwarf Car Association and newly formed Redwood Empire Dwarf Car Association are anticipated for the special event. There could be over 40 competitors in the pits in this division alone.
Of course, Antioch Speedway has its own group of Dwarf Car competitors, led by reigning champion Mike Corsaro. Since Soares took over as promoter 20 years ago, the Dwarf Cars have been a part of the program with a champion crowned every season. The current roster features such stars as last season's top rookie, Devan Kammermann, the father-son duo of David and David Michael Rosa, Brian Gray, longtime Dwarf Car competitor Charlie Correia and 2016 champion Kevin Miraglio.
Correia has raced for decades and is one of the original Dwarf Car competitors in California. He was a part of the NorCal group in the mid 90s with Munroe. In those days, NorCal was part of some of the biggest shows Antioch Speedway ever had when the group invaded the races hosted by the Pacific Coast Dwarf Car Association at that time. It was not uncommon to see 30 or more Dwarf Cars during that season some 25 years ago. Fans will see some of the best Dwarf Car competitors in the state this Saturday night, if the weather holds.
Leading that charge should be reigning NorCal Dwarf Car champion Danny Wagner, who is also a two-time Antioch Speedway Dwarf Car champion. Other NorCal Stars such as Buddy Olschowka, Scott Dahlgren, Ryan Winter and Mike Reeder are anticipated. The South Bay group should be represented by such stars as past champions Cameron Diatte, Mark Biscardi and Gene "Punky" Pires.
A welcome sight in the pits last weekend was Fred Ryland. Ryland has competed at Antioch Speedway through three different divisions and has been a star in all of them. Most recently, he won the Antioch B Modified championship in 2015, and he was the IMCA Sport Modified champion at Merced Speedway last year. All totaled, Ryland has won nearly 50 Main Events in his Antioch Speedway career alone.
There was a big field of B Modifieds last weekend, and the field included such stars as reigning champion K.C. Keller and 2016 champion Trevor Clymens, both of who joined Ryland and Todd Gomez in a spirited duel through traffic for the victory last week. Ultimately, it was Ryland emerging victorious over Clymens. Clymens also had a good night by winning his heat race and scoring a victory in the second Sharp Shooter Tournament race.
Known for paying bigger purses from time to time, Soares has issued the challenge to his B Modified drivers. Get him 18 cars, and he'll pay $500 to win. That would make this one of the biggest paying B Modified shows in the state. Tommy Fraser looked impressive last weekend in his third place finish, and other drivers to watch for this week include Guy Ahlwardt, Kevin Brown, Chuck Golden and impressive rookie Brent Curran.
The biggest turnout of the night last week was in the Hobby Stock division. There were 19 competitors in what was a rather enjoyable Main Event, won by Michael Cooper. Cooper is now in his sixth season of racing and is certainly capable of making a big challenge for the championship. A busy work schedule and a very busy schedule for the division may take him out of the action on a few nights and drop him from contention.
Certainly, reigning champion Cameron Swank and Chris Sorensen are drivers to watch in the title chase. They finished second and third, respectively, last weekend. All eyes were on Chris Bennett in the Bob Hanson Tribute Car after he won his heat race. Bennett was running third in the Main Event when he spun, charged back into the Top 5, only to tangle with Jim Robbins. Robbins, who has won championships in the Super Hobby Stock and Figure 8 classes, figures to do more racing this season and will be somebody to watch as well.
Ricky Foster surprised the field with a Top 5 finish last week as did newcomer Josh Leach. The Hobby Stocks continue to attract new competitors and put on a great show for the fans. Other drivers to watch for include Joey Ridgeway, Frank Furtado, Jordan Swank, Russell Shearer, Billy Garner, Travis Tabucchi and rookie Haley Gomez.
The show at Antioch Speedway, if weather allows it to happen, will be a good one. When you get that many talented Dwarf Car competitors in one place, you get a very entertaining show. The B Modifieda and Hobby Stocks will make this a well-rounded program that you won't want to miss. For further information, go to www.antiochspeedway.com.
BCRA Midgets Merced Speedway Visit Rained Out,
Bill Egleston Remembrance Next Saturday
Merced, CA...Promoter Ed Parker was watching the weather forecast for this weekend, and it wasn't getting any better. Therefore, he was forced to make the decision to cancel this Saturday's races at Merced Speedway. Scheduled to appear this week was the first of two appearances for the Bay Cities Racing Association Midgets, joined by the IMCA Modifieds, Hobby Stocks and California Sharp Mini Late Models. The Midgets will return on April 21st.
The BCRA Midgets invaded Merced Speedway with 18 competitors last year and put on a crowd-pleasing show, won by BCRA Dirt Series champion Cory Elliott ahead of past BCRA champion Frankie Guerini and Robert Dalby. The BCRA racers were all very complimentary towards the Tim Ragsdale prepared quarter-mile oval last year, and they are very much looking forward to the opportunity to race there again
The Bill Egleston Remembrance had been rained out a couple of weeks ago, and the rescheduled date will be Saturday, April 14th. The IMCA Modifieds will be racing for $3,000 to win, while the IMCA Sport Modifieds get $1,800 to win in the Hobby Stocks get $1,200 to win. Also on the card will be Mini Stock division and the South Bay Dwarf Cars, who will play host to the Western States Dwarf Car Nationals event at Merced Speedway in June.
Bill Egleston was a popular driver among his fellow IMCA Modified competitors and enjoyed a Top 5 season in the standings last year. He was also the 2012 Merced Speedway champion. Sadly, he lost his life in a crash at Perris Auto Speedway back in January. The outpouring of affection for Bill led to the booking of this special night of remembrance and the increased purses in three of the divisions.
It is sure to attract some of the top IMCA Modified competitors, including Troy Foulger in the Bill Bowers Modified, multi-time Merced champion Paul Stone and others. Leading the charge at Merced will be two-time reigning champion Randy Brown, multi-time champion Raimie Stone and his brother Troy Stone, D.J. Shannon, Mike Villanueva, Ricky Thatcher, Bruce "Bubba" Nelson and others. The IMCA Modified division alone will be worth the price of admission, but they're not coming alone.
Coming off of his first career victory in the IMCA Sport Modified feature last week, second generation leadfoot Tanner Thomas will be looking for two in a row. Getting that win won't be an easy task with some of the talent he will be facing. Danny Roe was back and stronger than ever in his second place finish at the season opener. After a Top 5 finish that night, Chris Falkenberg is another driver to keep an eye on. Young guns Chase Thomas and Cody Parker will be out for victory, and other hard chargers such as T.J. Etchison III, Jeremy Huff, Chuck Wier and Anthony Giuliani will be out to make a play for the big bucks. Drivers from neighboring race tracks are anticipated for this race.
Last season, two of the biggest stars in the Hobby Stock division were champion Kodie Dean and point runner-up Garrett Corn. Only 10 points separated them by season's end, and both of them scored four Main Event victories. A win with $1,200 on the line would be the biggest win of either of their careers. Dean looked quick in his practice laps a few weeks ago. Much like the two IMCA divisions, there should be an increased Hobby Stock car count with the money on the line. Drivers to watch for include past champions Michael Shearer and Kevin Joaquin, Robbie Loquaci, Kristie Shearer, Austin Van Hoff and Mike Stockton.
The Mini Stock division is coming off of the biggest car count in the division's history at Merced with 17 entries last time. It still produced a familiar result as reigning champion Chris Corder left the speedway with the victory. However, Destiny Carter gave everybody something to talk about by scoring her best career finish in second and leading some of the Main Event laps. These two should be tough competitors this week, joined by Lucy Falkenberg, Jennifer Corder, Wayne DePriest, Robert Jackson, Lee Ragsdale and more.
For the Dwarf Car competitors this lone South Bay Dwarf Car Association point race is an opportunity to get some practice laps ahead of the Western States Dwarf Car National event scheduled for June 15-16. The reigning South Bay Dwarf Car Association champion is Cameron Diatte, but the group has several hard chargers in its ranks, including past champions Mark Biscardi and Gene "Punky" Pires. Bill Belfield, Trafton Chandler, Ryan Amlen and Kyle Jones.
It will be a great night of racing as Merced Speedway remembers one of its own, the late Bill Egleston. With five divisions competing, it will be a show that true racing fans will not want to miss. For further information, go to www.racemerced.com.
California Hardtops Set For Double Header
Opener This Weekend
Chico, CA..Once again, it's time for the California Hardtop Association to go racing. These Vintage Coupe and Sedan racers will be competing at several race tracks up and down the state of California, and it all gets started this weekend with a show on Friday night at Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico, followed by a Saturday night show at Marysville Raceway. All eyes are on the weather forecast, however, as rain seems to be on the way.
The known roster of competitors in this class reaches into the twenties, and there are over 30 Hardtops in various states of repair in the Northern California area alone. One of the people helping keep these cars going is Jason Armstrong, who won multiple Main Events last season. He's joined by his father, Dennis Armstrong. Both competitors come from Placerville Speedway and raced Stock Cars together prior to getting into this class.
Another father and son duo to keep an eye on is "The Rocket Man" Ken Clifford and his son Jason Clifford. Jason didn't get to do as much racing last season as he would have liked, due to a busy work schedule and the fact that he was building the shop where he and his father maintain the race cars. Jason did win a Main Event at Orland last year, and his father got to take Jason's car for a spin at Roseville and scored a victory there.
The California Hardtop Association boasts a great group of racers who enjoy racing against each other on the track and the camaraderie off the track. There's Joe Sheffield, who will be looking for his first Main Event victory. Ron Ruiz and Dave Reed are two competitors who seem to get faster every time they get behind the wheel. Joe Hopp was a Main Event winner last year in Roseville, and other competitors to watch for include Roger MacShane, Ken Retzloff, Tom Grady, Dan Whitney and Russ Kraft. Find the California Hardtop Association page on Facebook for further information.
The Editor's Viewpoint
I debated for about a day whether or not I was even going to put this post up. The weather looks terrible for this weekend, and it could be that most of the races get rained out. So, why bother to do weekend previews under these circumstances? Nonetheless, I went ahead with previews for Antioch Speedway and Merced Speedway and my friends at the California Hardtop Association.
20 years ago, Oval Motorsports and John and Donna Soares took over the promoting duties at Antioch Speedway. From the moment I first spoke with John about this possibility at Altamont Raceway back in 1997, he had me on board. The track needed change at the time. I took great risk endorsing him, although he was an anonymous bidder at the time. John asked to leave his name out of it, so I spoke of a group called Racing Inc.
The magazine at the time was doing some of the best business it ever had done before. My sister was there at the track every week selling it, so we were selling as many or more magazines overall than they were selling the souvenir programs at the track. And at the time, the Editor's Viewpoint column spoke of why we needed change at the track. I was putting my ass on the hot seat.
Now, I know Brynda had a dilemma. She had to kind of sit tight and wait and see what Rick was going to do, since he was her boss. She knew what she wanted to do, and it's my belief, based on what I had heard from reliable sources, that she wanted to put a bid in because she felt that the bid that Rick put in wouldn't be big enough. I don't think she followed through on that, mainly because you have to fall in line with what the company wants.
Unquestionably, she was pissed at me, and I don't blame her. I did take offense at John's comment, a couple years later when I told him that had he not won, I would have probably been kicked out. He looks at me, not even flinching, and says, "Well, you would have had it coming to you." Gee, thanks a lot John. I don't think there are too many people who have worked for John that would go through all the crap with him and really fight for his cause, but I can proudly say I was one of them.
I would have had it coming to me, just for the record, but Brynda didn't want to do anything during the 1997 season. She could have. It would have been her right to say, "No, you can't come in. Get these magazines off my premises." It took a lot of nerve for me and my sister to do what we did. Why didn't she drop the hammer on us? The only thought that comes to mind is she didn't want the negative feedback that would have come from racers and people, but once the bid cycle concluded, she would have quietly swept me under the rug in much the same way she did with the Figure 8 in 1992.
Now, would I have come back and fought the good fight? I did that every time I was kicked out of the pits before, but I was burning out. Honestly, I could have walked away from the sport then. The only reason I didn't was my hope that John would come in and bring change and perhaps there would be opportunities for me to do more in the sport. Thankfully, my hopes came true on that, and we had some pretty amazing seasons in those first few years.
The other thing that happened is I caught the attention of Ken Clapp. I was working, unofficially at least, for Altamont Raceway. I was sending the race reviews to Racing Wheels and other publications to help spread the word. I rather enjoyed my time at Altamont in 1997, but Ken wanted me removed. He even went to Andy Herbst and asked him to fire me. To Andy's credit, he stood behind me. I remember him telling me about his conversation with Ken, and with a laugh, he said, "He's a dick." I agree with that assessment of Mr. Clapp, though I know that's not a popular opinion with some people.
Anyway, the reason for this column was not a history lesson of my early support of John. This stuff is written down in my book, Just A Kid From The Grandstands, available at lula.com. I'm speaking of the rainy weather we faced in 1998 as we attempted to get the season started. To that point, there were a lot of people who wanted John to fail. There were a lot of people actively seeking to make sure he failed. I was putting the word out about all the things that we were going to have, and John held meetings with the racers. Things were actually going pretty well.
The one thing you can't predict is the weather. Up here, I look at the weather and keep my fingers crossed for a nice sunny day on April 28th. We need to have a good start this year, and my concern is either gloomy weather or we get a rain out. We've already seen one rain out weekend in California two weeks ago, and I'm afraid it doesn't look good for this weekend either.
In 1998, we lost our play days due to rainouts. We also lost two or three races due to rain. John had put new clay on the track and was still whipping the place into shape. We really needed that practice, but instead we opened after another bad week of weather. The track was in no way in the type of shape it needed to be in. Frankly, we probably shouldn't have run that race. This is easy for me to say. It's not my money on the line.
What a lot of people may not recall is that John invested a lot of money into that place, and it needed it. The previous management was pretty much employing the "open the gates and take the money" strategy and it worked for them. Antioch was a part of the three race empire that was West Coast Speedways before John. Antioch made money, Watsonville did well and San Jose Speedway was flopping. The money made at Antioch is probably the biggest reason San Jose continued. So, when Antioch was out of West Coast Speedways, the domino effect continued. It all started when Ken Clapp took Barky's empire from 22 tracks to none.
When you're spending money on fences, lighting, score boards, bringing in a pit restroom, building a pit concession stand and all of the things that John did, you need money coming in. This was the biggest motivating factor for us to have that nightmare season opener. It was a disaster. I was set to share the announcing duties with Jack Menges, but he didn't get the memo. He announced that full night by himself. It wasn't a bad thing as I was watching what was going on.
There was a flier circulating around the grandstands from somebody who wanted John removed immediately. Yes, he had his haters. There was no more NASCAR at the track giving the drivers from the coast their precious Regional championship. This was going to be more locally-based, which I felt was a good thing. The numbers at that time back my opinion.
When you get into NASCAR, you get into Joe Amadeo. Joe had the TV station showing highlights of the races every week, and he really had an over inflated opinion of who he was. A guy who walked around acting like his poop didn't stink. But I spoke with Joe and he wasn't happy as yellow checkered after yellow checkered ended races early. He got angrier and angrier. "What am I going to do, " he asked me? I told him, we have one more Main Event, the Hobby Stocks, and you should film that and see what happens there.
Of course, Joe had a low opinion of that division. I even asked him one time to do his setup piece, "I'm Joe and we're at Antioch Speedway " in front of a Hobby Stock, and he told me that the cars are too ugly. He'd rather do it in front of nothing. I don't have a lot of nice things to say about Joe. Sure, he had a TV show, which he stole from Bruce Paulson from everything that I've heard. It became a media circle-jerk between Joe, Tim Tyler at the newspaper, John Myers the announcer and Bob Messer with his souvenir programs. Like I say, it's not about us. It's about the racers. Joe liked to think it was about himself. Gee, I wonder why he's not involved in the sport anymore?
As Joe is grumbling and throwing a hissy fit, the Hobby Stocks had a ten lap Main Event or curfew, whichever came first. They proceeded to go ten laps without a yellow flag with Donny Babb winning the race. The camera wasn't on for the race. Now, Joe had done an interview with John a few weeks earlier where he threw hard balls at him about what he was going to do with the place. Meanwhile, softball questions to Rick out at Watsonville. So, it was obvious what Joe's bias was.
Joe used the show us a bully pulpit, such as when he went after Marco Bertozzi. Marco was not a great official, but he was a pretty cool guy who did his best. Rather than focus on racing sometimes, Joe would just verbally berate Marco. So, I knew it was coming during the week when Joe called me. "I don't have good enough footage. What am I going to do, Donny?" I told him that he should just use what he could and say it was a rough night but it will get better. Fact was, if he used his brain, he would realize it was going to get better.
The problem was a feeling that was going around with people who believed all of the NASCAR hype. The place isn't NASCAR anymore. It's been ruined by the son of the guy who opened the damn gates back in 1961. Utter BS, in my opinion. It's not about a banner hanging over the track, it's about the racers putting on the show for the fans. You need no banner to put on a show. Joe had a cushy position covering NASCAR, and he saw that empire crumbling.
I don't think he ever gave it a thought to give John the benefit of the doubt. He didn't care whether he would be kicked out of the gates or not. Screw it, he slammed John and the race track on his show and was disinvited from that point on. Was it fair? Freedom of press, right? I'm a believer in freedom of press. And, sometimes criticism is needed. The problem here is John had only promoted that one race at the track, and that's nothing to base his body of work on. Joe was hoping to create an atmosphere that might lead to John losing the track.
The rainy weather screwed us up big time in the beginning. We absolutely stumbled out of the gate. We had NASCAR stars saying they were only going to go to San Jose because we were not NASCAR anymore, and we had people thinking we couldn't do anything. In many ways, 1998 at Antioch Speedway is my proudest time in the sport. It was us against our haters, and we won. Things got better after that race.
John made the comment that is so true when we started hearing of the drivers who were no longer going to race with us. We'll make new stars. How right he was. Sure, Scott Busby, Bobby Hogge IV, Chad Chadwick, Chris Wadsworth and Brian Cass headed to San Jose. No problem. Dan Gonderman, Bob Newberry, Don Shelton, Keith Brown, they all stepped up. Mark Garner became a star as did Mel Maupin. I am very proud of the racers in every division.
And eventually, many of the top stars came back when they realized John paid pretty well and had a good show. The facility was in better shape than it had ever been and we were knocking it out of the ballpark. But that's another story.
Nobody ever wants to lose races to rainouts. We go through the whole winter with rain and lousy weather. When we see spring begin, we want to race. Some years are better than others when it comes to rainouts. All you can actually do is regroup and try again. It's kind of interesting that the gloomy weather brought my mind back to 20 years ago. Has it been 20 years?
The funny thing is I always envisioned that as long as I was involved in the sport, I would be at Antioch Speedway. But then the people started running their mouths and getting in between John and myself, and he and I weren't talking. The run only lasted 3 years, although those were the best three years that this track had ever had in terms of car count. I went away to The Valley at Merced and Chowchilla and had a good time there and came back to Antioch before walking away.
We always think when things are going well that the course is laid in. The future ahead of us is bright, but there's always road blocks. There's always pitfalls. For 20 years, John has negotiated through the pitfalls and kept Antioch Speedway going. I hear a lot of people saying negative things about him. Sometimes, criticism is deserved. Other times, people just want to run their mouths.
I mentioned this in my previous column. I do not believe John has anything else to prove. He's been a champion, built championship cars, won many races on dirt and even pavement, had a successful tour in Australia and he's run that race track for 20 years. Love him or hate him, the gates continue to open. How much longer he'll continue to do this is for him to say. Regardless, he's made a difference at that race track. The next person in line will realize it's not as easy as it might look. You don't just open the gates and let the magic begin. There's a lot of work involved.
I'm a little alarmed at the comment made by Maria Egleston, the widow of the late Bill Egleston. Maria has led the effort to put on a special night in remembrance of her husband, which is scheduled to happen at Merced Speedway on April 14th. However, the negativity is getting to her. I can't say I blame her. The negativity will get to anybody eventually.
No matter how good you think you're doing something and how hard you work at it, there's always some prick on the sidelines that either thinks they can do better or doesn't want you to succeed. And, if that prick can run their mouth, they'd be perfectly happy to destroy your effort and replace it with nothing. I don't know how many times I've witnessed this. People like that are a blight not just in the sport of racing but society in general. As my friend Joe Martinez might say, they're the devil.
What anybody has to say against an effort that's paying three divisions mor e money to win is something I don't know. How can you complain about being able to race for more money? What's wrong with having a race where you remember a fallen competitor? I know there were people in the fourth division who were wondering where their money was. It's real simple though. If you are a part of that division and you see no money, why not pound the pavement and get some money? Why is it the fault of the promoter or the sponsor for not supporting you when their intention was to promote a race for the headline class? In fact, the second and third divisions got more money because other people stepped in to do that.
It's real simple, if you don't like what you're seeing in the sport, step up and make a difference or shut your cake hole. Do you really love this sport or do you like to run your mouth and be a drain on the people bringing positivity? My guess is these types of individuals like to destroy good things. The sport has seen its better days. We're lucky we have what we have now, and we will start losing some tracks that meant a lot to people here soon. So, if you're not a part of the solution, you're part of the problem. Put up or shut up.
There are very few promoters out there that want to engage people in social media and let them know what's going on. Few promoters who take input from other people to make a difference. John did that in the early days in Antioch. I witnessed Tom Sagmiller doing that at Chowchilla. Ed Parker is doing that at Merced. Ed's not content to just invest money in that race track and say, "Look at me. I'm a promoter." He's there to try and make a difference and make things better.
You've got a guy who is genuinely grateful and humbled by the fact that he's even in the position he's in. He knows that this race track has a history of nearly 70 years now, and he's the steward of that legacy. He is literally the leader in writing new pages to the history book that encompasses the existence of Merced Speedway. And I know that if there are people who want to make things better and help out, all they need to do is go to him with their ideas. If they are workable ideas, chances are Ed will work with them to make them happen.
The injected and carbureted Wingless 360 Sprint Car show that was scheduled for April 21st at Merced Speedway has been put on hold. Scheduling conflicts with another track is the reason cited. Looking at the schedule, I believe that Is Tulare Thunderbowl. Ed wants this thing to pop, so he wants to pick the right date to make it happen. The one thing you'll see with Ed Parker is in attempt to not step on other track's race dates whenever possible and to work with others.
There is a budding movement to get an injected Wingless Sprint Car Tour going in the Northern California area. For the last few years, tracks like Petaluma Speedway and Placerville Speedway have run occasional dates to give the fans a taste of this style of racing. We have the Wingless Spec Sprint class, which is still viable at some venues. I don't think there's any problem with trying to get some dates for the wingless injected cars, and my guess is you could get an 8-10 race schedule.
Looking at tracks, I see Merced is interested. My guess is Petaluma would be interested, as would Placerville and maybe even Watsonville. In fact, if the numbers penciled in, Mike McCann at Southern Oregon Speedway would probably be willing to give such a group a shot as well. He has already put on the biggest Wingless Sprint Car race in the history of Southern Oregon Speedway, which happens again this year in late August. It's the Cascade Wingless Sprint Car Challenge, paying $3,500 to win and sponsored by Herz Precision Parts.
I'll be keeping my eyes open for news on the Wingless Sprint Car front at Merced Speedway. If Ed can find a way to make it happen, he will. There are already some good racers, such as Ricky Brophy, Shawn Arriaga, Adam Teves, Cody Fendley and Roy Greer, who want to make this happen. Stay tuned.
There was a funny sort of April Fool's Day joke that came out on one of the Vintage pages on Facebook. It discussed the possibility of Altamont Raceway becoming the site of a place for vintage racing and a Hall Of Fame. Actually, it's not a bad idea. In discussing that with Mike, he sees the building in the back there as a good place for your Hall Of Fame. The question would be what hurdles would you have to jump to get this thing going. The rumor involved the Sargent family as Mark Sargent and Mike Sargent are involved in the Vintage Super Modified movement that has been sweeping Northern and Central California in recent years.
I love how everything old is new again. The Super Modifieds are running, Merced Speedway is trying to rebuild the Sportsman class and there are several places running Hardtops. This weekend was to be the weekend that began the California Hardtop Association season with a doubleheader at Chico and Marysville. Rain may cancel that, but they already have a roster of over 20 active competitors. I think it was about ten seasons ago that they got their first races at Antioch Speedway. My how time flies.
I was tempted to put a little April Fool's joke out there myself, but I'm not good at these sorts of things. The rumor would have involved a track in Worden Oregon, which has sat dormant for the better part of the last decade. It opened with lofty goals in the early 2000s and had a pair of seasons. Now, the track is owned by Carl Tresser. Carl uses the place to ride his Motorcycles and invite his buddies over to mess around. It's a shame to see a place like that just sitting when Oregon currently only has nine active outdoor oval tracks throughout the state.
The thing about Worden and where it's situated is it would make the perfect home track for the group in Klamath Falls. In looking over Racing Wheels in my research for the win list at Southern Oregon Speedway, I noticed several articles written by Gary Jacob about Worden. This was in 2002. I'm not sure why Carl doesn't see the opportunity that is there. You've got a good base of competitors in Klamath Falls who would be willing to start you out with a Pro Stock division and a Mini Stock class. Plus there are drivers in other divisions as well.
It seems to me I've heard rumor of the fact that Carl was interested in selling that place. I'm not sure what the price tag would be, but all too often promoters inflate the price. Jerry Schramm has two tracks in Oregon that are for sale with big price tags on them. Nobody will ever pay a million dollars or more for Cottage Grove Speedway or Willamette Speedway, sorry to say. What would the price tag be on Warden? I don't know.
The Klamath Falls bunch Now gets to make a trip to Yreka eight times this year for their Pro Stock races, but the playday this weekend will probably be rained out. Will they get the opener in on the 14th? Signs don't look good for that either, but you never know. Orland Raceway was also set to have a playday, but my guess is that one will go down to rain as well. Spring may be here, but Mother Nature never got the memo.
Anyway, we'll see what the weather lets us get away with this weekend. Until next time...
