Madera Speedway, Antioch Speedway, Ukiah Speedway, Siskiyou Golden Speedway, Coos Bay Speedway, More

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Shepherd Wins $5,000 Nut Up Pro Late Model Prize At Madera Speedway

Madera, CA...September 5...Buddy Shepherd won the 81 lap Nut Up Pro Late Model Main Event Saturday night at Madera Speedway. This was the second round of the Race 2B Drug Free Big3 Series, and the win paid $5,000 for Shepherd. This was also the fourth win of the season for the current point leader. The race had a wild finish with a spin and a crash on the back straightaway on a lap 82 restart that was ultimately called back.Trevor Huddleston picked up a nice $3,000 paycheck for his second place finish, while Carlos Vieira earned $2,000 for third. Due to the covid-19 guidelines, fans were not allowed in attendance, but the race was broadcast for free on the track's YouTube page thanks to sponsorship from nutupindustries.com.

Qualifying proved how highly competitive this event was going to be. Eight competitors timed in under 15 seconds on the 1/3 mile paved oval, led by the 14.760 of Jeremy Doss. Buddy Shepherd was second quick at 14.918, followed by the 14.935 of Matt Erickson, the 14.955 Carlos Vieira and Ross Strmiska's 14.969. With 27 competitors on hand for this show, the $3,000 to win Semi Main was canceled and all drivers qualified for the feature race.

Ryan Philpott led the pack to the green flag, followed by Buddy Shepherd and Trevor Huddleston. The first yellow flag of the race flew on Lap 9 for a Glen Cook spin in Turn 2. Philpott went with the inside for the restart, and Shepherd motored by on the outside as they went down the back straightaway. Doss followed closely into second. Huddleston dropped Philpott back to fourth on Lap 11. Howard Holden spun in Turn 2 for a lap 17 yellow flag. Shepherd led Doss and Philpott on the next restart. Shepherd and Doss had a side-by-side battle for a couple of laps with Shepherd running strong on the outside. Rick Thompson spun in Turn 2 for a Lap 21 yellow flag. Shepherd continued to lead Doss and Philpott on the restart. An inside pass in Turn 4 on Lap 28 put Vieira into third. Moments later, a yellow flag flew for Mike Beeler, Dominic Lopez and Rick Thompson in Turn 4, ending the race for Lopez. Shepherd continued to lead Doss and Philpott on the restart. Rick Thompson spun again for a Lap 31 yellow flag. On the restart, Philpott appeared to slow on the front straightaway just a little bit, causing a tangle behind him between Blaine Rocha and Kyle Keller. Shepherd continued to lead Vieira and Doss on the restart. Keller spun for Lap 41 yellow flag. As Shepherd continued to lead the next restart, Huddleston made a strong outside move on the back straightaway to take second from Vieira. Matt Erickson moved into the fourth position, and he gained third from Vieira on a lap 44 restart. Championship contender Strmiska retired on Lap 45, and Doss moved by Erickson for third on Lap 47. At the 50 lap break, Sheppard was leading Huddleston, Doss, Erickson and Vieira.

Shepherd continued to lead Huddleston and Doss on the restart. The battle seemed to intensify during the second half of the race. A Lap 56 yellow flag flew for Hans Beeler. Shepherd continued to lead the restart as Vieira made a move on the outside in Turn 4 to take second from Huddleston. Doss moved into third with a low pass in Turn 2 on Lap 59. Dylan Zampa and Erickson were having an intense battle for the fifth position. However, Erickson hit the wall in Turn 2 for a Lap 71 yellow flag. Unhappy with Zampa, Erickson hit him and spun him out on the front straightaway during the caution period, and Erickson's race was over at that point. The first restart attempt saw a crash in Turn 4 that ended the race for Robby Hornsby and Holden. Shepherd continued to lead the restart ahead of Huddleston, Vieira and Doss. Drivers were battling hard for position, and a Lap 81 yellow flag waved for Mike Beeler, Colby Potts and Dean Thompson. Curfew was fast approaching as track crews cleaned up the mess. On the restart, Huddleston got a big jump on Shepherd for the lead, and track officials were going to call the restart back. Before dropping the yellow flag, however, all hell broke loose on the back straightaway. Contact from Shepherd sent Huddleston spinning. Further down the back straightaway, Vieira got into Doss with Doss on his side on the back wall. Nobody was injured, but the race would end at that point.   Shepherd was the winner ahead of Huddleston, Vieira, Doss, Philpott, Joey Iest, Seth Wise, Eric Nascimento, Sheldon Cooper and Austin Herzog.

Bradley Erickson won the 70 lap 51fifty Energy Drink Junior Late Model Main Event. This was the third win of the season for the point leader, and he takes a big step towards winning this division championship as a result.

The first half of the race was quite eventful. Cole Brown set the early pace ahead of Cody Kiemele and Jake Bollman. Bradley Erickson made a low pass on Bollman for third on Lap 8. A Lap 10 yellow flag flew for an Ethan Nascimento spin in Turn 2. On the first restart attempt, Holly Clark and Kylie Ith got together in Turn 1 for a yellow flag. The next restart attempt saw Brown leading as Erickson moved into second. A low pass gained Kercie Jung third from Kiemele on Lap 12. A Turn 2 tangle between Kiemele and Bollman on Lap 14 brought out another yellow flag. Erickson had the outside line working well on the restart and moved past Brown for the lead down the backstretch. A Lap 19 yellow flag flew for Hailey Liles in Turn 2 and Ith in Turn 4. On the restart, Brown slowed entering Turn 1, collecting Jung for another yellow flag. The next restart attempt found Erickson leading as recent Madera Late Model race winner Kabe McClenny settled into second ahead of Cassidy Hinds. Erickson set a good pace and pulled about a straightaway ahead, leaving Kabe McClenny and Hinds to battle for second. Erickson took the flag at the 40 lap break leading Kabe McClenny, Hinds, Casey Kleyn and Kale McClenny.

Erickson led Kabe McClenny on the restart while an outside pass down the frontstretch as they completed the lap gained Kleyn third. A Lap 43 yellow flag flew for a Turn 4 crash involving Jody Moen, Ith and Brody Moore, and a red flag waved to clean things up. Erickson continued to lead Kabe McClenny as Kale McClenny moved into third. Kleyn held fourth until surrendering the position to Bollman on lap 48. A lap later, Jung went low in Turn 2 to grab fifth. However, Jung spun in Turn 2 for a Lap 51 yellow flag, and Kleyn spun in Turn 4. Erickson continued to lead the restart with Bollman moving past Kabe McClenny for second. Brown was up to fifth by then, and he made a low pass in Turn 4 on Lap 57 to take fourth from Kale McClenny. Brown moved in to battle Kabe McClenny for the third position over the final 10 laps. However, Erickson took the checkered flag nearly a straightaway ahead of Bollman in victory. Kabe McClenny was a season-best third, followed by Brown, Brody Armtrout, Nascimento, Hinds, Jung, Kleyn and Kiemele. Bradley Erickson was the fast qualifier at 14.982, beating the 14.997 of Jung.

Jeffrey Erickson won the 27 lap Bandolero vs Mini Cap Main Event. This was the sixth win in as many races for Erickson. The race was a bit rough at the start as a Turn 2 crash involved all five of the Mini Cup competitors and eliminated Molly Laires in Turn 2. Erickson led Caden Cordova and Nathaniel Edwards on the restart. Cam Carroway spun in Turn 2, collecting Steven Bazan for a Lap 2 yellow flag. Erickson continued to lead the restart with Edwards and Joey Kennealy running second and third. Cordova went low in Turn 1 on Lap 7 to take the third position from Kennealy as Carroway ran a close fifth. Rebecca Dubie was leading Harley Kennealy in a close Mini Cup battle at that point. By the 10th lap, Erickson held a straightaway advantage over Edwards. A low pass in Turn 4 of the 20th lap put Harley Kennealy into the Mini Cup lead over Dubie. A Lap 25 yellow flag waved when contact sent Edwards spinning in Turn 2. Cordova was put to the back for his part in the incident. This had Carroway running in second as Erickson continued to lead. However, both Edwards and Joey Kennealy moved into second and third on the restart lap. Harley Kennealy surrendered the Mini Cup lead to Dubie on that restart. Another yellow flag waved for a Cordova spin in Turn 4 on Lap 27. On the restart, Carroway appeared to have problems as they raced into Turn 1 and headed straight for the wall with Edwards on the outside of him. The race was declared complete at 27 laps with Erickson getting the win ahead of Joey Kennealy, Cordova, Edwards and Carroway. Dubie was the Mini Cup winner ahead of Harley Kennneely and Evan Laires.

Erickson was the quickest Bandolero qualifier at 17.532, beating the 17.757 of Edwards. Harley Kennealy had the fastest Mini Cup lap at 18.275, beating the 18.382 of Dubie. Harley Kennealy won the eight lap Mini Cup heat race ahead of Dubie. Erickson outran Cordova to win the eight lap Bandolero heat.

Next Saturday night will feature another club race. The 602 Crate Modified Series returns along with the Madera Late Models, Hobby Stocks, MST's and Toyota Sedans. Since covid-19 guidelines still don't allow fans in the grandstands, the race will be broadcast for free on the track's YouTube page thanks to sponsorship from nutupindustries.com. For further information, go to www.racemadera.com or check out the Madera Speedway Facebook page.

Tour Wins $1,000 Prize In Upstate Bomber Race At Ukiah Speedway

Ukiah, CA...September 5...Charley Tour won the 45 lap Upstate Bomber Main Event Saturday night at Ukiah Speedway. The win was worth $1,000 to Tour. Tour is the current Ukiah Speedway point leader, and this was his third win of the season. Covid-19 guidelines mean fans can't attend the races yet, but the track streamed all of the action live on their Facebook page for free.

Eureka racer Jordan Krupa raced into the early lead ahead of Jim Redd and Raymond Taylor. Taylor took second from Redd on Lap 3 and slipped past Krupa for the lead on Lap 4. Tony Ramazzotti settled into third and took second from Krupa on Lap 6. A Lap 9 yellow flag waved for Brenton Smith and Drew Smith in Turn 4. Ramazotti took the lead from Taylor on the restart, and a high-pass in Turn 4 on Lap 11 gained Loren Powers Jr the second position. Following a Lap 11 yellow flag, Powers raced into the lead on the restart ahead of Simi Tour and Taylor. Charley Tour was running fourth on a Lap 13 restart, and Ramazzotti lost a tire on the front straightaway for a Lap 19 yellow flag. Simi Tour made a strong run on the outside to gain the lead on the restart, and Charley Tour took second from Powers on Lap 22. Brenton Smith moved past Powers for third on Lap 28, and the final yellow flag waved on Lap 33 for Peggy Tour. Simi Tour chose the inside on the restart, but Charley Tour got a good run on the outside as they completed the lap. Drew Smith moved past Brenton Smith for third. Charley Tour led the rest of the way for the big victory. Simi Tour settled for a $600 second with Drew Smith a $400 third. Brenton Smith finished fourth, followed by Krupa, Peggy Tour, Brandon Powers, Ed Rasmussen, Redd and Loren Powers Jr. Loren Powers Jr was the fastest qualifier at 14.608, beating the 14.784 of Simi Tour. Charley Tour and Loren Powers Jr won the 10 lap heat races, and Charley Tour completed the clean sweep with a win in the four lap Trophy Dash.

Jason Philpot won the 45 lap Limited Modified Main Event. This was the fifth win of the season for Philpot, who is currently leading the point standings. Tyler Caturegli raced into the early lead ahead of Tim Buzzard Sr. Roy Ingalls Jr made a Turn 4 pass to get the lead from Caturegli on Lap 3 as Sammy Nuno settled into second. Philpot quickly moved into the third position as Nuno began battling Ingalls for the lead. Philpot slipped past Nuno on the outside for second on Lap 8. A Lap 11 yellow flag flew when Sierra Furia spun on the backstretch. On the restart lap, Philpot motored past Ingalls on the outside down the backstretch. Nuno went high in Turn 4 on Lap 16 to take second from Ingalls, and Furia spun again in Turn 2 for a Lap 22 yellow flag. Philpott led Nuno and Ingalls on the restart. Ingalls surrendered the third position to Caturegli on Lap 27, and a yellow flag waved on Lap 31 for a Turn 2 tangle involving TJ Buzzard and Kylei Keoen. Philpot continued to lead Nuno and Caturegli on the restart, but Furia made a Turn 4 pass on Caturegli to take third on Lap 31. As Philpot pulled away just a little bit, Nuno had his hands full battling Furia for the second position. At the checkered flag, Philpot was the winner ahead of Nuno, Furia, Codi Barba, Caturegli, Ingalls, Keown, Loren Powers Jr, Dennis Anderson and Bo Robertson. Philpot was the quickest of 12 qualifiers with a lap of 13.700, beating the 13.733 of Furia. Furia and Philpot won the 10 lap heat races with Nuno picking up the four lap Trophy Dash win ahead of TJ Buzzard.

Kyle Tellstrom won the 40 lap Open Modified Main Event. Sponsorship from Lake County Pumps and TNT Towing made it a $1,000 payday for Tellstrom, who won the most recent North State Modified Series race at Lakeport. Casey Tillman raced into the early lead ahead of Tellstrom and Clay Caturegli. Dustin DeRosier raced past Caturegli for the third position on lap two. A high pass in Turn 1 on Lap 7 gained Tellstrom the lead as Sierra Furia followed him past Tillman into second. Tellstrom pulled away from Furia. Furia had her hands full battling Darrin Sullivan and DeRosier at that point. By Lap 20, Tellstrom had a straightaway advantage, and DeRosier moved past Sullivan for third on Lap 21. DeRosier slipped past Furia for second on Lap 36. However, nobody was stopping Tellstrom as he won ahead of DeRosier, Furia, Sullivan, Cody Barba, Caturegli, TJ Buzzard, Sammy Nuno and Casey Tillman. Tillman was the quickest of nine qualifiers with a lap of 13.457, beating the 13.489 of Sullivan. Sullivan won the four lap Trophy Dash.

Cody Winchell won the 30 lap Legend Car Main Event. Scott Sabol raced into the early lead ahead of JK Kinney and last week's Eureka winner, Derek Copeland. A yellow flag waved on Lap 3 for Nick Pappas. Sabol continued to lead Winchell and Copeland, but an outside pass on the backstretch on Lap 9 gained Winchell the lead. Copeland also moved around Sabol for second, and the lead duo pulled away from the pack. Copeland tried everything he could to get the lead, but Winchell was cool under pressure and scored the victory. Sabol settled for third, followed by Pappas, Tom Summers, Kinney, Jayson Elf and David Rank. Winchell was the fastest qualifier at 14.511, beating a 14.578 of Copeland. Copeland won the 10 lap heat race ahead of Winchell. Nick Pappas won the four lap Trophy Dash after Tom Summers spun.

Michelle Robertson when the Pro/Junior Jammer 30 lap Main Event. This was the first time in several races that more than one Pro Jammer showed up, and Robertson is part of the Pro group. David Rogers raced into the early lead ahead of Elizabeth Ingalls. An inside pass on the backstretch of the third lap gained Robertson the second position. Robertson and Rogers pulled away in the battle for the lead, and an outside pass on the backstretch on Lap 13 gained Robertson the lead. Junior Jammer point leader Christian Sanchez went past Ingalls on the backstretch on Lap 23 to take third and quickly closed in on Rogers. However, Robertson had a comfortable lead and won the race. Rogers held off Sanchez to finish second. Ingalls settled for fourth, followed by Hailey Glass, TJ Sorrels and Charles French. Sanchez was the quickest Junior Jammer qualifier at 16.960, and Robertson was the quickest Pro at 16.555. Sanchez won the Junior Jammer four lap Trophy Dash with a last-lap pass. The two groups ran a combined 10 lap heat race, and the Junior of Sanchez beat the Pro of Ingalls for the victory.

Charley Tour closed the evening with a 30 lap B Bomber/Street Stock Main Event win. There were enough cars in the combined two divisions to run a race of their own, rather than being a part of the Bomber race. Charley Tour jumped into the Peggy Tour car after winning the Upstate Bomber race. The car met the Street Stock rules classification. After dominating preliminaries, Raymond Taylor Jr scratched from the Main Event, and Tour was actually a late entry. Rick Jelton raced into the early lead ahead of Trevor Abella and Horse Hawthorne. Tour moved past Hawthorne for the third position on Lap 4, and Dave Land spun on the frontstretch for a Lap 13 yellow flag. Jelton continued to lead and again pulled ahead a little bit on the restart. Tour made a low pass in Turn 4 on Lap 15 to take second from Abella. Jelton caught the B Bombers of Hawthorne and Land, who were battling side by side. This allowed Tour to close in on him on Lap 25. Tour went by Jelton and the two slower cars on Lap 26 and pulled away to the victory. Jelton settled for a disappointed second, followed by Abella, Hawthorne and Land. Taylor was the quickest qualifier at 14.970, and he also won the 10 lap heat race.

Racing Returns on September 19th with the Limited Modifieds, Bombers, Jammers and Jalopies. For further information, go to the Ukiah Speedway Facebook page.

DeCarlo, Fraser, Scoggins Win 
Freedom Series Finale At Antioch Speedway

Nick DeCarlo #17 won his second IMCA Modified Main Event of the season. Photo by Paul Gould

Antioch, CA...September 5...Nick DeCarlo won the 25 lap IMCA Modified Main Event Saturday night at Antioch Speedway. This was the final round of the three-race George Steitz Big Kahuna Freedom Series. The win paid $1,000 to the 2018 Antioch Speedway champion. Covid-19 guidelines still prevent fans from attending in the grandstands, but all of the action is available on internet pay-per-view at antiochspeedway.tv. Though the track championship appears to be a long shot for Jim Pettit II, he used a second place finish to stay in contention for the State championship behind point leader Troy Foulger.

Past champion Aaron Crowell started on the outside front row and raced into the lead at the start. However, likely Antioch champion Foulger made an outside pass in Turn 2 on Lap 3 to grab the lead with DeCarlo following closely into second. Watsonville star Robert Marsh settled into third, and a yellow flag flew after seven laps when Merced racer Ryan Porter spun on the backstretch. Foulger led the pack to the green flag, and Pettit made an outside pass on Marsh to gain third in Turn 2. Foulger pushed high exiting Turn 4, and DeCarlo made an inside run to the flag to take the lead. A Lap 10 yellow flag flew for Jeff Browne's spin in Turn 2. DeCarlo continued to lead Foulger and Pettit on the restart, but another yellow flag waved for a spin in Turn 2 on Lap 15. On the restart, Foulger appeared to drift high a little bit exiting Turn 4, and Pettit moved into second behind DeCarlo. Kellen Chadwick moved in to challenge Foulger for third, and JC Elrod spun on the frontstretch for a Lap 20 yellow flag. DeCarlo continued to set the pace on the restart as Foulger moved alongside Pettit to briefly challenge for second. Chadwick saw his run in fourth end as he coasted into the infield. Pettit pulled ahead of Foulger in the waning laps as DeCarlo cruised to victory ahead of Pettit, Foulger, Bakersfield champion Robby Sawyer, Crowell, Brian Cass, Marsh, reigning Antioch champions Buddy Kniss, Bobby Motts Jr and Chris Sieweke. They had 18 cars, and the eight lap heat race wins were earned by Kimo Oreta, Sawyer and Foulger.

Reigning champion Tommy Fraser #12 won the IMCA Sport Modified Main Event. Photo by Paul Gould

Tommy Fraser won the 25 lap IMCA Sport Modified Main Event. This was the first win of the season for the reigning champion, and it was worth $600. Fraser had the pole for the race and set the early pace ahead of rookie Jacob Hass. There were two yellow flags in the first four laps, and Fraser led the Lap 5 restart as KC Keller and Kenny Shrader battled Haas for the second spot. Shrader briefly grabbed the position on Lap 6, only to surrender it to Fred Ryland a lap later. A crash in Turn 4 brought out a Lap 8 yellow flag. Ryland spun for a Lap 10 yellow flag, and Fraser continued to lead Shrader and Haas on the restart. Fraser and Shrader had a side-by-side battle at the front on lap 12, but Fraser nudged ahead as Bakersfield's Jason Nation challenged Haas for third. Nation would grab the position and tried to close in on the lead battle. Fraser stayed cool under pressure and collected the well-earned victory ahead of Shrader. Nation was a strong third, and Keller and championship contender Trevor Clymens both made moves around Haas to claim fourth and fifth, respectively. Haas settled for sixth, followed by point leader Mark Garner, Watsonville point leader Adriane Frost, Ryland and Andrew Pearce.

There were 25 cars, and the eight lap heat race wins were earned by Keller, Trevor Clymens, Ryland and Nation. Doug Hagio won the 14 lap B Main ahead of Kevin Brown, Dwayne Short, Damian Merritt and Pearce.

Domossie Scoggins #21 won the Hobby Stock Main Event. Photo by Paul Gould

Domossie Scoggins won the 25 lap Hobby Stock Main Event. Mitch Enos took the checkered flag in first, only to be disqualified in post-race tech, handing the win to Scoggins. Scoggins had a win earlier this year at Bakersfield Speedway, and this victory paid $300. Running Mopar power, Enos lined up in the fifth row. After three consecutive runner-up finishes, second row starter James Thomson was hoping this would be his night for victory. Late Model and Modified veteran Enos worked his way to the front of the pack and got around, Thomson. Enos took the checkered flag first, only two be disqualified in post-race tech. Scoggins held off Thomson to take the checkered flag in second, and the Enos DQ elevated him to victory. Thomson gained significant ground on the point leader with his fourth-straight runner-up finish. Larry McKinzie earned his fourth third place finish, followed by Jeff Bentanourt, Jon Haney, Adam Kujala, Jacky Roberts, Gavin Griffitts, Jake Bentancourt and Allen Neal.

There were 36 cars for the show, and eight lap heat race wins went to Gene Haney, Thomson, Griffitts, Matt Kile and Scoggins. They ran a pair of 14 lap B Mains, and Merced racer Craig Tatum won the first one ahead of Roberts, Chase Aue, Judy Arth and James Grasselle. The second 14 lap B Main win went to Jeff Bentanourt ahead of Jake Bentancourt, DJ Keldsen, Dakota Keldsen and David Schuyler

Racing resumes next Saturday night with the Wingless Spec Sprints back in action along with the Delta Dwarf Cars, Super Stocks and the Four Bangers. The action will be broadcast on internet pay-per-view at www.antiochspeedway.tv. For further information, go to www.antiochspeedway.com.

Gill, Killingsworth, Marino, Steele Win 
At Siskiyou Golden Speedway

Yreka, CA...September 6...Albert Gill won the 25 lap IMCA Modified Main Event Saturday night at Siskiyou Golden Speedway. The win was the first of the year for the multi-time Yreka and Medford champion. He collected $800 for the victory, but he gained very little ground on incoming point leader Travis Peery, who chased him across the line in second.

Gill had the pole position for the race and charged into the lead at the start ahead of Peery and reigning champion Duane Orsburn. A Lap 3 yellow flag waved for debris on the track. No sooner had the green flag been displayed than another yellow flag flew for debris on the track. The next restart saw Gill continuing to lead Peery and Orsburn. Yakima, Washington competitor Blair Shoemaker was running in the fourth position, and 13th starter Jeffrey Hudson had moved into sixth behind Larry McCracken by Lap 8. A low pass in Turn 4 on Lap 9 gained Hudson fifth from McCracken, and a yellow flag waved on Lap 11. Gill continued to lead Peery and Orsburn on the restart as Hudson moved past Shoemaker for fourth. A low pass in Turn 4 on lap 13 gained Hudson the third position as he closed in quickly on the lead duo. Peery was taking looks to the inside of Gill with two laps to go. However, Gill caught a slower car on the final lap and used it to keep Peery behind him for the victory. Hudson was a strong third, followed by Orsburn, Shoemaker, Jeremy Ohlde, Dave Duste Jr, Jon DeBenedetti, Brice Carter and Jeremy Crebs. The eight lap heat race wins went to McCracken and Peery.

Ethan Killingsworth won the 25 lap IMCA Sport Modified Main Event. This wrapped up a two-win weekend for the championship contender, and this victory was worth $700 as he moved into second in the standings. The race got off to a rough start with five yellow flags in the first two laps. Killingsworth led Austin Petray to the green flag. Travis Moore brought out a Lap 1 yellow flag. Petray spun in Turn 3 on the restart lap. New point leader Mike Medel made a pit stop during the caution period. Killingsworth led Ryan Peery when racing finally got going again after two additional yellow flags. However, a Lap 2 yellow flag flew when Jace Wright spun out of third in Turn 4. Killingsworth led Peery and Jesse Merriman on this restart, but a yellow flag waved when Joby Shields hit the front wall and dropped some debris on the front straightaway on Lap 5. Killingsworth led Peery on the restart as Medel made an inside pass in Turn 2 to grab third from Merriman. Chance Gorden brought out a Lap 12 yellow flag. On the restart, Killingsworth remained in command, and Medel made an inside pass in Turn 2 to grab second from Peery. However, Peery came back strong with an inside pass down the back straightaway putting him back in second a lap later. Petray had worked his way back up to fourth by then, and the final yellow flag waved on Lap 16. Killingsworth remained in command on the restart with Peery running a strong second. The lead duo finished in that order. Petray grabbed the third position from Medel on the final restart to take it to the checkered flag. Medel held off the threat of Randy Wright to finish fourth and assume the point lead at the end of the weekend. Merriman settled for sixth, followed by Richard Longacre, Shields, Gorden and Chad Wormington. The eight lap heat race wins went to Killingsworth and Petray.

Phil Marino won the 25 lap Outlaw Pro Stock Main Event. The two-time Chico champion became the fifth different winner in as many races at Yreka after finishing second the previous night. Lyle Hopper of Winning Attitude Motorsports in Paradise sponsored additional purse money for the division. Rookie Darek Alford started on the front row and moved into the early lead ahead of Colby Hammond. Johnny Cobb made a backstretch pass on Lap 2 to take second from Hammond, and Alford spun out of the lead in Turn 2. Cobb had the lead on the restart ahead of James Flowers and Hammond. Point leader Scott Flowers made a backstretch pass on Hammond to take third on Lap 5 and made a backstretch pass on Lap 7 to grab second from his son James Flowers. A Turn 2 pass on Lap 8 put Matt Harlow into 3, and Marino was up to fourth when a yellow flag flew on Lap 13 for an Alford spin in Turn 2. Cobb continued to lead Scott Flowers on the restart, but Harlow made an inside pass on the backstretch on Lap 16 to take second. However, Flowers came back strong a lap later to make a backstretch pass for second once again. Hammond brought out the final yellow flag on Lap 17. Cobb led the pack to the green flag, but Marino led Scott Flowers past Cobb down the back straightaway for the Top 2 positions. Marino drove a great race from there to keep Scott Flowers at bay for the well-earned victory. Cobb settled for third, followed by Harlow, Jeff Haudenshild, Scott Bennett, Hammond, James Flowers, Dennis Burtenhouse Jr and Alford. The eight lap heat race wins were earned by Harlow and Marino.

Two-time reigning Medford champion David Steele won the 15 lap Mini Stock Main Event. This was the fifth win of the season for the current point leader as he attempts to win his fourth championship in the last six years. The Mini Stocks had an entertaining heat race with three-time champion Marilyn Yawnick managing to hold off Hunter Magnan and Steele in a close battle for the win. Yawnick had the pole position for the feature race and led the opening lap before Steele, Magnan and three-time reigning champion Mike Whitaker moved by for the Top 3 positions. Steele immediately began to pull away and held a straightaway advantage over everybody by the seventh lap. The battle was for second between Magnan, Whitaker and Steve Goetz. Whitaker kept taking looks to the inside of Magnan in a bid to get by. Magnan used a slower car on Lap 10 to put some distance between the two, but Whitaker closed in again with three laps to go. As Steele sped to the checkered flag by over a straightaway, Magnan repelled Whitaker's last lap effort to hold on to second. Goetz settled for fourth, followed by Ashtin Hedges, Yawnick and rookie Paige Boswell.

Racing continues next weekend with a practice session scheduled for Friday night. The Winged Sprint Cars will be making an appearance on Saturday night along with a non-point IMCA Sport Modified show and Mini Stocks. For up to the minute scheduling information and other news, go to the Siskiyou Golden Speedway Facebook page.

Hudson, Killingsworth, Haudenshild Win Friday Night Action At Siskiyou Golden Speedway

Yreka, CA...September 4...Jeffrey Hudson won the 25.lap IMCA Modified Main Event Friday night at Siskiyou Golden Speedway. This was the second-straight win in Yreka for Hudson. It was also the opening night of a two-race weekend at the Siskiyou Golden Fairgrounds track. Though fans were not allowed to watch in person due to covid-19 guidelines, the race was available on internet pay-per-view via the Tri State Pro Stock Challenge Facebook page.

Championship hopeful Albert Gill led the opening lap over point leader Travis Peery before a yellow flag waved for Jeremy Ohlde in Turn 2. Gill continued to lead Peery and reigning track champion Duane Orsburn on the restart. Hudson was running fourth, and he made an inside pass in Turn 2 on the fourth lap to take third from Orsburn. Peery was pressuring Gill for the lead when a Lap 7 yellow flag flew for Ohlde and James Welshonse in Turn 4. Gill continued to lead the way with Hudson slipping past Peery for second. An intense side-by-side battle began for the lead with Gill running high and Hudson running low. This battle continued for several laps until an inside pass in Turn 4 of the 13th lap put Hudson into the lead. Hudson pulled away by a few car lengths in the closing laps for the win as Gill held off Peery to finish second. Jon DeBenedetti finished fourth with Blair Shoemaker passing Orsburn on the final lap to finish fifth. Washington visitor Brice Carter finished seventh, followed by Jeremy Crebs, Welshonse and Larry McCracken. The eight lap heat race wins went to Gill and Peery

Reigning champion Ethan Killingsworth was awarded the 25 lap IMCA Sport Modified Main Event win after apparent winner Ryan Peery was disqualified in post-race tech along with two other drivers. The point battle will be shaken up as incoming leader Jorddon Braaten skipped the weekend to compete at the IMCA Nationals in Boone, Iowa, allowing Mike Medel and Killingsworth to gain some big ground. 

Peery had the pole for this race and settled into the early lead ahead of Austin Petray. A low pass in Turn 2 on the second lap gained Killingsworth second. Petray continued to hold third, and a yellow flag flew on Lap 7. Mechanical issues ended the race for Medel at that point. Peery continued to lead Killingsworth and Petray on the restart, but Petray spun in Turn 4 for a Lap 8 yellow flag. Peery continued to lead Killingsworth and Steven Sanders on the restart, but a low pass in Turn 3 of the 10th lap gained Isaac Sanders third. Petray brought out a Lap 11 yellow flag. Peery continued to lead the way over Killingsworth and Isaac Sanders. Petray had worked his way back into the fourth position when a yellow flag waved for Colt Boswell with two laps to go. Petray moved past Isaac Sanders for third as Peery continued to lead the restart. Peery led the rest of the way to take the checkered flag in first. Killingsworth crossed the line in second over Petray, Isaac Sanders, Joby Shields, 2018 Susanville champion Richard Longacre, Steven Sanders, Chad Wormington, Boswell and Jace Wright. Post-race disqualifications for Peery, Petray and Longacre shuffled the finishing order, making the new Top 5 Killingsworth, Isaac Sanders, Joby Shields, Steven Sanders and Chad Wormington. The eight lap heat race wins went to Peery and Killingsworth.

Jeff Haudenshild won the 30 lap Outlaw Pro Stock Main Event. In scoring the victory, Haudenshild becomes the fourth different Yreka winner in as many races. Haudenshild drew the pole for the Main Event and set the early pace ahead of two-time Chico champion Phil Marino and Scott Bennett, who was piloting the #55 car of the late Bryan Hammond. A backstretch pass on Lap 2 gained Darek Alford second, but he spun in Turn 2 for a yellow flag. Haudenshild continued to lead Marino and James Flowers on the restart. A low pass in Turn 4 of the sixth lap gained James Flowers second from Marino, and a yellow flag flew on Lap 11 for Arlen Garrison. Haudenshild continued to lead James Flowers and Marino on Lap 12 and Lap 13 restarts. Series point leader Scott Flowers made a Turn 2 move on Marino to gain third on Lap 15, and both Scott Flowers and Marino went low in Turn 4 to get by James Flowers before the lap was completed. Alford moved quickly back into the fourth position. The lead four cars ran closely when the final yellow flag flew for a crash in Turn 4 that involved Rick Lukens, Johnny Cobb and Dennis Burtenhouse Jr. Lukens had some heavy damage on his car. Haudenshild continued to lead the restart as a high-pass in Turn 4 gained Marino second from Scott Flowers. Haudenshild led the rest of the way for the well-earned victory. Marino finished second, followed by Scott Flowers, Alford, Matt Harlow, James Flowers, Burtenhouse, Bennett, Cobb and Lukens. Alford and Marino won their respective eight lap heat races.

For information on what's happening at the speedway, check out the Siskiyou Golden Speedway Facebook page.

Montgomery, Baker, Osborne Win 
At Coos Bay Speedway

Coos Bay, Oregon...September 5...Brody Montgomery won the 30 lap NASCAR America's Mattress Super Late Model Main Event Saturday night at Coos Bay Speedway. The current point leader is the only driver with all Top 5 finishes in 10 starts, and this was his second win of the season as he increased his point lead slightly over Braden Fugate. Coos Bay Speedway remains the only track on the West Coast able to have a seemingly unlimited amount of fans in attendance. 

Montgomery and Fugate shared the front row for the Main Event, and Montgomery led three laps before Fugate and reigning champion Preston Luckman both got by for the Top 2 positions. Unfortunately for Luckman, his run ended on lap 15 as Montgomery regained second. Montgomery pressured Fugate until making his winning pass on Lap 27. Montgomery brought it home the happy winner ahead of Fugate, Justin Johnson, Mike Taylor, Wayne Butler, Brian Bowman, Luckman and Hannah Robison. Larry Fuller was a Main Event scratch, and the eight lap heat race wins went Fugate and Montgomery.

RJ Baker won the 20 lap Winged Sprint Car Main Event. Baker is a regular Wingless Spec Sprint competitor at Orland Raceway, and this was his first win. He also becomes the sixth different winner in six races. With his fourth place finish, Lawrence Van Hoof wrapped up his second division championship. Hoping to get his second win, polesitter Austin Sause led 11 laps with reigning champion Donovan Prather an early second. Baker quickly moved into third and slipped past Prather for second on Lap 9. Baker inherited the lead ahead of RJ McGahuey when Sause retired. Baker led the rest of the way with McGahuey not too far behind in second. David Marble was a solid third, followed by Van Hoof, Prather, Brionna Fuller, Michael Colby Jr and Sause. James Taylor was a Main Event scratch. The Sprint Cars ran two eight lap heat races with Prather and Sause scoring the wins.

Graig Osborne won the 25 lap Street Stock Main Event. This was his division-leading fifth win of the season, but his absence from one event has him third in the standings. Reigning champion Steve Dubisar had the pole and raced into the lead at the start. Leroy Rockwell held second for two laps before being passed by Osborne. Osborne slipped past Dubisar for the lead on Lap 7 and led the rest of the way for the victory. Dubisar wasn't too far behind him in second as point leader Ken Fox, past champion Daniel Land and Rockwell rounded out the lead lap finishers. Sam Talon took a checkered flag in sixth, followed by Dustin Hitner, Charlie Withers, Tyler Tullos and Dave Eversole. Fox and Osborne won their respective eight lap heat races.

Ryan Emery won the 20 lap Sportsman Late Model Main Event. This was his second win of the season. Point leader Trace Fugate was absent, but he was in no danger of being passed by Jared Simmons in the standings. Jim Crabtree scratched from the feature race, leaving three starters. Emery led from the pole ahead a previous winner Brionna Fuller. However, Fuller retired on Lap 8 as Simmons would finish nearly a straightaway behind in second. Emry also won the eight lap heat race.

Jeff Thurman won the 20 lap Mini Outlaw Main Event. This was his first win of the season, and he becomes the seventh different winner in 11 races. Looking for his fifth win of the season, polesitter Scott Beaudoin led the first five laps as Mike Beaudoin and Thurman battled fiercely for the second position. They exchanged the spot multiple times with Mike Beaudoin back in second on Lap 4. Mike Beaudoin slipped past Scott Beaudoin for the lead on Lap 6 with Thurman gaining second on Lap 8. A lap later, Thurman put the moves on Mike Beaudoin to take the lead. Mike Beaudoin and Dustin Wilkinson engaged in a fierce battle for second by the 13th lap. They exchanged the position multiple times before Wilkinson gained the position for good on Lap 17. Thurman won ahead of Wilkinson. Jason Kellam made a late move around Mike Beaudoin for third. Mike Beaudoin settled for fourth, followed by Scott Beaudoin, Tahlen Rogers, Matthew Emry, Brad Hicks and Pam Beaudoin. Kellam and Rogers won the eight lap heat races.

Shane Landis won the 20 lap Hornet Main Event. In the process, he became the eighth different winner in 11 races. Landis had the pole position for the race and pretty much dominated in the lead, leaving the battle for second. Kris Parker was an early second, but previous winner Seth Christian moved by for the position on Lap 6. Parker came back strong to regain the spot on lap eight with Christian in close pursuit. Christian settled the matter by getting by Parker for second on Lap 16. However, Landis held over a straightaway advantage by then. Landis cruised to victory ahead of Christian, Parker, William Hitner, Scott Lager, John Henry, Mike Bales, Zach Hickman, Jamie Daniels and Kevin Rockwell. Bales and Christian won the eight lap heat races.

Griff Smith won the 17 lap Junior Stinger Main Event. This is the third-straight championship for Smith in the Hornet class for kids 11 to 14 years old, and he's won all 10 races this year. Smith had the pole for the race and charged into the immediate lead ahead of Cameron Metzgus. Metzgus surrendered the second position to Teagan Montgomery on Lap 3. Metzgus held third until problems struck on Lap 8 as Jordan Wheeler gained the position. Smith won by over a straightaway ahead of Montgomery, followed by Wheeler, James Shingleton, Max Haga, Cameron Metzgus, Alex Butler, Drake Vincent, Alexus Baker and Heather Burton. Smith and Montgomery won the eight lap heat races.

This Saturday night is NASCAR Whelen All American Series Championship Night. The America's Mattress Super Late Models are back along with the Sportsman Late Models, Street Stocks, Mini Outlaws, Hornets and Junior Stingers. The Dwarf Cars and OTRO Hardtops will also be a part of the show. For further information, go to www.coosbayspeedway.us or check out the Coos Bay Speedway Facebook page.

Whistler Family Tops The Field 
At Cottage Speedway Saturday Night

Cottage Grove, Oregon...September 5...Eston Whistler won the 25 lap IMCA Modified Main Event Saturday night at Cottage Grove Speedway. It was a big night for the Whistler family as his Eston's father Jim Whistler won the Late Model Main Event. 

Eston Whistler started on the front row of the IMCA Modified Main Event and charged into the lead at the start. Point leader John Campos settled into an early second, and that's where the battle took place. Reigning champion Jake Mayden moved past Campos for second on Lap 13, but Jesse Williamson briefly grabbed the position on Lap 15. Mayden regained second a lap later, only to surrender the position to Campos for good on Lap 17. Whistler received pressure from Campos late in the race, but he kept his cool to score the victory. Mayden settled for third, followed by Aaron Sheeler, Paul Rea, Williamson, Steven Sturdevant, Derick Young, Paul Culp and Sam Carlisle. Chad Groves, Campos and Whistler won the eight lap heat races.

Jim Whisler won the 30 lap Late Model Main Event. Whistler started in the third row and moved into second on Lap 2 as polesitter Mark Wauge set the pace. Whistler put the moves on Wauge for the lead on the 15th lap and began to pull away from there. Mike Peters held third until surrendering that position to Brian Smith on Lap 14. Whistler built a straightaway advantage over Wauge at the checkered flag as Smith finished third, followed by Doug Elkins, Kyle Frick, Peters, Rob Campos, Nathan Augustine, Ryan Ronning and Garrett Dees. Elkins and Whistler won the eight lap heat races.

Kyle Alberding won the 25 lap Limited Sprint Main Event. Reigning champion Shane Forte had the pole and charged into the lead at the start. Jesse Schlotfeldt was an early second. Alberding grabbed second on Lap 10, but Schlotfeldt moved back around him a lap later. Alberding again charged by Schlotfeldt for second on Lap 15. On the 18th lap, Alberding put the moves on Forte to gain the lead. Schlotfeldt followed into second. Alberding beat Schlotfeldt back to the line in a close battle to the checkered flag. However, Schlotfeldt was disqualified in post-race tech, giving Forte second, followed by Brett McGhie, Donny Waddell, Brian Boswell, Ricky Ashley, Cooper Desbiens, Brian Crockett, TJ Winningham and Anissa Curtice. Eight lap heat race wins went to Forte and Waddell.

Mike DeSilva won the crash-shortened 17 lap IMCA Sport Modified Main Event. DeSilva had the front row for the start and would lead all the way for the victory. Polesitter Daniel Ray had second until being overtaken by Michael Melton on Lap 8. Melton surrendered the second position back to Ray on Lap 12, but he stayed with him and briefly got by again on lap 14. However, Ray regained second for good on Lap 15. The yellow and checkered flags waved on Lap 17 with DeSilva winning ahead of Ray, Melton, Isaac Sanders, David Schmidt, Aaron Bloom, KC Scott, Doug Coffman, Chuck Carson and Jim Smith. Coffman won the first eight lap heat race with other heat wins going to Dustin Comer and DeSilva.

Garrett Barth won his first 20 lap Street Stock Main Event. Barth started back in the third row and took the lead from Larry Owens on the second lap. Owens surrendered second to Michael Hollingsworth on Lap 5 as Hollingsworth took up pursuit of Barth. However, Barth pulled away to over a straightaway advantage by the time that checkered flag flew. Adam Applebee took the third position from Owens on Lap 17. However, Hollingsworth held off Applebee for the runner-up finish. Barney Hamilton ended up fourth, followed by Eric Freeman, Robert Hughes, Owens, Troy Chamberlain and Braedon Castro. Applebee and Barth won their respective eight lap heat races.

Roseburg racer Burnie Bryant won the 20 lap IMCA Sport Compact Main Event. Bryant started back in the sixth row and was already up to third on Lap 1 as fellow Roseburg racer Ryan Dickinson led the way. Bryant put the moves on Dickinson to take the lead on Lap 4. Dickinson held second until mechanical issues sidelined him on Lap 7. That handed second to Ricky Ashley ahead of Brad Moffett. Moffett got past Ashley for second on Lap 12. The lead battle went down to the checkered flag with Bryant winning a photo-finish victory over Moffett. Ashley settled for third, followed by Kerry Cooper, Mark Milligan, Bradley Martin, Jeremy DeGrout, Willie Sutton, Tim Maltabarger and Barry Cannon. The eight lap heat race wins went to Bryant, Ashley and Dustin Henderson.

For further information on what's happening at the track, go to www.cottagegrovespeedway.com or go to the Cottage Grove Speedway Facebook page.

Ashley, Williamson, Whistler Win At Cottage Grove Speedway

Cottage Grove, Oregon...September 6...Ricky Ashley won the 25 lap Limited Sprint Main Event Sunday night at Cottage Grove Speedway. Ashley shared the front row with Medford area driver Enrique Jaime and charged into the early lead. Jaime had a good run going in second until problems ended his race on Lap 14. Jesse Schlotfeldt assumed the second position ahead of RJ McGahuey. McGahuey slipped past Schlotfeldt for second on Lap 16, but Schlotfeldt regained the spot a lap later. Schlotfeldt held the second position until the final lap when he had problems, allowing McGahuey to grab the position. Ashley won by a straightaway ahead of McGahuey. Tyrell Mead was a solid third, followed by Anissa Curtice, Cooper Desbiens, David Marble, Brian Boswell, Donny Waddell, Schlotfeldt and Tim Minter.  Shane Forte and McGahuey won the eight lap heat races.

Jesse Williamson won the 25 lap IMCA Modified Main Event. Williamson had the pole for the race, but Paul Culp led the first four laps. Unfortunately, Culp's race came to an end at that point with Williamson leading the fifth lap. Saturday night winner Eston Whistler moved by Williamson to grab the lead on Lap 6 as Williamson ran not too far behind in second. Williamson put the moves on Whistler to take the lead again on Lap 13 and went on to victory from there. Whistler settled for second, followed by reigning champion Jake Mayden, point leader John Campos, Nick Bessette, Derick Young, Chad Groves, Eric Ashley, Dave Duste Jr and Sam Carlisle. There were three eight lap heat races with Chance Hyser, Campos and Whistler picking up the wins. Ashley won the 12 lap B Main ahead of Dan Sheller and Tom Lawson.

Jim Whistler won the 30 lap Late Model Main Event. This was his second win of the weekend. Rob Campos led a lap before Bruce Rayburn Jr got by. Unfortunately, Rayburn's race ended moments later as Campos regained the lead. Whistler took over on the fourth lap and would lead the rest of the way. Campos held second until the 10th lap as Kyle Frick moved by. Campos and Frick went back and forth for the second spot with Frick taking it again on lap 13. Campos briefly regained second on Lap 24, but his race ended moments later. Frick regained second at that point and finished about a straightaway behind Whistler at the checkered flag. Brian Smith ended up third, followed by Jordan Wright, Rob Campos, Mark Wauge, Jason Johnson, Nathan Augustine, Doug Elkins and Mike Peters. Smith and Wauge won the eight lap heat races.

Daniel Ray won the 15 lap IMCA Sport Modified Main Event. Reigning champion David Schmidt had the pole and led a lap before Ray went by. Aaron Bloom slipped past Ray for the lead on Lap 4 as Ray fell back to third behind Isaac Sanders. Ray made a move around Sanders on Lap 9 and set his sights on Bloom. On the 13th lap, Ray made what proved to be his winning pass on Bloom. Issac Sanders settled for third, followed by Ryan Peery, Matt Sanders, KC Scott, Mike DeSilva, Chad Hallberg, Michael Lavery and Joby Shields. The eight lap heat race wins were earned by Braedon Hand, Ray and Coffman. Shields won the seven lap B Main ahead of Jeff Cluff and Lavery.

Graig Osborne won the 20 lap Street Stock Main Event. The Creswell racer has been at Coos Bay this year, where he has five victories. Osborne started on the pole and immediately moved into the lead. Daniel Land was second for a lap before surrendering the spot to Saturday night winner Garrett Barth. Osborne won ahead of Barth, Blake Lehman, Dylan Solum, Jake Mayden, Michael Hollingsworth, Jody Tanner, Braedon Castro, Robert Hughes and Land. Osborne and Land were the eight lap heat race winners.

Ricky Ashley won the 20 lap IMCA Sport Compact Main Event. Reigning champion Brad Moffett set the early pace ahead of Terry Cooper. Cooper briefly took the lead from Moffett on Lap 5, but Ashley moved around Cooper to gain the lead a lap later. Moffett held second until Cooper got by for the position on Lap 13. Cooper kept it close, but Ashley prevailed at the checkered flag. Moffett settled for third, followed by Ryan Dickinson, Michael Kennerly, Bradley Martin, Mark Milligan, Burnie Bryant, Andrew Wright and Jeremy DeGrout. Milligan and Ashley were the eight lap heat race winners.

To find out what's scheduled next, go to www.cottagegrovespeedway.com or check out the Cottage Grove Speedway Facebook page.

Sprint Car Special On Tap 
At Marysville Raceway Wednesday Night

Marysville, CA...The weekend after Labor Day is a big one for Sprint Car enthusiasts in Northern California. This is when they usually gather at Chico Silver Dollar Speedway for the Gold Cup event. This is four nights of exciting Sprint Car racing that starts off with Winged 360 Sprint Cars. When the weekend kicks off, the World of Outlaws come to town, and it gets even more exciting. Covid-19 saw to it that nothing was going to happen at Silver Dollar Speedway as the West Coast swing for the World of Outlaws was canceled.

Dennis Gage, who promotes both Silver Dollar Speedway and Marysville Raceway, was understandably unhappy about the circumstances. He's only been able to have one race at Silver Dollar Speedway since the virus shut down, but Marysville Raceway has had 10 races. Since he can have a show, and 100 fans are allowed to spectate along with the track broadcasting on internet pay-per-view via floracing.com, Gage had an idea. Why not hold a tribute to the Gold Cup and Platinum Cup? On Wednesday night, the Winged 360 Sprint Cars and Hobby Stocks will both be in action at Marysville Raceway.

When the checkered flag flew on the final point race two weeks ago, Ryan Robinson was winning his second race of the season. Andy Forsberg won the division championship. That wrapped up the 30th consecutive season of championship point racing at Marysville Raceway. The tradition of exciting Sprint Car racing at Marysville began in 1991 with then Promoter Mike McCann, and Gage carries on this tradition. Sprint Car racing at the quarter-mile clay oval has been very well supported in recent years. Numbers have even gone up this year a little bit due to the fact that the track has been running on Wednesday to accommodate the live video stream.

Forsberg has won so many championships in his impressive career that it would be easy for him to lose count. These days, he's out there trying to get a win as much as winning a championship. He has one win at Marysville this year, but his biggest triumph of the year came at an ASCS race at Petaluma Speedway back in March. Andy would love to get the win on Wednesday, but he knows that the competition will be tough for sure.

Two drivers who have been turning heads this year are brothers Tanner Carrick and Blake Carrick. Both have won Main Events at Marysville this year, and they've also been fast at other venues. Blake has picked up wins at both Watsonville and Placerville. Either one of the Carrick brothers has to be considered a threat to win. 2018 Marysville champion Michael Ing hasn't had much of a season to brag about after winning several races last year. He'd love to grab the glory this week, but the challenge will be tough.

We could be seeing a roster of 30 or more competitors on hand on Wednesday night for this show. Multi-time Silver Dollar Speedway champion Sean Becker is definitely somebody you have to watch. He can be tough to beat, and he's fast when he teams up with car owner Dan Monhoff. Brad Bumgarner is another regular who is fast. Multi-time Marysville champions Colby Colby and Korey Lovell, Alec Justeson, Billy Wallace and 2018 champion Mike Monahan are anticipated this week, and the competition will be fierce for sure. 

Joining the Sprint Cars for the show will be the exciting Hobby Stock division. The numbers have been up in this class for the past two years, and the competition level has been high as well. In the six point events held this year, there were no repeat feature winners. The victories were collected by Jimmy Ford, Kyle Cheney, Jesse Van Roekel, Jim Brookshire, Zach Lindgren and Jacob Johnson. Johnson won the point season finale as Van Roekel wrapped up the championship by just two points ahead of Brookshire and 11 over Lindgren. Lindgren won the non-point event that got the season started. A field in the 20s is anticipated for this show, and they usually end the evening with a bang as this is the last Main Event on the bill. 

With the fast Winged 360 Sprint Cars and the slam-bang action provided by the Hobby Stocks, Wednesday's show should be good. If you're fortunate enough to be one of the first 100 people at the gate, you can pay to spectate. Otherwise, the race will be offered on internet pay-per-view at floracing.com. For further information, go to www.marysvilleraceway.com or check out the Marysville Raceway Facebook page.


Antioch Speedway Unofficial Race Results September 5, 2020
IMCA Modified
Nick DeCarlo
Jim Pettit II
Troy Foulger
Robby Sawyer
Aaron Crowell
Brian Cass
Robert Marsh
Buddy Kniss
Bobby Motts Jr
Chris Sieweke
T.J. Etchinson III
Jeff Browne
Kimo Oreta
Terry Decarlo Sr
Kellen Chadwick
JC Elrod
Ryan Porter
Clay Daly DNS

IMCA Sport Modified
A Main
Tom Fraser
Kenny Shrader
Jason Nation
KC Keller
Trevor Clymens
Jacob Haas
Mark Garner
Adriane Frost
Fred Ryland
Andrew Pearce
Jimmy Ford
Mike Merritt
Tommy Clymens Jr
Kevin Brown
Chuck Golden
Tony Peffer
Jacob Mallet Jr
Doug Hagio
Damian Merritt
Dwayne Short

B Main
Doug Hagio
Kevin Brown
Dwayne Short
Damian Merritt
Andrew Pearce
Chuck Golden
Tony Peffer
Jacob Mallet Jr
Nicolas Zapatero
Jarrod Mounce
Todd Clymens
Tim Rolan DNS
Alex Wilson DNS

Hobby Stocks
Domossie Scoggins
James Thomson
Larry McKinzie Jr
Jeff Bentancourt
Jon Haney
Adam Kujala
Jacky Roberts
Gavin Griffitts
Jake Bentancourt
Alan Neal
Will Buirch
Gene Haney
Breanna Troen
Dan Gonderman
DJ Keldsen
Craig Tatum
Matt Kile
Colton Haney
Dalton Jewell
Chase Aue
Mitch Enos DQ

B Main 1
Craig Tatum
Jacky Roberts
Chase Aue
Judy Arth
James Graessle
Logan Fernandez
Jewell Crandall
Troy Tatum
Lori Brown
Angela Brown DNS
Dustin Himes DNS

B Main 2
Jeff Bentancourt
Jake Bentancourt
DJ Keldsen
Dakota Keldsen
David Schuyler
William Merritt
Devin Belton
Kenneth Robles
Michaela Taylor
Billy Garner


Siskiyou Golden Speedway Unofficial Race Results September 5, 2020
IMCA Modifieds
Albert Gill
Travis Peery
Jeffrey Hudson
Duane Orsburn
Blair Shoemaker
Jeremy Ohlde
Dave Duste Jr
Jon DeBenedetti
Brice Carter
Jeremy Crebs
James Welshonse
James Anderson
Larry McCracken

IMCA Sport Modifieds
Ethan Killingsworth
Ryan Peery
Austin Petray
Michael Medel
Randy Wright
Jesse Merriman
Richard Longacre
Joby Shields
Chance Gordan
Chad Wormington
Colt Boswell
Jace Wright
Travis Moore
Zach Nelson DNS

Mini Stocks
David Steele
Hunter Magnan
Mike Whitaker
Steve Goetz
Ashtin Hedges
Marilyn Yawnick
Paige Boswell

Outlaw Pro Stock
Phil Marino
Scott Flowers
Johnny Cobb
Matt Harlow
Jeff Haudenshild
Scott Bennett
Colby Hammond
James Flowers
Dennis Burtenhouse Jr
Darek Alford


Siskiyou Golden Speedway Unofficial Race Results September 4, 2020
IMCA Modifieds
Jeffrey Hudson
Albert Gill
Travis Peery
Jon Benedetti
Blair Shoemaker
Duane Orsburn
Brice Carter
Jeremy Crebs
James Welshonse
Larry McCracken
James Anderson
Jeremy Ohlde

IMCA Sport Modifieds
Ethan Killingsworth
Issac Sanders
Joby Shields
Steven Sanders
Chad Wormington
Colt Boswell
Jace Wright
Chance Gordan
Michael Medel
Matt Sanders
Richard Longacre DQ
Austin Petray DQ
Ryan Peery DQ

Outlaw Pro Stocks
Jeff Haudenshild
Phil Marino
Scott Flowers
Darek Alford
Matt Harlow
James Flowers
Dennis Burtenhouse Jr
Scott Bennett
Johnny Cobb
Rick Lukens
Colby Hammond
Arlen Garrison
    -   

Coos Bay Speedway Unofficial Race Results September 5, 2020
Winged Sprints
R.J. Baker
RJ McGahney
David Marble
Lawrence Van Hoof
Donovan Prather
Brionna Fuller
Michael Colby Jr
Austin Sause

America's Mattress Super Late Models
Brody Montgomery
Braden Fugate
Jason Johnson
Mike Taylor
Wayne Butler
Brian Bowman
Preston Luckman
Hannah Robinson

Sportsman Late Models
Ryan Emry
Jared Simmons
Brionna Fuller

Street Stocks
Graig Osborne
Steve Dubisar
Ken Fox
Daniel Land
Leroy Rockwell
Sam Talon
Dustin Hitner
Charlie Withers
Tyler Tullos
danny eversole
Hunter Berrier

Mini Outlaws
Jeff Thurman
Dustin Wilikinson
Jason Kellam
mike beaudoin
Scott Beaudoin
Tahlen Rogers
Matthew Emry
Brad Hicks

Hornets
Thane Landis
Seth Christian
Kris Parker
William Hitner
scott Lager
John Henry
Mike Bales
Zach Hickman
Jamie Daniels
Kevin Rockwell
Bart Pulse

JR Stingers
Griff Smith
Teagan Montgomery
Jordan Wheeler
James Shingleton
Max Haga
Cameron Metzgus
Alex Butler
Drake Vincent
Alexus Baker
Heather Burton
Eli Luckman
Dylan Wheeler


Ukiah Speedway Unofficial Race Results September 5, 2020
Limited Modifieds
Jason Philpot
Sammy Nuno
Sierra Furia
Codi Barba
Tyler Caturegli
Roy Ingalls Jr
Kylei Keown
Loren Powers Jr
Dennis Anderson
Bo Robertson
TJ Buzzard
Tim Buzzard Sr

Legends
Cody Winchel
Derek Copeland
Scott Sabol
Nick Pappas
Tom Summers
JK Kinney
Jayson Elf
David Rank

Upstate Bombers
Charley Tour
Simi Tour
Drew Smith
Brenton Smith
Jordan Krupa
Peggy Tour
Brandon Powers
Ed Rasmussen
Jim Redd
Loren Powers Jr
Raymond Taylor
Tony Ramazzotti
Bradley Dale
Josh Smith
Roy Ingalls

Open Modifieds
Kyle Tellstrom
Dustin DeRosier
Sierra Furia
Darrin Sullivan
Codi Barba
Clay Caturegli
TJ Buzzard
Sammy Nuno
Casey Tillman

Street Stocks
Charley Tour
Rick Jelton
Trever Abella
Raymond Taylor DNS

Jammers (Jr)
Christian Sanchez
Hailey Glass
TJ Sorrels
Charles French

Bombers (B)
Horse Hawthorne
Dave Land

Jammers (Pro)
Michelle Robertson
David Rogers
Elizabeth Ingalls


Madera Speedway Unofficial Race Results September 5, 2020
Race 2B Drug Free Big3 Series
Nut Up Pro Late Models
Buddy Shepherd
Trevor Huddleston
Carlos Vieira
Jeremy Doss
Ryan Philpott
Joey Iest
Seth Wise
Eric Nascimento
Shelden Cooper
Austin Herzog
Glen Cook
Rick Thompson
Dylan Zampa
Doyle Moen
Kyle Keller
Pete Soto
Mike Beeler
Colby Potts
Dean Thompson
Blaine Rocha
Henk Gaalswyk Jr
Hans Beeler
Matt Erickson
Robby Hornsby
Howard Holden
Ross Strmiska
Dominic Lopez

51fifty Energy Drink Jr Late Model
Bradley Erickson
Jake Bollman
Kabe McClenny
Cole Brown
Brody Armtrout
Ethan Nascimento
Cassidy Hinds
Kercie Jung
Kasey Kleyn
Cody Kiemele
Robbie Kennealy
Holly Clark
Hailey Liles
Jody Moen
Kale McClenny
Brody Moore
Kylie Ith

Mini Cups/Bandoleros
Jeffrey Erickson
Caden Cordova
Joey Kennealy
Nathaniel Edwards
Cam Carroway
Rebecca Dubie
Harley Kennealy
Evan Laires
Molly Laires
Stephen Bazen
Bella Thomson


Cottage Grove Speedway Unofficial Race Results September 5, 2020
Limited Sprints
Kyle Alberding
Shane Forte
Brett McGhie
Donny Waddell
Brian Boswell
Ricky Ashley
Cooper Desbiens
Brian Crockett
TJ Winningham
Annissa Cutice
Enrique Jaime
Tim Minter
Jesse Schlotfeldt

Late Models
Jimmy Whistler
Mark Wauge
Brian Smith
Doug Elkins
Kyle Frick
Mike Peters
Rob Campos
Nathan Augustine
Ryan Ronning
Garrett Dees
Chad Groves
Chuck Christian
Bruce Rayburn Jr

Street Stock
Garrett Barth
Michael Hollingsworth
Adam Applebee
Barney Hamilton
Eric Freeman
Robert Hughes
Larry Owens
Troy Chamberlain
Braedon Castro

IMCA Modifieds
Eston Whisler
John Campos
Jake Mayden
Aaron Scheelar
Paul Rea
Jesse Williamson
Steven Sturdevant
Derick Young
Paul Culp
Sam Carlisle
Nick Bessette
Jason Begley
David Sutterfield
Dick Wright
Eric Ashley
Roy Kirk Jr
Chad Groves
Chance Hyser

IMCA Sportmods
Mike DeSilva
Daniel Ray
Michael Melton
Isaac Sanders
David Schmidt
Aaron Bloom
KC Scott
Doug Coffman
Chuck Carson
Jim Smith
Jerry Casey
Kevin Kirk
Theran Trissell
Dustin Comer
Chris Hallberg
Jeff Cluff
John Player
Hunter Bloom
Steven Sanders
Matt Sanders
Dalton Bloom
Shawn Hand

IMCA Sport Compacts
Burnie Bryant
Brad Moffett
Ricky Ashley
Kerry Cooper
Mark Milligan
Bradley Martin
Jeremy DeGrout
Willie Sutton
Tim Maltebarger
Barry Cannon
Cole Trissell
Rich Dickensen
Dustin Hendersen
Chloe VanSant
Ryan Dickensen
Scarlett Drake
Michael Kennerly
Kimberly Cannon
Mark Hendersen


Cottage Grove Speedway Unofficial Race Results September 6, 2020
Limited Sprints
Ricky Ashley
RJ McGahuey
Tyrell Mead
Annissa Curtice
Cooper Desbiens
David Marble
Brian Boswell
Donny Waddell
Jesse Schlotfeldt
Tim Minter
Enrique Jaime
Brett McGhie
Shane Forte
TJ Winningham

Late Models
Jimmy Whisler
Kye Frick
Brian Smith
Jordan Wright
Rob Campos
Mark Wauge
Jason Johnson
Nathan Augustine
Doug Elkins
Mike Peters
Garrett Dees
Chad Groves
Bruce Rayburn Jr
Chuck Christian

IMCA Modifieds
Jesse Williamson
Eston Whisler
Jake Mayden
John Campos
Nick Bessette
Derick Young
Chad Groves
Eric Ashley
Dave Duste Jr
Sam Carlisle
Paul Culp
Blair Shoemaker
Chance Hyser
Tom Lawson
James Anderson
Shawn Scofield
Wayne Sturdevant
Paul Rea
Steven Sturdevant
Dan Sheller DQ

B Main Event
Eric Ashley
Dan Sheller
Tom Lawson
James Anderson
Roy Kirk Jr
Shawn Scofield
Dick Wright
Jason Begley

IMCA Sport Modifieds
Main Event
Daniel Ray
Aaron Bloom
Isaac Sanders
Ryan Peery
Matt Sanders
KC Scott
Mike DeSilva
Chris Hallberg
Michael Lavery
Joby Shields
Dustin Comer
Doug Coffman
Michael Melton
Steven Sanders
Jerry Casey
David Schmidt
Jeff Cluff
Braedon Hand
Kevin Kirk
Theran Trissell

B Main
Joby Shields
Jeff Cluff
Michael Lavery
Kevin Kirk
Jerry Casey
Hunter Bloom
Jim Smith
John Player

Street Stocks
Graig Osborne
Garrett Barth
Blake Lehman
Dillon Solum
Jake Mayden
Michael Hollingsworth
Jody Tanner
Braedon Castro
Robert Hughes
Daniel Land
Troy Chamberlain
Eric Freeman
Larry Owens
Anthony Prather

IMCA Sport Compacts
Ricky Ashley
Kerry Cooper
Brad Moffett
Ryan Dickensen
Michael Kennerly
Bradley Martin
Mark Milligan
Burnie Bryant
Andrew Wright
Jeremy DeGrout
Tim Maltebarger
Barry Cannon
Jeff Cooper
Kimberly Cannon
Willie Sutton


Orange Show Speedway Unofficial Race Results September 5, 2020
LATE MODELS
Results are not official
1     #22 Glen Cummings
2     #56 Kyle Meyer
3     #86 Ryan Bragdon
4     #1 Chase Shackleford
5     #9 Zach St Onge
6     #20 Jeff Lovis
7     #10 Mark Shackleford
8     #27 Jerry King
          
LATE MODELS
Results are not official
1     #22 Glen Cummings
2     #56 Kyle Meyer
3     #86 Ryan Bragdon
4     #1 Chase Shackleford
5     #9 Zach St Onge
6     #20 Jeff Lovis
7     #10 Mark Shackleford
8     #27 Jerry King

PRO 
Results are not official
1     #22 John Sereika
2     #12 Don Minut Jr
3     #11 Michael Dean
4     #21 Tyler Underwood
5     #95 Wes White
6     #62 Ethan Cheek
7     #24 Don Minut
8     #2 Darren Cheek

STREET STOCKS
Results are not official
1     #8 Tyler Gallup
2     #19 Jay Henson
3     #16x Roger Brown
4     #07 Evan McCray
5     #3 Mark Whitson
6     #18 Darrin Secord
7     #35 Justin Good
8     Data unavailable
9     #13 Steven Clark
10     #71 Mitch Williams

MINI STOCKS
Results are not official
1     #4 Danny Love
2     #15 Cody Parenteau
3     #16 Eric King
4     #50 Brandon Snow
5     #88 Zach St Onge
6     #98 Josh Ferguson
7     #82 Shane Sinibaldi
8     #33 Scott McIntyre
9     #18 Anthony Edwards
10     #99 Cody Carruthers
11     #97 Tyler Gallup
12     #49 Jim Snow
13     #18x Victor Garcia
14     #48 Matthew Gilbert
15     #42 Michael Hindman
16     #06 David Michael
17     #13 Johnna Thiel
18     #51 Jim Mardis

ENDURO
Results are not official
1     #25 Steve Belling
2     #37 Chad Peterson               
3     #22 Anthony Price
4     #14 Traci Whatley
5     #13 Marina Turner .
6     #07 Andrew Schmitz

BANDELORO
Results are not official
1     #11 Daniel O Donnell
2     #93 Ralph Hodges]

Willamette Speedway Unofficial Results September 5, 2020

Hornet

1st 1 Cory Sweatman

2nd 218 Andrew Wright

3rd 34 CJ Davidson

4th 1J James Skeslien

5th 78 Robert Carver

Sportsman

1st 77  Chad Slover

2nd 1 Jeff Rash

3rd 09 James Slover

4th 0 Jeff Davis

5th 27 Kent Emry

6th 36 Jody Tanner

7th 67 Mike Lavery

8th 49 Darron Clark

9th 2 Clyde Rood

10th 31 Steve Piefer

11th 33 Wes Roles

Street Stocks
A Main

1st 2G Brad Gentry

2nd 11S Donald Schott

3rd 04 Rod McCombs

4th 47 Kyle Yeack

5th 89 Dakota Godard

6th 22 Mckenzie Lockhart

7th 00 Sean Cronk

8th 33 Arnie Case

9th 93 Blake Lehman

10th 11X PJ Humphrey

11th 40 Phil Lovvorn

12th 38 Amanda Solum

13th 10 James Baker

14th 25 Brandon Crawford

15th 99 Justin Evans

16th 25 Trent Custer

B Main

1st  93 Blake Lehman

2nd 40 Phil Lovvorn

3rd 38 Amanda Solum

4th 10 James Baker

5th K2 Kyndal Irvine

6th 36 Jody Tanner

7th 48 Dom Conti

8th 85 Sean Morton

9th 17X Loren Graham

IMCA Modifieds

1st 66 Doug Lockwood

2nd 13 Grey Ferrando

3rd 25 Craig Cassell

4th 47 Kyle Yeack

5th 44P Dakota Godard

6th 11S Tom Sweatman

7th 98D Dan Sheller

8th 98 Shawn Scofield

9th 63 Mike Sweere

Super Sports

1st 44 Bryan Norton

2nd 17 Vahn Stone

3rd 99 Steve Moore

4th 82 Gil Pickett

5th 30 Robert Mercer

6th 22 Mike Betker

7th 66X Tony Goddard

Late Models

1st 09 James Slover

2nd 13B Randy Barley

3rd 5 Britton Donahoo

4th 33 Jordan Wright

5th U2 Bruce Hipple

6th 72 Steve Moore

7th 0 JD Davis

The Editor's Viewpoint

The beginning of September signals a big week is coming for the IMCA family of divisions. Drivers from all over the United States make their pilgrimage to Boone, Iowa for a week's worth of racing. The purses are bigger, but it's not just about the money. It's about taking on the best drivers in the country. You want to win if you can, but just making it into the show is a victory in itself. Over the years, we've seen some Californians do just that, and they're getting more competitive each year. In fact, Bakersfield Ethan Dotson got the big IMCA Modified win last year.

One of the dilemmas promoters on the West Coast, or anywhere for that matter, have is what you book the week before the Nationals. You can book anything you want with an IMCA sanctioning that week, but you're still going to lose drivers. Several drivers skip that weekend because of the long tow that they need to make to Boone. As more drivers from the West Coast start doing this, it has an impact. I know several California and Oregon drivers are heading that way. You're on the verge of losing two weeks of IMCA sanctioned racing as you can't book an IMCA sanctioned event on the second weekend of September according to the sanctioning body's own rules.

I remember talking to John Skinner the last year he promoted the Lon Skinner race on Labor Day weekend in Medford. I told him that he lost some good Modified drivers on Labor Day weekend because they are going to Boone instead. I was wondering if maybe the race could be moved to get those guys too. He told me that in a way I was right and in a way I was wrong. I get it. Labor Day weekend is still the best weekend because of the holiday on Monday. Everybody isn't going to Boone, it's just that you lose some of the best drivers when you try to run a big show. We still had incredible success the last two years we ran the R Charles Snyder Salute, but we were faced with some growing challenges as well. 

One of the things that we started to notice was other tracks were running that weekend that hadn't been been doing so in recent years. In California, for instance, it seemed like Watsonville, Antioch, Merced and Petaluma were staying dark, which works to your advantage when you're trying to get drivers from out of town to your big show. Cottage Grove wasn't running the IMCA classes, but Willamette was. It still meant that we could get some good racers for the show. Within the last year or so, Merced, Antioch and Cottage Grove started running the Modified classes as well.

The virus has silenced us this year, but there ought to be some concern about the Labor Day show in Medford going forward. I don't see Cottage Grove backing off. As some racers view that place as the Mecca of Oregon, they're going to pull cars from Medford, even if Medford pays $5,000 to win the Modifieds and $2,000 to win the Sport Modifieds. You'd like to have cooperation, but I don't know who's worse when it comes to lack of cooperation in Oregon. Heather Boyce or Jerry Schram? It's a tough call there. You can't make a deal with them, because the knife comes out and you get stabbed in the back anyway. That sounds harsh, but that's the way I see it. You'll get my opinion here. 

Last year, Antioch ran a point race on top of it, and this year was going to be the George Steitz Freedom Series event, regardless of whether the virus shut everything down or not. Merced ran a big money IMCA Sport Modified race right on top of ours last year, but I understood why. Management presented the racers an option. Do you want to run for big money here or tow hours up north to take a shot at it. A few drivers left Merced for the bigger show, but others understandably stayed home. At least he was giving them something big to go for. Antioch pinned everybody down that year over points. This year it would have been money and points.

I don't know what my point is here other than to highlight the challenge that Medford might have in trying to run a big show on Labor Day weekend going forward. A magic number for paying such an increased purse for any division is at least 40 cars signed up, and it's usually an increased entry fee at that. If you're paying $2,000 to win the Sport Modifieds and $5,000 to win the Modifieds, you need to see that number of entries at the very least, and probably more in the Modifieds. With the Sport Modifieds siphoning drivers from the Modified class, it's a tall order to get there these days, but not impossible.

Witness Antioch Speedway and its ability to book $3,500 or even $5,000 to win Modified shows as we entered the 2000s. John Soares had the formula, but this was before IMCA Sport Modifieds were introduced. He could put that money up and know he was going to get at least get 50 cars to show up, and usually he could get into the 60s. The ability to draw 60 cars pretty much went away when the IMCA Sport Modifieds took hold. That's not a knock against any division, just highlighting the challenges of meeting your minimum car count numbers. Actually, if a track wanted to make a big $5,000 to win IMCA Sport Modified race right now, I bet they could get 60 cars at the very least.

But back to the Medford track, I hope the R Charles Snyder Salute continues to thrive. With other tracks jumping in and having their big races, not to mention the fact that some racers are going to head to Boone for the IMCA Nationals, you're going to have to fight for every IMCA Modified and IMCA Sport Modified you can get. We've compensated during the past couple of years by having the Southern Oregon Dwarf Cars and Outlaw Pro Stocks as part of the show. That's resulted in some of the biggest car counts the track has seen in years. Now, we're doing nothing but sitting idle thanks to the virus shut down.

As for the IMCA Modified and Sport Modified racers going back to Iowa to represent the West Coast, guys like Ryan McDaniel, Randy Brown, Bricen James, Nick Trenchard, Carl Berendsen II, Guy Ahlwardt, Jorddon Braaten, Brent Curran and others, I hope they do well. For some people it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to go back there. I'm told it's non-stop racing and cars as far as the eye can see. 

There comes a point for me where it's overkill. I think I got to the border of that with the George Steitz races at San Jose. I'm not knocking it. I just don't have the desire to go and witness something like that. Now, if there was a George Steitz race, a legitimate successor, I might be interested. My one caveat is that it has to be organized a little better than those races were at San Jose back in the day. One thing about a big event like that is it's a huge moneymaker, and IMCA is making a killing every year. Good for them.

Last week, I was actually making pretty good time putting articles together. I still ended up posting late, and it turned out to be a good thing as news broke about Antioch Speedway and Merced Speedway. News can break daily and sometimes hourly, so I didn't mind posting Thursday evening. It still counted as a weekend preview post that went out on time. One of the things that delayed me was some very informative and interesting conversations I had with Promoter Mike McCann as we talked about the history of Sunset Speedway in Banks, Oregon.

Mike is somebody who has been there and done that. He really has an impressive history of promoting race tracks. If you ask him if he'll write a book about it, he will tell you he doesn't have to. He lived every minute of it and enjoyed himself. This is a guy who's sat at the table with most of the top promoters on the West Coast that we've had in the last 40 years. There might be promoters feuding with each other a little bit, and Mike would still have the respect of all of them. The fact that he had the respect of Bob Barkhimer, who gave him advice, not to mention the respect of John Pershing Soares, shows a lot about the man. 

One of the ways that he's been effective in his time is his ability to establish racing programs. Sunset Speedway was one of them, and this was a project that was a few years in the making. He was looking at it, but he couldn't quite put the deal together and ended up going with Chuck Prather to Eugene Speedway for four years. 

He had some good times in Eugene, including putting dirt on the inside of the pavement track and hosting some Late Models and Sprint Cars as well as other divisions. The dirt track soon overshadowed the pavement track, but a prick of a neighbor causing problems with the city put an end to that speedway. It sits idle now. It's been declared a wetlands, but you can still go over the fence and walk the old pavement trick.

At a time when he was reviving Cottage Grove Speedway, which was Riverside Speedway at the time, Mike was asked to help establish the track at Madras Speedway. He was only there for about a year or so, but the local racing group needed all the help they could get. He brought them some organization and structure to their program, and they created more of a racing facility back then. What he did helped get them going, and Madras Speedway continues to this day. The best was yet to come. 

After Mike did his time at Eugene Speedway, he returned to Sunset Speedway. They basically had a local Destruction Derby group organizing the racing events, but they had no car count. The track had no infrastructure, nor did it have a direction. When you hear what was going on there, it seems similar to some of the Eastern Oregon dirt tracks that kind of coasted along in the shadows of the bigger facilities. Those Eastern tracks, which I might write about at a later time, don't exist now. Sunset Speedway does.

Drawing from his experience promoting at Cottage Grove, Madras, Eugene and his days promoting Micro Sprint events, Mike had a game plan for Sunset Speedway. This little track sat in the shadows of the NASCAR sanctioned Portland Speedway, and the more established River City Speedway in St Helens. However, Mike began to build the infrastructure around the track, and he established a program that saw car count grow rapidly. He had a thriving Street Stock division with a big 100 lap race as a highlight. He built the Hobby Stock class, and then did what he is known for. He brought in the Sprint Cars and Midgets. He also had a Hardtop series.

One thing about Mike is he's a loyal man and will do right by you if you do right by him. Sunset Park reaped the benefits. His success at that race track helped pay for buildings, signage and other improvements. Sunset Speedway was kind of the best-kept secret in Oregon, but people who went there loved the place. He had an impressive seven-year run there. When it ended, the racers were very unhappy to see him leave. Compared to the program he was promoting back then, the track is a shadow of its former self, but at least it still survives.

Mike will promote any division that can put on a show, but his calling card through the years has been Sprint Cars. He developed the Oregon Double Shot Series that featured Wingless Sprints and Midgets while he was promoting Sunset Speedway. The Midgets have faded away, but there is a Wingless Sprint group that still survives to this day. At Cottage Grove Speedway, he established Sprint Car racing. It is now known as the hub of Sprint Car racing in Oregon, but it started because Mike believed it could work there.

I could go on and on, but I fear I would go on too long on the subject. One of the things I did want to talk about was Marysville Raceway is getting set to have the Salute to The Gold Cup and Platinum Cup this Wednesday. It's unfortunate that the covid-19 shutdown caused Silver Dollar Speedway to lose the big event, which was to feature some great Winged 360 Sprint Car racing as well as the World of Outlaws. Promoter Dennis Gage wanted to acknowledge all of this with a big show that will feature the Winged 360 Sprint Cars as well as the Hobby Stocks. It will be broadcast on floracing.com, and I suppose they'll have 100 fans allowed in attendance again.

It's also noteworthy that this is the 30th consecutive season of Winged 360 Sprint car racing on the Marysville quarter-mile clay oval. Historically, Marysville was known as a Stock Car track. If you wanted Sprint Cars back then, you would go to Placerville, Chico or even Grass Valley. If somebody even thought about running Sprint Cars there, they might have been laughed out of the place. Why do that when you've got those other places doing it? Enter Mike McCann. He had purchased the place from Chuck Prather following another successful running of the Gold Fever Stock Car show.

McCann made all the right moves. He was aiming big, and he wanted to bring in a NARC Sprint Car race. The track wasn't seen as being quite big enough for them, but McCann made the track a little bit bigger and safer so that he could start the Winged 360 Sprint Car class he had in mind. He even spoke with the big Sprint Car promoter in the area, John Padjen. He wanted John to know what his intent was, and after that it was time to have the first Sprint Car race in 1991. People might have thought it wouldn't last, but it did. It grew very quickly. 

I think you can make a good case that had Mike and not stepped in and done what he did, the track might not have had a Winged 360 Sprint Car show at all, at least ways not a regular show. He was only there for a brief time, but that was one of the impacts he had on the place. The division started to thrive more after Ernie Purcell Memorial Speedway in Grass Valley closed and Mel Hall came to Marysville. It's now been 30 seasons. The racers and the fans are the ones who have reaped the benefits as there have been some exciting Sprint Car shows held at Marysville through the years. You can go to the Marysville Raceway Facebook page for more information on this week's event.

The news of the IMCA Stock Car division being added to the Bill Bowers Memorial race at Antioch Speedway on October 1st through 3rd barely hit my desk before it was time for me to put up the previous post. Big things are happening for the IMCA Stock Cars in California. I think about Keller Auto Speedway in Hanford and how they've been fighting for this class for about 15 years. They needed dancing partners to build this thing up. Eventually, Bakersfield Speedway jumped in, and Tulare was willing to host the occasional date as well. What they needed was other tracks to get the class. This is what was going to finally put the division on the map in California.

The announcements of Merced Speedway and Antioch Speedway this past week are indicators that both Doug Lockwood at Merced and Promoter Chad Chadwick at Antioch are committed to this class. The three Merced dates that have been added on October 23rd and 24th and November 27th will all include the IMCA Stock Cars. Merced has had several drivers building IMCA legal cars in the area, and it bodes well for them to put up acceptable numbers on those weeks when they are running head-to-head with Hanford or Bakersfield. I'm getting a really good vibe from Merced. 

There's a lot of activity going on at Antioch Speedway that I have not heard, but what I am hearing is multiple drivers are getting into IMCA Stock Cars. Adding this division to the marquee date is the perfect way to debut this class to the fans watching at home. It would be nice if fans could actually watch from the grandstands, but I doubt that will be permitted by then. These cars are different than your average Hobby Stock. They look different and they handle differently, and that's actually a good thing for the racing they will be offering. It was a smart move to add this class, and I don't think it will put too much stress on officials keeping the show moving. There will be just enough cars for a show, but not too many.

There will still be enough that there could be a new California IMCA Stock Car record set in Antioch. I can easily see 20 drivers showing up. Word from the Gallaher Racing Team is that Rob and Joe Gallaher may both be at Antioch practice on September 16th to test their cars out, and they are keenly interested in this Antioch date. 

It's starting to happen. This is also likely to be a new record for a division debut car count in the modern era at Antioch Speedway. The old record was a dozen, set by the Wingless Spec Sprints in 1999. Of course, not all of the drivers are going to be Antioch regulars, so I might be tempted to put an asterisk next to that, but it still counts.

There will be changes happening in racing. That's inevitable. I really feel like we've needed a "next big thing" to be added to the roster. I'm not saying IMCA Stock Cars are that thing, but they are different. The next big thing is something that catches the imagination of the racing community and gets everybody building cars. It's also something that gets the fans excited and back at the track, when we are able to have them in the grandstands again. I can see the IMCA Stock Cars having a big impact. I also don't think Antioch and Merced will be the last tracks to add a class in California. The only question I have will be, who's next? Watch this division grow at both venues in 2021. It's going to happen.

We could speculate that Petaluma Speedway might look at IMCA Stock Cars in the future, but this is the track that has not gotten on the bandwagon with the IMCA Sport Modifieds yet. They made the decision to double down on the IMCA Modifieds as their only IMCA sanctioned class. Car count sort of moves along at about a dozen racers per week there, and I don't know that management will look at adding anything to the program. We can only speculate at this point what 2021 will bring them, but at least the show should continue for another year. 

One thing we did learn last Friday night was that Petaluma Speedway canceled their Sunday show. Evidently, management was asked by the city and the mayor to shut down for the week. I'm mystified as to why they did that, and quite frankly it sounds kind of stupid to me. Rick Faeth attempted to put the spin on his announcement on Friday, citing the air quality, the heat and potential fire conditions. I don't think a lot of people were buying it, but they weren't pointing the finger at Rick. This one was out of his hands. I guess they'll try again this weekend.

I did get a chuckle out of the report from announcer Ron Lingron regarding what was going on at the fairgrounds on Thursday night. They set up a makeshift screen for a drive-in theater night, but the screen fell down as the movie was getting ready to start. I sincerely hope that this wasn't the reason why they weren't allowed to have the races. The other thing is it's asinine to me that they are creating gatherings like this to enable people to be social, rather than letting people spectate at the race track. Even if you limited that to a few hundred people, it could be done safely according to these ridiculous safety guidelines they're pushing on us during this overhyped pandemic.

Race tracks have to muddle through as best they can if they want to try to negotiate through this virus situation with any racing what so ever. The Southern Oregon area felt the sting of the loss of the races this past weekend. For the past four years, we've had the R Charles Snyder Salute, and it's gone pretty well for the last two years. The Labor Day weekend race has been a tradition at this track since it opened in 1996 with the Lon Skinner Memorial, so you'll usually see a bigger car count than normal. There have been well over 100 racers at this event for the past two years.

With Medford pretty much putting the key in the gate for this year, this left Siskiyou Golden Speedway to make an attempt at a double header weekend. They weren't promising a huge event, just an opportunity for the IMCA Modifieds, IMCA Sport Modifieds and Outlaw Pro Stocks to compete for two nights of racing. In fact, nobody knew exactly what they would be racing for on Friday night as there was no advertised purse. The advertisement basically said $800 to win for the IMCA Modifieds on Saturday and $700 to win for the Sport Modifieds that night. For those in the area, this was the opportunity to do any sort of racing at all without traveling a great distance.

Siskiyou Golden Speedway is like most of the tracks. They can't have fans in the grandstands. Misty Bushman has been giving fans a peek at the racing action for free on Facebook, but they really needed to generate a little bit of revenue. Anything at this point would be better than nothing. As luck would have it, Tri State Pro Stock Challenge Series Director Roy Bain had an option. He could stream the racing action from his group's Facebook page and put it behind a pay window. Facebook recently granted him that privilege. If I heard Misty correctly, Siskiyou Speedway got the same permission on Friday.

Roy didn't promise professional-quality commentary or a professionally shot event, but what he did offer was a glimpse into what was going on. I have to say he did well under the circumstances. I'll repeat my assertion that Roy has been one of the MVP people in racing during this difficult time that we are going through. We were able to keep track of who was leading the races, and Roy even made sure to give us a finish after each race. People only paid $10 to watch the Friday night show, and would pay the same on Saturday. It's not a bad deal under the circumstances, and it helped the track. As I try to cover this track and have been covering the Tri State Series as well, I appreciate Roy giving me this peek into the races. 

I don't know what I was expecting to see on Friday night in terms of car count. My minimum number was 40 for the three division offering, and they delivered 37. It's not bad, but I sort of thought the IMCA Sport Modifieds would do better. I will say the drivers who showed up did their best to put on a good show. I'm not sure why, but the show did seem to drag out a little bit longer than I thought it should have given the car count. Sometimes racing just goes that way though. Fans sitting at home watching the stream at least got to check out some racing.

For the second time, Jorddon Braaten skipped out on a point race to go back to Boone, Iowa. My hope is that this time he has better luck and doesn't come home with an injury. The Yreka championship was pretty much his to win, and he passed that battle down to two-time Medford champion Mike Medel and reigning Yreka champion Ethan Killingsworth. 

Medel had about the worst thing happen that could. Mechanical issues sent him into the infield early in their Main Event in a cloud of smoke. With Killingsworth ending up getting the win, an interesting championship battle is developing between these two drivers. The Sport Modifieds had their results shaken up after post-race disqualifications, and I'm not privy to all the details there. Ryan Perry led most of the way as the rookie appeared to grab his second feature win, but he was disqualified along with Austin Petray and 2018 Susanville champion Richard Longacre. This may not have been the way that Killingsworth wanted to get his first win at his home track this year, but he'll take it.

Jeffrey Hudson continues to impress behind the wheel of the Don Romer IMCA Modified. Always in the hunt for a win, past Medford and Yreka champion Albert Gill led the race early, but Hudson got by. Gill settled for yet another second place finish, but he gained very little on point leader Travis Peery, who was right behind him in third. I'd like to say there could have been more IMCA Modifieds in this group, and maybe that's the case. However, maybe a dozen cars was a reasonable expectation for this show.

You can start on the front row of a race, but you still have to keep the drivers behind you. The Outlaw Pro Stock Association made their fourth appearance on Friday night, and this group has been so wide open this year that you really don't know who's going to win on any given night. On this occasion, Jeff Haudenshild had the pole. The Haudenshild family has been big supporters of the Pro Stock class for years. Most of the time, he saw threats from two-time Chico champion Phil Marino and James Flowers. As the point leader of the group, James's father Scott Flowers had to work his way through the pack.

I wasn't aware of the fact that young Darek Alford has a new Pro Stock this year, and it's a fast car. He has the car of two-time Pro Stock champion Scott Lenz, and you can definitely see that the car handles very well. This is essentially Mini Stock graduate Darek's first year, however, and he's getting the handle on things. He does have a win, but he struggled at times before finishing fourth on this occasion. Whoever happened to be behind Haudenshild, he kept them at bay and picked up the win. One mistake, however, and that could have went away for him. Marino ended up second ahead of Scott Flowers.

When I watch what they are doing at Yreka, I can see a team working hard. Promoter Kevin Barba has invested in more equipment, and one thing they're doing in Yreka is packing the track for the racers. The racers don't get called to the track until it's time to hot lap. Given the situation with no fans, it's going to be difficult for the track to make money. In fact, I've heard they have lost money on a few of these shows. Why is Kevin doing this stuff? He's just trying to be there for his racers to give them an opportunity to race. Knowing that, I'd like to see the guy get a little bit more support on race night. I still look back at Fourth of July weekend and the big show that should have gone better for them.

The Saturday show seemed to go pretty smoothly. The numbers in the three divisions didn't change too much for the second night of racing, and there were also seven Mini Stocks. I'm not sure where the Mini Stock racers are, but the car count they've been getting in the class this year isn't as strong as it probably should be. In fact, if it wasn't for the Medford support coming their way, they might even struggle to put on a show at all with this division. 

It's a little bit of a head-scratcher to me why the Mini Stock numbers in this area aren't a little bit bigger. I've had this conversation with Medford champion David Steele in recent years, and he offered the opinion that the Hornet division that we were starting in Medford had a negative impact. I did see his point in that new drivers were getting into the Hornet division, which was a slightly cheaper proposition. However, the Hornet division graduated a few drivers into the Mini Stocks.

When we first took over the Medford track in 2016, the Mini Stock car count grew as high as 17 cars, but then it slipped during the next few years. We weren't able to get double-digit car count on several occasions, and Yreka was having the same issue. The Mini Stock division isn't that expensive, although it seems like many drivers are going with Mustangs these days. When they've tried other cars, they just haven't been as competitive. I don't know if maybe drivers are looking at that, having a hard time tracking down a good Mustang and giving up on the idea or what. That might account for new drivers not coming out in bigger numbers, but there are several cars in the area that haven't been seen lately.

In any case, the seven drivers on hand did their best to put on a show for the people watching the Facebook pay-per-view at home. Marilyn Yawnick won a closer heat race, but it was Steele charging ahead for his fifth Main Event win. Unless he gives up on the points or something bad happens, David will win his second Yreka championship. Since I brought up the subject of Hornets, I still wonder if that's a division Yreka should take a look at in the future. I stand by my assertion that the track needs to create another "in house" division that they can count on.

It was nice to see Albert Gill finally break through and get an IMCA Modified Main Event win. It's been a few years, and the team has certainly worked hard at it. He's got Travis Peery to contend with, so Albert wasn't gaining very many points with the win. In fact, I doubt he'll overtake Peery for the championship, but the Main Event win still had to feel pretty good for the team. He started up front but made no mistakes in the 25 lap race. The real drive came from Friday night winner Jeffrey Hudson, who did the passing to get to a third place finish. I watched Hudson drive Sprint Cars, and I will say that he's the real deal. Lots of potential with him.

It all started for Hudson in the Outlaw Pro Stocks, where he won the 2015 championship. In recent years, Steve Borror and Dr Scott Lenz have somewhat dominated the class. In their absence, it's anybody's guess who will get the win. Usually, point leader Scott Flowers is somewhere in the mix. Flowers had a shot at the win on this occasion, but it was Chico star Phil Marino becoming the fifth different winner in as many Yreka races for the group. Flowers had to settle for second. It was nice to see Tri State Pro Stock Challenge booster Lyle Hopper of Winning Attitude Motorsports throwing some additional money into their purse. 

This was the advertised attraction for the weekend. Extra money was on the line in the IMCA Modifieds and IMCA Sport Modifieds. Gill pocketed $800 for his IMCA Modified win. Ethan Killingsworth, meanwhile, enjoyed one of the biggest wins of his career in the IMCA Sport Modifieds and pocketed $700 in the process. He started on the front row and grabbed the lead early on. After his disqualification the previous night, Ryan Peery was there to give Killingsworth his main threat, but even he wasn't fast enough to overtake the reigning champion.

What's interesting is Jorddon Braaten vacated the point lead. Jorddon mentioned in his interview at the season finale in Medford last year that he was looking for new challenges. It's not surprising that he would bail on a point race to go to Boone, Iowa. What I'd like to see Jorddon do in the future is come down to California and visit a place like Antioch, Merced or Watsonville. Let's see what Oregon's best can do against the competition in California. I believe he can win, but he'd certainly find stiff competition there. My first introduction to him was a visit his team had to Chowchilla in 2015, where he finished second.

Mike Medel was in the prime position to get the lead from Braaten, but mechanical issues sent him out early on Friday night. On Saturday, he got a flat tire and had to charge from deep in the pack before ending up fourth in the feature race. It wasn't the finish he was looking for, but it enabled him to cling to a slim lead over Killingsworth. I'm not going to speculate on how big the lead is. IMCA will release the totals on Friday as usual. It will be interesting to see whether Medel can dig down deep and come up big or if young Killingsworth will defend his championship. 

Promoter Kevin Barba went live with Misty Bushman to thank everybody on Sunday for their support. I'm still not sure the numbers added up, but Kevin has said he's doing this for the racers. The ones who want to race will show up, but races like the one that they have booked this Saturday make me nervous. They'll do a practice on Friday. IMCA doesn't have points this weekend, so a lot of tracks won't book the Modifieds or Sport Modifieds this weekend. Yreka sort of has to book the Sport Modifieds for a non point affair if they want to have a show. Mini Stock numbers aren't up, but they will be there. 

My biggest concern is the Limited Sprint race they have on the schedule. You're not going to get those drivers unless you advertise a purse, and it needs to be the Cottage Grove level, if not the Medford level. That means $500 to win and $100 to start. The money simply isn't there for Yreka to do that without sponsorship, so I don't think there will be that many drivers willing to come in just for the fun of it. Sprint Car drivers aren't known for that. Maybe they'll throw the Jefferson State Jalopies in there for good measure. In any case, I hoped the car count would be better than it was last weekend, but they did okay. You can check the Siskiyou Golden Speedway Facebook page for any breaking news or information.

Madera Speedway took center stage for me. Actually, I had simultaneous streams going from Madera and Ukiah as they happened, but I was curious how this $3,000 to win Nut Up Pro Late Model Semi Main would go. It turns out they didn't have it. The track wanted more than 27 cars to run that race, and they had 27 cars. For lack of one car, it didn't happen. I was watching qualifying, and it would have been on the razor's edge as far as making the show or not. Eight drivers qualified in the 14 second bracket, and I think all of the Top 16 were 15.1 or lower. That's fast. 

There's a few ways to look at it. $3,000 is a lot of money to pay a Semi Main, so I don't begrudge management for sticking to the letter of their advertisement. 27 drivers would be able to start the Main Event on the 1/3 mile oval, though that would certainly make things more eventful in that race. I would have loved to see an 11 car Semi Main for $3,000 to win, but I'm not the one who would have to write that check. The other way of looking at it is the $5,000 prize being offered to the Main Event winner made that race crazier than usual. We might have been spared a brutal Semi Main on this occasion. I hope the track brings this idea back again. I'm a bit surprised more cars didn't show up as there had to be a few drivers sitting at home that thought they had a chance to win a Semi Main.

Beating Buddy Shepherd is not an easy proposition these days. The Bakersfield racer is the real deal, and the team has found something this year. As I mentioned, the times were pretty quick in qualifying, and Buddy never really pulled away from everybody else in the Main Event. Trevor Huddleston, Carlos Vieira, Ryan Philpott and Jeremy Doss were hanging around at the front of the pack most of the race. There were a few crack ups during the first 50 lap segment, but it didn't look like it would get too crazy. However, what was about to happen showed just how wild and entertaining it can get on the pavement.

Matt Erickson has been one of the top stars on the pavement circuit during the last decade, whether that be Madera, Stockton or even Roseville. Erickson was battling for a Top 5 position with previous winner Dylan Zampa when he ended up in the Turn 2 wall. I haven't seen the replay, but I'm sure when this thing airs on MavTV it will be must-see TV. Erickson felt Zampa had done something wrong, so he went around during the yellow and nailed him on the front straightaway. Not a smart move, and I'm sure there will be official repercussions for that. I guess it was a case of, "If I can't win this race, you can't either." That's what a big winner's prize will do to you sometimes.

That happened about 10 laps before the wild ending. They were coming up on curfew, but I think that the track was willing to roll the dice and go a little bit over if they could get the cars under a long green-flag run. I know what the official explanation was for this ending, but it didn't quite look that way on the free stream, which was sponsored by nutupindustries.com. Huddleston obviously got the jump on Shepherd on the last restart. He led them into Turn 1. On the back straightaway, a tap from Shepherd sent Huddleston spinning. Further down the back straightaway, Vieira had somehow gotten into Doss, who ended up on his side on top of the back wall. It was a red flag. 

At this point, they were at curfew and it wasn't going to be a quick clean-up to get things going again. As I said, I think there might have been more willingness to go over curfew if the guys were making laps and it could wrap up quickly. There's less chance of anybody watching the clock and complaining about the noise if you are only a few minutes over. In this case, you might have seen a restart at 11:20 or 11:30, and that obviously wasn't going to happen. Track officials were figuring out how to deal with this mess, and I was wondering myself. Huddleston spun after Shepherd's contact and Vieira and Doss crashed further down the back straightaway. It seemed like it might line up for Ryan Philpott, who was running in fifth at the time. 

What announcers Steven Blakesley and Outback Andy Foster explained to the audience of over 700 people viewing at home was that the flag man was going to call the restart back, but he didn't get to flip the yellow light on before all hell broke loose on the back straightaway. It's a plausible explanation as this is standard protocol. You don't immediately flip a yellow light on, because that can cause problems in Turns 1 and 2. They went back to the previous lap, so everybody involved in the melee maintained their position. It was like the green flag never flew.

It was interesting listening to a subdued Shepherd as he was being interviewed after his $5,000 victory. With Ross Strmiska falling out very early, Shepherd increased his championship point lead and basically had his best night of the year. He seems to be able to make that car work pretty well on the outside from what I see. I do like the fact that they've been showing post-race interviews. This is something you'll see on MavTV, but they do this for every free broadcast with every division. I like the presentation they are giving the fans.

When we got to Huddleston, he couldn't help but take a little bit of a jab at Shepherd for the contact that sent him spinning. I don't know that Huddleston was too choked up about it. I don't think his car received too much damage, that lap wasn't going to count and he pocketed $3,000. That's a pretty nice consolation prize as well as the $2,000 check that Vieira received. Some of that money will probably go into repairing the car after his crash with Doss on the backstretch. All in all, the show was a bit brutal, but it was definitely entertaining.

On Monday afternoon, Madera Speedway announced to that there was a protest being filed on the finish. The protest has to do with the finish essentially being what the order was as the drivers ran to the green flag. The protester, who wasn't identified, felt like that's not the way the finish should be. Everything else I say right now is speculation, but I believe it was Philpott's team that filed the protest. As he made it through that attempted restart unscathed, he probably feels he's got a legitimate claim to that victory. I don't know what fifth place was going to pay, but it's certainly much less than the $5,000 winner's prize. I don't know if the protest will be successful, but I somehow I doubt it. Then again, it doesn't hurt to try

The 51fifty Energy Drink Junior Late Models were also a little bit rough at times, though not as bad as the Pros. Bradley Erickson was able to notch his third victory as he increased his point lead, while Jake Bollman picked up a season-best second. I like that some of these kids are starting the Madera Late Model shows at those regular Club Events. Kabe McClenny got his first win a week earlier, and the experience seemed to help him in finishing third. I felt bad for Kercie Jung, who got caught up in a tangle early on, charged back through the field and into the Top 5, only to have something happen again. Some weeks are like that I guess.

The Bandoleros and the Mini Cups run together, but I wonder if there's a threshold the track will look at when it becomes possible to run the two groups separately. The Bandoleros aren't that much quicker than the Mini Cups, but they are quicker on the starts. Most of the time, the Bandoleros are going to get the win. On this occasion, there were six of those cars and five of the Mini Cups. As you will see Hobby Stocks run with four or five cars, I'm just curious if these two divisions could have run separately or what the number is before management might look at that.

What I do like is that they talk about the different race going on within the race on their broadcast. We were kept up-to-date on what Rebecca Dubie was doing against Harley Kennealy. Kennealy has been making more practice laps on Friday nights, and that's definitely working to the rookie driver's advantage. She surprised Dubie by beating her at the previous race, but Dubie was back on top for her fifth win on this occasion. 

Meanwhile, Jeffrey Erickson has a perfect record of six wins in the Bandoleros. They had a few tangles behind Erickson with Caden Cordova earning another second place finish when it was all said and done. A young driver named Cam Carroway had just turned 10 years old and made his first Bandolero start. It seemed like the car was pretty quick, but the Quarter Midget graduate was still getting used to the ride. It turns out that Cam is just keeping the seat warm for Junior Sprint star Kyle Fernandez, who will eventually get behind the wheel. Fernandez has won several Main Events in Dixon this year as he challenges Makayla Tatoole for the championship.

The broadcast that Madera Speedway gave away for free was definitely entertaining. It may not have ended as pretty as you'd like, but every track deals with that. It's because of Nut Up Industries and other great sponsors like Mission Foods that they are able to do this, rather than charging $20 per week to watch. I guess this is the part where I give the weekly salute to Kenny Shepherd. They'll be back at it with a Club Race this Saturday that will feature the Madera Late Models and the 602 Crate Modifieds, among other classes. The Crate Modified Series is something that's just getting started between Madera and two other tracks. Further information can be found on the Madera Speedway Facebook page.

Ukiah Speedway actually went about as late as Madera did with their show. They give us a free and rather pleasant broadcast on the track's Facebook page. I still don't know the name of the announcer, but I like him. The Upstate Bomber Series delivered 15 cars for their show. There were enough B Bombers and Street Stocks that they ran a separate race, rather than a race within a race. I like that, because these cars are a little bit slower and are definitely a slightly different division. The Limited Modifieds delivered double-digit car count, and there were nine Open Modifieds.

The track had made an announcement earlier this year that they wouldn't have Legend Cars. This is because the drivers didn't seem to want to support Ukiah, while they were going to Lakeport and Eureka. I don't know why anybody wouldn't want to run at Ukiah if they are a pavement racer. This banked paved oval is fast and very racy. The eight Legend Cars who showed up were a pleasant surprise to me. I didn't think the track would get any support. The Legends get around the track pretty quickly and put on a good show. It stayed close to the end with Cody Winchell grabbing the victory ahead a recent Eureka winner Derek Copeland.

Occasionally, Ukiah puts on one of these Open Modified shows, and Lake County Pumps and TNT Towing made sure that it was a $1,000 to win affair. I couldn't be sure about it, but it looked like one of the North State Modified officials might have been in attendance. The North State group runs at Lakeport, Shasta and a few other places. Again, I don't know why they wouldn't want to support Ukiah for a visit as those guys can put on the good show there as well. Recent North State winner Kyle Tellstrom picked up the win ahead of Dustin DeRosier. Sierra Furia was giving a good accounting of herself with a third place finish.

Furia was doing double duty as she also competed in the regular Limited Modified race, which offered a $500 winner's prize. Justin Philpot has been the class of the field. He's had all Top 5 finishes in his seven starts this year as he easily leads the standings.  Philpot was able to get the lead during the first half of the 45 lap race and wasn't challenged after that. The battle was between Sammy Nuno and Furia, but Nuno held her off to grab the spot. They've got a good group of racers in this class at Ukiah, and usually the races run pretty rapidly. 

The Upstate Bombers were the Main Event of the night with a $1,000 winner's prize on the line for them. After winning the Upstate race in Eureka and then winning another race at that track last week, Loren Powers Jr had his sights set on the win. I think he might have felt like a pinball at one point as the race got to the midway point. Simi Tour and Charley Tour were both able to get by him on a lap 23 restart, and they were intent on settling it between each other. Charley Tour has been fast this year with multiple wins in Ukiah. He did get around Simi Tour, who found himself settling for second. That might have been it for Charley, but Peggy Tour was there. Her car met the classification for the Street Stock class, and Charley decided to give that race a go.

I don't know what happened to Raymond Taylor Jr, who won the preliminaries in the Street Stock/B Bomber show, but he scratched prior to the Main Event. There were only five cars for this race, but it still turned out to be an entertaining show. Charley Tour is fast and smooth at this track, and Rick Jelton found that out. Jelton hesitated when coming up on two drivers who were running side-by-side. He needed to make a move, but his hesitation allowed Tour to get by him and the slower cars to steal the victory in the later stages of the race. It turned out to be a double win night for Charley.

The 4 cylinder Jammer class runs the younger Juniors against the Pros, but the Pro division has not been represented very well this year. There was a time when they had numbers in both classes. Again, I'm not sure why this class is struggling, but they ended up with four Juniors in three Pros. For once, the Junior of Christian Sanchez didn't dominate the Main Event. He did battle from the back to cross the line third in the combined Main Event, but he wasn't able to make a move around early leader David Rogers, who finished second. Michelle Robertson was the class of the field. I hope this class can gain numbers as it would certainly bode well for the future here. At Lakeport, they haven't been able to get anybody to race there in the Jammers this year.

I missed not seeing the crazy Jalopies division ending the night on the infield dirt track, but some of the equipment used to prepare the track needed repairs. It sounds like they will be back when the show resumes on September 19th along with the Bombers, Limited Modifieds and the Jammers. The track will likely broadcast it again on Facebook, and it's certainly enjoyable to watch. You can find out those updates by going to the Ukiah Speedway Facebook page.

After the July George Steitz Big Kahuna Freedom Series event at Antioch Speedway, you might have wondered where car count would be for Saturday night. I figured they might get 65-70 cars, but they were one car shy of 80 for this event. For whatever reason, the Hobby Stocks have been hitting it out of the ballpark. They brought 36 cars for this show, and the IMCA Sport Modifieds brought 25. That meant B Mains in both classes to earn your way into the Main Event. Even the 18 cars that showed up for the IMCA Modifieds were more than enough to deliver some good racing. 

I don't know what the status is of the $1,000 to win Hobby Stock race that was scheduled on October 24th. We mentioned that Merced Speedway is running a $1,000 to win race of their own for this class on the same night as part of the John Fore Jr/Bob Smith Memorial race. I think Antioch could get enough cars for that race, but there might be some question about how much sense it makes for two big paying shows for this class within two hours distance of each other. Then again, Antioch kind of needs the Hobby Stocks for this show if they're going to keep the race date on the schedule.

I was encouraged by the news that Antioch Speedway has backed off of the November 27th race, which was claimed in an announcement by Merced Speedway as an IMCA Modified, IMCA Sport Modified, Hobby Stocks, IMCA Stock Car and IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car race. They did say they were working with a second track, and it looks like there's cooperation from Antioch. Antioch Speedway has removed the IMCA classes from that night's schedule and added the Winged 360 Sprint Cars and Wingless Spec Sprints in their place. Good move by Antioch Speedway. 

As we do our thing on a budget and we don't have the funds for streaming services, we weren't able to watch the official broadcast. Some of that stuff was made available through other means, but not the Hobby Stocks. We were able to see the scoring posted after the race and were pleased to see longtime Late Model and Modified racer Mitch Enos score the victory. I believe he's driving Mopar power. Unfortunately for Mitch, he ended up being disqualified in post-race tech. I didn't get the particulars on that, but the win ended up going to Domossie Scoggins. Domossie was running strong anyway, but now he has two wins for the year.

The interesting thing of note was the Hobby Stock point standings. We mentioned that those were just released prior to this last weekend. Travis Dutra was shown as the Hobby Stock point leader, which was of no surprise at all. What was a bit of a surprise was that he didn't show up to run on Saturday. By virtue of his fourth-straight runner-up finish, James Thomson ended up moving to within four points of Dutra. He had come into the night ranked third in the standings. Brianna Troen was poised to take over, but she had a bad run in the Main Event to fall to third, 16 points out of the lead. I am pleased to see the track doing point races for the non IMCA sanctioned classes. They've certainly run enough of a season to warrant that.

The IMCA Sport Modifieds have only seen two repeat winners this year. On Saturday night, they had a $600 prize available for the winner, and two-time reigning Merced champion Fred Ryland was in the hunt until a spin put him at the back of the pack. Reigning champion Tommy Fraser had an impressive drive as he held off the determined Kenny Shrader to notch the victory. That's just one of the stories at play with the IMCA Sport Modifieds this year. You have nine different winners in 11 races. 

The championship battle only has one race left, and there are three drivers with a mathematical shot at it. However, it's unlikely that third-ranked KC Keller will win it without some serious luck on his side. Mark Garner has been very consistent with 8 Top 10 finishes, but his best finish is a third place effort. Two-time champion Trevor Clymens has a win and six Top 5s, but one bad night has him three points behind Garner. It's not often that you are looking at a possible track champion who hasn't won a Main Event. The last one I can recall was in 2014 when Carl Berendsen II won the IMCA Modified title.

In the IMCA Modified ranks, Troy Foulger had his eyes on a third victory and the $1,000 prize that would come with it. When he got into the lead, however, 2018 champion Nick DeCarlo was right behind him. DeCarlo didn't need too many laps to get around Foulger. DeCarlo would take it to the checkered flag for his second win of the season. It seemed like Foulger was having a bit of a challenge exiting Turn 4, and that proved to be what cost him second to Jim Pettit II. Pettit took a big step to hold on to second in the standings, but his championship hopes at Antioch depend on Foulger not showing up. However, Pettit is still close behind Foulger in the State championship race with a few races to go there. In all of his time racing on the dirt track circuit, Pettit has never won a State title, though he is the 1984 NASCAR Pacific Coast Regional champion.

I can't see management being too unhappy with this show. They had a good field of competitors across three divisions and got everything done in the allotted time. You have to be mindful of the possibility that car count will take a dip on you. It does seem like whenever certain divisions under perform, other divisions over perform and it works out all right. In that respect, the track has had some luck on its side. They'll come back at it with Wingless Spec Sprints, Dwarf Cars, Super Stocks and Four Bangers this Saturday night for a show that will be broadcast on antiochspeedway.tv. You can find more information on the Antioch Speedway Facebook page.

Coos Bay Speedway had their second to last NASCAR point event of the season, and over 60 competitors showed up there. With Willamette Speedway and Cottage Grove Speedway both racing on Saturday night, the numbers took a hit as expected. However, there were still enough cars out there to give the fans a show. Yes, Coos Bay Speedway continues to have fans in attendance as they've succeeded in their gamble to run things as close to normal as possible in this lousy situation this year.

Super Late Model point leader Brody Montgomery has experience as a point racer. He's the 2018 Super Late Model champion and won the Sportsman Late Model championship before that. With Jason Johnson coming out with a couple of wins earlier in the season, Montgomery just had to take his finishes and bide his time for when Johnson stumbled. Johnson had one disastrous night cost him the lead. Montgomery is the only driver with all Top 5 finishes in 10 starts as he has an eye on the $3,500 track championship and $2,000 State championship prizes. On Saturday, he picked up his second win of the year ahead of his closest point contender, Braden Fugate. The three drivers will still be within 20 points of each other, but Fugate and Johnson need Montgomery to stumble at a time when he's been peaking.

The Limited Sprint division had an above-average year this year when it came to car count. Despite Cottage Grove running on the same night, they had nine cars. Orland Raceway Wingless Spec Sprint star RJ Baker made another appearance, and this one resulted in him picking up his first win in winged competition ahead of RJ McGahuey. There were six winners in six races this year for the class, but Lawrence Van Hoof wasn't one of them. However, he wrapped up his second division championship with a solid fourth place effort.

The Street Stocks have enjoyed their best season in years, and even the other tracks opening hasn't caused the numbers to dip below 10 cars. They compete for a $700 championship, and two of the track"s past champions, Ken Fox and Steve Dubisar, are battling fiercely for that. If not for missing one race, Graig Osborne would surely be leading the standings. He's done his best to try to make up for that, but even his fifth win of the season on this occasion ahead of Dubisar and Fox did not do much for his effort. Fox will maintain a 10 point advantage over Dubisar in a battle that will go down to the final checkered flag.

Both the Hornets and Junior Stingers divisions delivered double-digit car count, and the Juniors for 11 to 14 year olds delivered the same result we've been seeing for the last three years. Three-time champion Griff Smith dominated for his 10th win of the season. The kid definitely needs to graduate into the Hornets next year to give these other kids a chance. There's nobody on the track who can touch him, and it will be interesting to see what he can do with the regular Hornet competitors next year. He might just beat them all. As is, he's clocking in with times faster than most of the Hornet competitors.

Seeing the Hornet numbers doing as well as they are is obviously very encouraging. This division is doing its job in graduating drivers into the other classes. Past Hornet champion Tyler Tullos has just moved up to the Street Stock class while reigning Hornet champion Hannah Robison is in a Late Model. Both Trace Fugate and Braden Fugate have moved up as well. On this occasion, Shane Landis made his season debut to become the eight different winner of the year.

The regular lineup of NASCAR divisions will bring the Whelen All American Series championship season to a close this Saturday night. They've also got OTRO Hardtops and Dwarf Cars on the bill. There is an Interstate Sprint Car Series race with Dirt Modified and B Modified support scheduled for the end of September and the Prather family Lucas Oil open show at the beginning of October. One thing we can say is Coos Bay Speedway has had a successful season under lousy circumstances. For further information on what's next on the agenda, go to the Coos Bay Speedway Facebook page.

We've just seen the information posted on the one and only race scheduled for the pavement track at Shasta Speedway. The race will happen on October 3rd, and it's a North State Modified Series event. That will have a $10,000 purse. That particular series will be at Lakeport this Saturday night. But on October 3rd, Shasta will also host a $1,000 to win Legend Car race and a $300 to win Hornet race. 

What sets this race apart from some of the other races in California is they will be able to sell tickets to 200 fans to sit in the grandstands. It's $15 a ticket. I would anticipate they'll sell out, giving them $3,000 to go towards the cost of running the show. Shasta hasn't been good about posting results for the last few years, despite the fact that it would be very easy for them to upload their MyLaps results online like every other track, so we can only guess whether we'll hear how things went. We can tell you that their announcements do get posted at the Shasta Speedway Facebook page.

While Shasta can have fans on October 3rd, we're not expecting any fans to be allowed in attendance for the annual Clyde Cordell Memorial race at Mountain Valley Raceway in Hayfork. The biggest show of the year at the track happens this Saturday night and will feature Hobby Stocks, Mini Stocks, Enduro cars and Modifieds. They also intend to have a fireworks display that night. It just may be that some of the racing action will be streamed for the fans to watch at the Mountain Valley Raceway Facebook page.

I really don't like that every time Hayfork has a big race, Orland Raceway ends up with a race. I don't think it's intentional, but it happens. The reason I don't like it is because Orland racers would make a trip for a Hayfork special as they've done on several occasions, but they'll stay home for the opportunity to race on the familiar 1/5 mile clay oval. 

I'm not sure what divisions will be offered for this one, but the track has Pure Stocks, Mini Stocks, Mini Trucks, Wingless Spec Sprints and Micro classes. Some or all of them could be racing. I understand they have offered the B Modified racers an opportunity to race that night if they can get enough support. I greatly look forward to them getting their MyLaps system operational and posting results. In the meantime, we look to the Orland Raceway Facebook page for what updates they give us.

As it turns out, Lakeport Speedway and Redwood Acres Raceway in Eureka will both be running on Saturday, though I'm thinking the Eureka track may run earlier. Both tracks should be streaming on their respective Facebook pages, but it's a special race at Lakeport. The North State Modified Series will be there along with the Taco Bell Bombers, NCRA Legend Cars and Pro 4 Modifieds. Late Models and Four Bangers are on the schedule as well. The NCRA Lakeport Speedway Facebook page is the one you want to check and probably the place that will go live Saturday night for free.

Last week, we were commenting on Southern California racing and the struggles to get any racing venues going down there. Barona Speedway had a Labor Day weekend offering, and somehow Orange Show Speedway escaped our radar. They opened for only the second time last Saturday night, the first being at the beginning of August. They can't have fans in the grandstands, but they've managed to get Low Budget TV to do the internet pay-per-view. Low Budget TV has quietly been having a positive impact as they've helped Antioch Speedway and Bakersfield Speedway set up their pay-per-view infrastructure via those track's respective websites. The NASCAR season at Orange Show Speedway has pretty much been screwed up thanks to the virus shut down, but at least they were able to do some racing.

That about wraps it up for another weak. We won't be seeing any IMCA sanctioned Modified races happening on the West Coast this weekend as racers will either be enjoying a week off, racing back in Boone or running whatever non-point events might be happening out here. There's only a couple of racing weekends left to go after that, so much of the championship point racing will come to an end in September. It's really been interesting to see some of the big events that have been put together for the IMCA Modifieds and Sport Modifieds on the West Coast during this pandemic. 

Speedweek is the clear winner in my book, but we've seen some other big shows hosted at Antioch, Merced, Bakersfield and Watsonville. Susanville had some big moments, as did Cottage Grove. There's a reason promoters look towards the IMCA Modifieds and Sport Modifieds so quickly when it comes to putting up some extra money. They know they will deliver the cars. There's no indicator right now that those numbers will go down. The only thing we need to have happen now is fan attendance being allowed at these racing venues.

Big show season really kicks off with the Pat and Jim Pettit Memorial Shootout at Ocean Speedway on September 25th and 26th. Then, it heads to the Bill Bowers Memorial at Antioch Speedway on October 1st through 3rd. The granddaddy of the open shows, the Bud Nationals, happens at Bakersfield Speedway on October 9th and 10th. Then, Merced Speedway comes back at you with the John Fore Jr/Bob Smith Memorial on October 23rd and 24th. It'll stretch into November, and I think all of the shows should do well. 

At least we'll be able to tune in via one streaming service or another, but this insanity has to stop. They have to take a look at the numbers when it comes to the virus and get a little more realistic. Oregon isn't loosening up too much for the next two months, and there's no reason to hope that California will either. Lockwood already said they don't expect to have fans, even going to the November race there at Merced. I don't know. I just think it's time to get realistic about what's going on here and stop creating fake panic. If we don't, do you really think this stuff is going to end in 2021?

On that note, I'm going to end this column. It's better that way, or I might start ranting about the situation we're in right now. That's all for now. Until next time...

Antioch Speedway, Petaluma Speedway, Madera Speedway, Ukiah Speedway, Siskiyou Golden Speedway, More

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Pit Stops

Labor Day weekend is upon us, and it's also the stretch run for the abbreviated season. the IMCA Modified and IMCA Sport Modified divisions have two big offerings, the doubleheader weekend at Siskiyou Golden Speedway and the third round of the George Steitz Big Kahuna Freedom Series at Antioch Speedway. There's a big Late Model show happening on the pavement at Madera Speedway, and the Bombers take center stage at Ukiah Speedway. There's lots of great excitement on tap, and most of it will be available on internet streaming services or even for free on the internet since fans won't be able to attend in most cases.

Antioch Speedway

One of the big things Promoter Chad Chadwick introduced to the 2020 schedule was the George Steitz Big Kahuna Freedom Series. The first round of this series set an Antioch Speedway track record at about a 150 cars back in May. The second event happened on July 4th, and the Labor Day weekend offering will again include the IMCA Modifieds, IMCA Sport Modifieds and Hobby Stocks for a bigger purse. You'll be able to watch all of the action on the www.antiochspeedway.tv pay-per-view streaming service. 

We've actually had 10 IMCA Modified point races to date. There's only two point events left. The Freedom Series wins have gone to Oregon's Collen Winebarger and track point leader Troy Foulger. Driving the Bowers Motorsports Modified, Foulger not only leads the Antioch standings, he's also leading the State point race. He's been the most consistent Top 5 finisher in the group as he's only failed to earn a Top 5 finish once in 10 starts. Foulger has two victories and has finished second in two of the last three races.

The driver forcing Foulger to settle for second on both occasions was three-time winner Kellen Chadwick. Chadwick's third win came in the Hetrick Memorial race two weeks ago, and that moved him into a tie with Jim Pettit II for second in the standings. Given the nature of the IMCA point system, it's going to be a tall order reeling in Foulger. He leads Chadwick and Pettit by 29 points. Reigning champion Buddy Kniss holds the fourth position by three points ahead of one-time winner Shane DeVolder. Some of the drivers to watch for this week include JC Elrod, Antioch Speedweek winner Nick DeCarlo, Bobby Motts Jr, Aaron Crowell and Kimo Oreta.

The Freedom Series for the IMCA Sport Modifieds has seen past State champion Brian Cooper and KC Keller grab the victories so far. We've had eight different winners in 10 races as only reigning State champion Guy Ahlwardt and two-time reigning Merced champion Fred Ryland have won twice. However, the championship battle right now appears to be between the consistent Mark Garner and the division's all-time Main Event win leader Trevor Clymens. Garner is still searching for his first win with a season-high third, while Clymens won at the beginning of August. Garner leads by five points.

If the two drivers in front of him stumble, 2017 champion Keller could still make a move. He's 21 points out of the lead. Keller has a win and three additional podium finishes, but his absence on one occasion is what's keeping him from leading now. As it is, he leads one-time winner Kenny Shrader by 17 tallies in the race for third. 20 points behind him is Ryland, and 23 points back is last season's point runner-up, Kevin Brown. These drivers are all anticipated this week along with Tommy Clymens Jr, reigning champion Tommy Fraser, Todd Gomez and Andrew Pearce.

The Hobby Stocks have had 11 races at Antioch. Travis Dutra is leading the charge. He has six podium efforts, and that includes a division-leading three victories. Dutra comes into the week as one of the hottest drivers, but you also have to consider James Thomson. Thomson has put together three consecutive runnerup finishes as he's beating on the door to his first win of the season. Last season's point runnerup, Brianna Troen, has a second and a third as she looks for her first win, and Larry McKinzie Jr has impressed with three third place finishes.

Past champion Brad Myers and Jason Robles count themselves among the winners this year, Bakersfield racer Nick Johnson and three-time reigning Watsonville champion Rob Gallaher each have a pair of victories and Watsonville point leader Joe Gallaher has a win as well. The most recent race, which saw 30 Hobby Stocks in the field, went to Placerville point leader Les Friend. There should be a good turnout of competitors this week, and others to watch for include Gene Haney, Mikayla Taylor, Domossie Scoggins, Jake Bentancourt, Lori Brown and Josh Leach.

As we were editing this column, the track released a point list for the Hobby Stocks, and Dutra is in fact leading the standings by 46 points ahead of Troen. Thomson is 58 points out of the lead and only 12 behind Troen in a closer race for second. McKinzie has been holding steady and ranks fourth, eight points ahead of Jake Bentancourt and 32 over Leach.

For fans of IMCA Modified and Sport Modified racing along with Hobby Stocks, Antioch Speedway is the place to check out in the Bay Area on Saturday night. It's unfortunate that we're still still not allowed fans in the grandstands, but www.antiochspeedway.tv will be offering streaming services. For further information, go to www.antiochspeedway.com or check out the Antioch Speedway Facebook page.

Petaluma Speedway

On the heels of a program that saw nearly 100 competitors show up across four divisions last week, Petaluma Speedway is back in action again this Sunday night. The 3/8 mile adobe oval will be hosting the BCRA/USAC Western Midgets, which in itself is the first night of a two-race series that will wrap up at Petaluma on October 24th. Also competing will be the General Hydroponics Redwood Dwarf Cars, Santa Rosa Auto Body 600 Micros and Jake's Performance Hobbies Mini Stocks. With fans still not allowed in the grandstands, you can watch all of the action on internet pay-per-view at floracing.com.

Though this is a mixture of BCRA and USAC drivers, usually it's the USAC drivers who rise to the top. Last time out, 2018 USAC runner up Alex Schuette won the Main Event by a half-lap ahead of 2018 USAC West Coast Sprint Car champion Austin Liggett and last season's point runner-up, Corey Elliott. Only fellow USAC racer Ben Worth managed to stay on the lead lap with those three drivers as there were 19 competitors taking the green flag. 

Some of the drivers anticipated for the show include reigning BCRA champion Robert Carson, past BCRA champion Frankie Guerrini, BCRA legend Floyd Alvis, CJ Sarna, Terry Nichols, David Prickett and Mike Leach Jr. The West Coast Stock Car Hall of Fame has pitched in to help make this two-race series possible, and there's a point fund being offered. You can find out more about that by going to www.bcraracing.com.

It seems like the MVP of the 2020 season when it comes to car count is the General Hydroponics Redwood Dwarf Cars. They've been having the biggest Dwarf Car gatherings for regular shows anywhere on the West Coast this year, and there were 37 drivers in action last time out. Coming off of the win he had the night before at Antioch, reigning NorCal champion Michael "Spanky" Grenert was hoping to make it his second Petaluma win of the year, but he was thwarted in his endeavors by past NorCal champion Ryan Winter. That was Winter's first win of the season, moving him into third in the standings. Grenert leads reigning Redwood Dwarf Car champion Chad Matthias by 70 points, and Matthias leads Winter by 29.

Only 20 points behind Winter is local competitor Matt Haggemann, and Jimmy Damron is 21 points back in fifth. A check of the winner's list finds past NorCal and Watsonville champion Shawn Jones with two victories and one win each for Southern California star Darren Brown and two-time Antioch champion Danny Wagner. Dwarf Car racers are flocking to Petaluma these days, and others to watch for include Carroll Mendenhall, Garrett Brady, Zach Albers, two-time champion John Peters, Michael Affonso and rookie Joey Lingron.

There have been five Santa Rosa Auto Body 600 Micro events held so far, but the point standings only reflect three of those events. Multi-time champion Jim Beck had a good car last time out, but mechanical issues saw him watching the finish from the sidelines. What he saw was a very dominant performance by Koen Shaw, who lapped all but the Top 5 finishers by the time the checkered flag waved. This was the third win of the season for the Watsonville Sprint Car star. George Nielsen joins Beck and Shaw on the feature winner's list. Some of the stars to watch for this week include Kyle Grissom, Rob Brown, Carroll Mendenhall, Savanah Brown, Amber Fields and reigning champion Justin Adiego.

The car count in the Jake's Performance Hobbies Mini Stock class has been down this year for whatever reason. 2018 champion Tom Brown hopes to become the first repeat two-time champion in this class in the last 15 years, and winning the three events held so far has certainly helped him in that endeavor. Only rookie Jake Barretta has been at all three events, and he trails Brown by 24 points. If Barretta can't beat Brown, he'll have himself another title. Some of the drivers to watch for this week include Roberta Broze, Cody Bolles, Casey Monahan and Austin Lodin.

This race takes on a more open-wheel flavor, but it should offer plenty of excitement. Promoter Rick Faeth would love to have fans in the stands, but covid-19 guidelines won't let that happen just yet. Therefore, you can watch it all on internet pay-per-view at www.floracing.com. For further information, go to www.petaluma-speedway.com or check out the Petaluma Speedway Facebook page.

Ukiah Speedway

Ukiah Speedway Promoter David Furia was on the ground floor of creating a really nice series for the Bombers last year called the Upstate Bomber Series. The covid-19 virus shutdown wiped out the schedule as intended, but that didn't stop he and management from Redwood Acres Raceway from doing a two-race deal. The second Upstate Bomber race happens at Ukiah this Saturday night, joined by the local Limited Modifieds, Open Modifieds, Jammers and the Bandoleros and Legend Cars, if any of those drivers come out to compete on the paved quarter-mile oval.

One of the top local Bomber racers is Loren Powers Jr, and he went to Eureka last week and scored an impressive victory. He's also the driver who won the Upstate Bomber race there earlier this year. However, Powers is still searching for his first win at his home track. Currently, he trails Charley Tour by 92 points in the track championship race. Tour has been the model of consistency with five Top 5 finishes in six starts, including two wins. He won the last time out and may be the driver to beat this week. Another driver who has been fast this year is Brenton Smith. He has two wins in his four starts, but mechanical failures sidelined him early last time out. He is a solid third in the standings. The next battle finds Roy Ingalls Jr leading Brandon Powers by 37 points in the battle for fourth.

The purse will be $1,000 to win for the Bombers with $800 for second and $400 for third as it pays throughout the field. This should bring some top competitors from Lakeport, Shasta and Eureka. Some of the drivers to watch for include Raymond Taylor, Ron Duke Sr, Forrest Kuecker, Josh Smith and Late Model veteran Denny Cashada. Charlie Collins out of the Lakeport area has a feature win to his credit and could be a big contender this week.

The Limited Modifieds at Ukiah have been putting on a good show all season long. The driver who's been the most impressive with six Top 5 finishes in his six starts is Jason Philpot of Sacramento. Philpot also has four wins. His lead over Tyler Caturegli is 77 points. Tyler has five Top 5 finishes, but he'd love to make the $500 prize his first win of the year. Roy Ingalls Jr is holding third by 18 points over TJ Buzzard. Sammy Nuno is 39 points behind Ingalls. Those drivers may top the list of potential winners, but both Sierra Furia and Mike Lovell could be there to make a play at their second wins of the season. Others to watch for include Bo Robertson, Dennis Anderson, Kylie Keown and Erick Ray.

The Jammer division runs the Pros with the Juniors together, but John Parker has really been the only Pro showing up and is dominating the points in his classification. Christian Sanchez has been pretty dominant in the Junior class with four wins in five starts. He has a 64 point lead over TJ Sorrels, who is the only other driver with a win in the group. After blowing a motor, Hailey Glass missed the most recent race and dropped over a hundred points behind Sorrels in third. She leads the steady Charles French by just 25 points.

We're not sure who will come race with $1,000 on the line, but the Open Modifieds are surely going to draw a decent turnout for their portion of the program. TNT Towing and Lake County Pumps are both sponsoring prize money for this event. There were eight drivers ready to give the Ukiah pavement a chance back in July when the Open Modifieds were in town. Semi Tour, who also likes to run the Bomber class, picked up the win in the Main Event that night, followed by Jason Philpot, Tyler Caturegli, Dustin ReRosier and Charlie Collins. With the prize set at $1,000 to win, there might be a better turnout for the open class this time around. They are also offering an additional $200 prize to the top finishing 602 Crate Modified.

We're not sure who might show up with the Bandoleros or the Legend Cars. Occasionally, there are one or two drivers showing up and making laps, but management would love to get enough cars in either classification for a race. With Lakeport dark this week, it's possible some of their Legend Car racers may come out and run, but we can only speculate on that. 

It's a strong lineup of racing for Ukiah this weekend, despite the fact that the infield dirt track won't be ready for the Jalopies on this occasion. Fans aren't allowed in the grandstands just yet, but Furia Motorsports, thanks to some great sponsorship, has been offering the livestream to the fans for free on the Ukiah Speedway Facebook page. That's where you can go to get the latest information on what's happening at the track.

Coos Bay Speedway

Saturday night will be the second to last NASCAR Whelen All American Series championship event at Coos Bay Speedway. The exciting lineup will include the America's Mattress Super Late Models, Sportsman Late Models, Street Stocks, Mini Outlaws, Hornets and Junior Stingers. Making their final point race appearance of the year will be the Winged Sprints. There's no live streaming that we're aware of, but fans are able to attend the races at Coos Bay Speedway.

Brody Montgomery seems to be peaking at the right time in the Super Late Models. Following his first win of the season two races ago, he gained the lead from Jason Johnson, who had a bad night. Last week, Montgomery scored a second place finish ahead of championship rival Braden Fugate. This gives Montgomery a 12 point lead in the race for the $3,500 first prize. Montgomery leads the pack with all nine Top 5 finishes, and Fugate has eight of them, including a feature win. 16 points out of the lead is two-time winner Johnson. In terms of point find the money, it's $2,000 for second and $1,200 for third, which isn't bad at all. Mike Taylor has a solid hold on fourth as he is one of four drivers who has made every race. Reigning champion Preston Luckman has only competed five times, but his four wins give him fifth in the standings by 64 points over rookie Hannah Robison.

Past Winged Sprint Car champion Lawrence Van Hoof has managed to grab the point lead despite not winning a race this year. He does lead the field with three Top 5 finishes, and that gives him a 32 point lead over Ian Bandey and a 36 point advantage over one-time winner Austin Sause. Sause might have been leading, but he missed the most recent event. Though Bandey and Sause have a shot at the championship, it's likely that they're battling for second. There have been five different winners as Southern Oregon racers Tanner Holmes and RJ McGahuey have wins, and Tyrell Mead and Colby Thornhill have also scored victories.

When other tracks were unable to run this year, the Sportsman Late Model numbers inflated, making the racing more interesting. There have been eight different winners in nine races, and only point leader Trace Fugate has more than one victory. He's also the only driver to make every race, and it's a foregone conclusion that he'll win the $1,000 championship. The battle is very much for second as there is point fund money on the line there. Following his season-best second-place finish, Jared Simmons moved 14 points ahead of Ryan Emry, who is a feature winner this year. However, much like fourth-ranked Phil Lovvorn, Emry may be racing at Willamette Speedway this weekend. Second place is worth $800. Also of note is young Brionna Fuller, who came to town and picked up her first win in this class last week.

The Street Stock division has been having their best season in years as double-digit car counts have been the norm. 2018 Sportsman Late Model champion Dyllan Siewell won the $500 prize in the Battle At The Beach last week. After his third place finish last week, two-time winner Ken Fox maintains a 12 point advantage over reigning champion Steve Dubisar. Both drivers have two victories to their credit, but Fox has 11 Top 5 finishes. Third-ranked Greg Osborne has 10 Top 5 finishes, but the four-time winner has missed a race to keep him 38 points out of the lead. Other drivers to watch for this week include Sam Talon, Michael Hollingsworth, Dustin Hitner, Troy Chamberlain and Charlie Withers.

As the only driver to make all nine races, one-time winner Brad Hicks has a 42 point lead over two-time winner Tahlan Rogers in the Mini Outlaw championship race. At this point, Hicks is hoping to run out the clock and win the title. Scott Beaudoin got his fourth win of the season last week and is 56 points out of the lead. Jason Kellam is a solid fourth.

In the Hornet division, Seth Christian has had the hot hand as he picked up his third win in four starts last week. However, Cottage Grove's Isaac Stere leads the standings by 88 markers ahead of William Hitner. Isaac has two wins out of his eight Top 5 finishes. Hitner isn't really being challenged by John Henry and Kevin Rockwell, who are tied for fourth, 104 points behind him. Only two points behind Henry and Rockwell is Kris Parker. This has been a competitive division with seven different winners in 10 races.

There's only been one winner in the Junior Stingers class, and that is two-time reigning champion Griff Smith. With nine victories, he holds a commanding 110 point lead over Cameron Metzgus. Metzgus and Alex Butler have both earned five Top 5 finishes, but Butler has fallen out of second after mechanical issues two races ago. Heather Burton is only 20 points behind Metzgus in the race for second, and Teagan Montgomery is only 36 points behind Metzgus, two ahead of Butler. One of the hottest drivers at the field lately is Lily Metzgus. She picked up her second-straight runnerup finish last week.

Coos Bay Speedway has stood head and shoulders above all of the tracks on the West Coast due to their ability to open up their grandstands for fans and sell them food. Promoter Drake Nelson has called the state's bluff on the covid-19 guidelines, and he's gotten away with it since June with weekly activity at the oval or the drag strip. Fans who want to go witness a race in person can go to Coos Bay Speedway for some NASCAR action this Saturday night. For further information, go to www.coosbayspeedway.us or check out the Coos Bay Speedway Facebook page.

Siskiyou Golden Speedway

With Southern Oregon Speedway unable to open this weekend for the Fourth Annual R Charles Snyder Salute, Promoter Kevin Barba seized on the opportunity to book an exciting two-race show this Friday and Saturday night. The IMCA Modifieds and IMCA Sport Modifieds will be in action along with the Outlaw Pro Stocks on both nights. The Mini Stocks are racing on Saturday as well. As the track has reached the four race minimum threshold from the sanctioning body, IMCA will crown champions in both Modified classes. Since fan attendance is not permitted due to covid-19 guidelines, the track will have a pay-per-view streaming service available through the Tri State Pro Stock Challenge Series Facebook page. It's only $9.99 each night.

The purse money on Friday night will be dependent on car count or any sponsorship money that might come in. As it is, the track's media director, Misty Bushman, has announced that they will be paying $800 to win the IMCA Modified race on Saturday and $700 to win the IMCA Sport Modified race. There's still some effort being made to increase the Outlaw Pro Stock purse on Saturday as well. With a little bit of extra money on the line and the fact that Medford and some of the tracks south of Yreka won't be running, an increase in car count is anticipated.

It's been great to see Travis Perry not only back in action in Yreka once again, but also helping work behind the scenes to make things better. Travis is a multi-time champion at the speedway with a championship in Medford as well. He's been leading the standings from the start after winning the first two races. Currently, he leads past multi-time Yreka and Medford champion Albert Gill by 14 tallies. Gill needs to make up a little bit of ground to have a shot at Peery before the window closes with IMCA at the end of September, and he had a respectable showing in Cottage Grove last week in fifth. He also managed to hold off Peery for a second place finish at the most recent Yreka race.

The recent race was won by Jeffrey Hudson aboard the Don Romer car. Hudson has looked fast in his visits and mounted a big challenge for the $1,500 to win race on July 3rd before problems sent him to the pits. He currently ranks sixth in the standings. The other win this year was earned by division rookie Justin McCreadie, and that happened to be the night when the $1,500 was on the line. $800 is nothing to balk at, and reigning champion and third-ranked Duane Orsburn hopes to have something to say about that. He trails Gill by 19 points in the race for second and leads Jeremy Crebs by four tallies. 11 points behind Orsburn is Springfield, Oregon's Paul Culp. We're not sure who all is coming as we write this, but we expect a double-digit car count for the show.

There is some optimism that the IMCA Sport Modified division might hit the 20s in car count for the show. Jorddon Braaten has been the star of the show so far. The three-time reigning Southern Oregon Speedway champion has racked up five victories, winning the most recent point race by half a lap ahead of reigning champion Ethan Killingsworth. As Braaten is headed to Boone, Iowa, we're probably not going to see him this weekend. Killingsworth might have been a little bit frustrated at settling for another second. He has four Top 5 finishes, but he's still looking for his first win. He trails two-time Medford champion Mike Medel by 22 points as Medel trails Braaten by 34. If Jorddon is indeed bailing out of the race, the championship battle may come down between Medel and Killingsworth.

Rookie Ryan Peery grabbed the $400 prize in the non point event last week, giving him his first win in the division. He's currently fourth in the standings, 30 behind Killingsworth and seven ahead of past Yreka champion Colt Boswell. Colt's brother Ryder Boswell is only five points behind him, and the Boswell Brothers will be hoping to grab a victory. We anticipate some Medford drivers coming for this show, and word out of Yuba City is we might see a few drivers who normally race at Marysville. This could include this year's Marysville runnerup Jimmy Ford and Marysville and IMCA State point leader Timothy Allerdings.

At press time, we haven't seen the current point list for the Outlaw Pro Stock Association, but three of their four events have been held in Yreka this year. Coming off of his impressive win at the last Yreka race, reigning series champion Scott Flowers leads the Yreka totals by eight markers ahead of Matt Harlow and nine in front of Colby Hammond. We know that Flowers is leading the association standings. Harlow won the season opener after taking the lead from Hammond late in the race. Rookie Darek Alford, a local star, picked up his first win in the second Yreka race. Alford is only 12 points out of the Yreka lead back in fifth, one point behind Scott's son James Flowers. Some of the stars to watch for include Rick Lukens, Dennis Burtenhouse Jr, Johnny Cobb, Jeff Haudenshild, Arlen Garrison and Scott Bennett. Lukens looked impressive with his second place finish last time out, and Burtenhouse led much of that race.

With five races in the books, David Steele leads the Mini Stock standings going into Saturday night. As he has four wins and a second to his credit, that comes as a surprise to nobody. We haven't seen an update after the most recent Steele victory, but prior to that he's leading fellow Medford racer Ashtin Hedges by 17 points. Hedges is the only driver to beat Steele in Main Event competition this year. He also leads three-time reigning Yreka champion Mike Whitaker by 23 points, though Whitaker was absent from the most recent race and will drop further. Hunter Magnan and three-time champion Marilyn Yawnick made up the balance of the Top 5 after four races. Some of the drivers to watch for this Saturday include Steve Goetz, Terry Alford Sr, Darrel Nelson Jr, rookie Paige Boswell and Kassidy Wilkinson.

Trying to run something a little bit more special than your average race can become challenging when doing so without grandstands. However, track management is confident that this two-day offering will work out well. The Tri State Pro Stock Challenge Series Facebook page will be offering the Pay-Per-View as mentioned above. You can find out more information by going to The Siskiyou Golden Speedway Facebook page.

Madera Speedway

During this time of the pandemic, Promoter Kenny Shepherd has successfully drafted the five phase opening plan that he's been using to get the show back on the road on the 1/3 mile paved oval. Since the gates opened, nutupindustries.com has allowed the fans to watch for free as they've sponsored the Madera Speedway YouTube page. That will again be the case this weekend, and it's a huge event for them. It's also one of those events that will be taped simultaneously for future airing on MavTV. 

It's a risky proposition for promoters to try so hard to pay bigger purses when they can't have fans in the grandstands, but Kenny keeps doing things to try to make it better. It certainly wouldn't be possible without the sponsorship that they have been able to get. On Saturday night, the Nut Up Pro Late Models, 51fifty Energy Drink Junior Late Models and the Bandoleros vs the Mini Cups will all get to do some racing, but it's also a big night. It's the second round of the Race 2B Drug Free Big3 Series for the Pro Late Models.

What that means is the drivers will be racing for some serious money. The Top 3 finishers in the Pro Late Model Main Event alone will receive a total of $10,000, and that's not all. Have you ever heard of a big money Semi Main before? You're getting one on Saturday night. That race will be $3,000 to win with second getting $750 and third getting a $500 prize. There's no catch. You don't have to park your car for the rest of the night to get your money. You can transfer and go for the bigger money. That bigger money will include $5,000 to win, $3,000 for second and $2,000 for third. 

Considering the serious coin that the track is offering for this one, the car count is expected to inflate for this race. Even drivers who don't think they have a shot at the $5,000 Main Event prize have incentive. There are people who know they might have something good enough to win a Semi Main, so you might see a few local racers and people from outside of the area that you haven't seen in Madera for a while. Car count is expected to inflate into the 30s for this race, and it's going to be an exciting show. This is the biggest paying pavement Late Model show on the West Coast. Has there ever been a $3,000 to win a Semi Main before?

This will be the sixth round of the Nut Up Pro Late Model Series. With three wins to his credit, Buddy Shepherd has been tough to beat. However, Dylan Zampa joined Jeremy Doss as the only other drivers to get a win this year. Zampa looked quite impressive as he forced Shepherd to settle for his second runner-up finish of the year last time out. You can bet that Dylan Zampa will have his eyes on the big prize, but Shepherd may come in as the favorite. He holds a 40 point lead over the consistent Ross Strmiska. Ross has a second and two thirds among his best efforts, giving him a 30 point advantage over Ryan Philpott. 12 points behind Philpott is Blaine Rocha, and Dylan Zampa is 23 points back. With the money on the line, it's possible you could see somebody show up who hasn't raced at Madera all year to make a run for the money. It's going to be exciting to watch.

The 51fifty Energy Drink Junior Late Models have certainly been exciting to watch this year. Bradley Erickson has a 44 point lead over Cole Brown following Brown's win at the most recent event. Both Erickson and Seth Wise have a pair of victories. Brown isn't too comfortable in second with the consistent Kercie Jung only 14 points behind him. Jung has four Top 5 finishes in a row, including a second place finish. Jake Bollman is next in line, 21 points behind Jung as he continues to improve with each start. Bollman had a second place finish two races ago, which helped him move past Wise by 23 points. With other hard chargers in the field such as Brody Armtrout, Kabe McClenny, Kassidy Hinds and Kale McClenny, these Junior Late Model drivers have been putting on a good show this year.

The Bandoleros and the Mini Cups run together to help with the car count, but they keep separate point listings. All five of the Bandolero races have been won by Jeffrey Erickson, giving him a 41 point lead over Caden Cordova and a 53 point advantage over Joey Kennealy. Cordova is coming off of back-to-back second place finishes as he aims to get the win this week. 

After getting four wins in a row in the Mini Cup class, point leader Rebecca Dubie was finally bested by her championship rival, Harley Kennealy. Dubie leads Kennealy by just seven points. As more competitors start showing up, there's more of an opportunity to gain in the standings for Kennealy. Evan Laires, Molly Laires and Bella Thompson have joined the action in recent races.

It all adds up to an exciting night of racing at Madera Speedway, and you can watch it all for free at home thanks to nutupindustries.com paying for the streaming service. It will also be a professional broadcast quality event. To find out more, go to www.racemadera.com or check out the Madera Speedway Facebook page.

The Editor's Viewpoint

The meaning of the last day of August isn't lost on me. I was wrapping up my blog post Monday morning when it hit me. I had a pretty good weekend, but I was busy at the desk the whole time to make sure things got done. I could have put the post out very early on Monday morning. All the stuff that we intended to cover had been written and gone over, but I needed to do the usual audio show that goes with the post. I was a little bit tired. Though I knew what I wanted to do on the show, I figured I'd get some rest. Typical of the way we do things, I got up on Monday morning and added Cottage Grove. This is because I had information at the last minute that made it worth doing a story. 

In the midst of a few things trying to go wrong and me starting to stress out a little bit, the meaning of the day became clear. It was 13 years ago on Monday that I lost my sister. Sometimes you don't think about those things. I greatly miss my sister and my father every day. I'll tell you this much. What I've been able to accomplish in racing would not have happened if not for the support she gave me and the support my father gave me. What I have accomplished, whatever that is, is because those two people believed in me. Not a day goes by that I don't miss them.

The days and the years can pass, but the hurt never completely goes away. Life goes on. Suddenly, it's been a year since you lost them. Then it's 5. Then it's 10. I hadn't been thinking about that until I looked at the calendar and also noticed memories on Facebook. Yeah, it's been 13 years. The best years that we were able to have with the old magazine and when I became the announcer, did publicity and other things at Antioch Speedway happened with my sister being involved in what I was doing. I gave myself permission to shut down for the rest of Monday, even though there was stuff I would have liked to do. It can wait another day.

They told us when they started shutting everything down that the roadmap to reopening would mean that mass gatherings weren't permitted through September at the earliest. They didn't say when in September, so don't get excited just yet. Out here on the West Coast, we have governors that don't seem to mind keeping things shut down. You have to take that into consideration when you begin to feel a little bit optimistic. I don't want to jump on the topic so much here. I like what I wrote on the subject in this column on Monday. I think it puts things better than I can at the moment.

I know I come off as a broken record on certain topics. I feel like the states should have addressed small crowds at the local sports level. Maybe you have reason in this overhyped pandemic to not want major sporting events to have big crowds. I'm talking about stadiums that can seat twenty thousand, thirty thousand or more. Even then, social distancing is possible. Those stadiums are so huge, you could have 2,000 people gathering, and at least it would be something. Maybe they could develop a plan on that level, but that's not what I'm talking about here.

On the Motorsports level, if you're saying you can have 250 people or more gathering in the pits for a race on any given day, you ought to be able to have that many in the stands. You can social distance. You can handle whatever safety measures need to be taken care of. Maybe the tracks opened as they did. Just the competitors and the restrictions involved back then. By the time we got to July, there should have been a way to move forward with a few spectators. By the time we got to where we are now, I don't even think there should have been a problem with half capacity allowed, if nothing more. No plan has been drawn up to my knowledge. The closest thing is what they do at Hermiston and Roseburg in Oregon.

The reason I have to say you take the good with the bad is because on September 1st Oregon Governor Kate Brown made an announcement. She extended the State of Emergency for another 60 days, meaning we are still in the Phase 2 stage of things. This allows 250 people or less in a mass gathering. Don't expect them to suddenly open the gates for fans at whatever races are left, though Drake Nelson will continue to give the middle finger to the governor and do what he does at Coos Bay Speedway until they stop him. Roseburg will go with the 250 fan plan for their next race on September 26th, but we're waiting to see when Hermiston will get their next race. They just announced it won't be this weekend as they are still in Phase 1.

You don't get many racing opportunities in Oregon as you get later into September. It becomes hunting season, so some of the racers don't even care at that point. The other thing is it starts raining in Oregon. The pavement tracks can risk it a little bit later into the year as they're not dealing with wet grounds. You just have to dry the track. If your race track gets too wet at the dirt track level, you're screwed. The only track that is thinking about going later into the year is Cottage Grove Speedway, but that's all to be announced.

There is some good news to report down at Merced. After the Speedweek Series concluded, General Manager Doug Lockwood had hinted that the next race on the schedule would be the John Fore Jr/Bob Smith Memorial race. An announcement has been made on that event and an additional race. This is fifth running of this event, so the track gets to keep a little bit of continuity going in this lousy time. Doug isn't talking about any attendance being allowed in the stands, but I will consciously point out that there's a little time between now and October 23rd and 24th. You never know what can happen. Dare we hope for good news in that area?

I'm thinking as long as the weather holds out for it, October is going to be a big month for special events. This race should do well. The Friday night portion will see the IMCA Modifieds receiving $750 to win, the IMCA Sport Modifieds getting $500 to win and the Hobby Stocks picking up a $400 first prize. They will also have the IMCA Stock Cars for $300 to win on Friday. After the race they had at Speedweek, there's no way Doug could pass up this opportunity to feature the IMCA Stock Cars again. Besides, we're going to see more of this class at Merced next year I'm sure. The California Sharp Mini Late Models get their second and perhaps final race of the season with $150 offered to the winner. Not bad at all.

Saturday night is where business really picks up. The IMCA Modifieds get $1,500 to win, and the IMCA Sport Modifieds receive a nice $1,200 winner's payday. One of the bigger Hobby Stock payouts of the year will see the Hobby Stocks receiving $1,000 to win. I'm a little concerned by that with Antioch Speedway advertising a $1,000 to win Hobby Stock race on the same night, though there are enough cars out there that this can still work. Merced will have a $600 to win IMCA Stock Car race, and the Mini Stocks will get $500 to win. That last part had me thinking that Dan Myrick and the CVMS group would officially sanction this race, and they made that announcement official at about the time Merced was making the announcement that the big racing weekend would happen.

Antioch Speedway had announced a Thanksgiving weekend special event that would happen on November 27th and 28th, but Merced Speedway has just made the announcement that they're running on Friday night, November 27th. They mention the possibility of a two-race series, but Antioch has restated that they are running on both nights. My guess is Merced could be partnering up with either Bakersfield or Hanford, but that hasn't been announced yet. 

What has been announced is that the final race of the year at Merced Speedway will pay $1,000 to win for IMCA Modifieds, $600 to win the IMCA Sport Modifieds and the standard $150 to win for Hobby Stocks. The IMCA RaceSaver 305 Sprints get $1,000 to win, and the IMCA Stock Cars will have a $400 to win race as well. When you book on the fly, you can't help but grab dates that others have attempted to schedule. It'll be interesting to see how things play out that weekend.

Sonny Sell has been trying to save the Thanksgiving weekend in Porterville for a couple of years now, although we haven't heard much news lately. Rocky Hill Speedway had grabbed ahold of that weekend, and I really think it could have been a good tradition down there. Sadly, we haven't heard much, but I know that if Sonny is involved in anything there, that's a week that he would like to do something as well. There's also the Veterans Day weekend show that is a tradition at Rocky Hill. I'm not sure what will happen there, but I have a hunch we haven't heard the last of the Porterville track. However, if this turns out to be a good thing for Merced or Antioch, this could be the beginning of something there. I'm going to put it at 50% that fans will be able to attend the races at Merced or Antioch by then, if the weather allows it to happen. 

Southern California has been severely restricted in what they can do. Irwindale Speedway, of all places, has been the leader down there. They don't run every week. It's every few weeks for them. When they open, they're running a NASCAR Whelen All American Series program, and that includes twin Main Events for the Late Model division. Those are the drivers competing for the $3,500 championship. There's no fans in the stands as far as I know, but streaming pay-per-view service is part of the deal. Ventura Raceway, Santa Maria Raceway, Bakersfield Speedway, Kern Raceway, Orange Show Speedway, Tulare Thunderbowl. Either nothing is happening there or next to nothing. Keller Auto Speedway is reportedly getting close to having another race.

At Barona Speedway, they're getting ready to have a race with spectators. They have admission prices listed on the Barona Speedway Facebook page. I don't know what they might be doing regarding concession stands, but it seems like if you're a fan down in the area, you can go watch the races there this weekend. The only other track in California that's had that option this year is Diamond Mountain Speedway in Susanville. In Marysville, if you're among the first 100 people, you've been able to check out the past few races. It's interesting to see that as much of a pain in the butt as it's been to get tracks opened down south, Barona Speedway is opening with fans.

Have I mentioned how much I don't care for the term socially distanced? Your being social at a distance? Isn't that contrary to what being social is? I don't know. I do know that I've been seeing reports that most of us have already known for a while now. The numbers they've been using to scare the crap out of everybody about this virus have been inflated. The actual number of people who have died primarily because of the virus is a drop in the bucket. Anybody who's been paying attention knows this, but it's interesting to see the bigger media outlets finally admitting it too. Does that mean we're going to see a change in things? Are things going to start opening up? I don't know. I just know that it's nice to see some truth being put out there. The people still need to make their voices heard. Sitting around and waiting for somebody else to say it isn't going to help so much.

The last bit of optimism down in Southern California comes from Perris Auto Speedway. The reports we've been getting from them have been pretty consistent. As they go into a month, every race they had scheduled for that month has been canceled. This is a venue that tends to have big Sprint Car shows, the slam-bang Night of Destruction events and the full slate of PASCAR Stock Car events. The Night of Destruction has been canceled for this weekend, but right now they are tentative about being able to have the annual USAC/CRA Mark Howard race on September 26th. They might have more to say about that within a week or so leading up to that date. You'll have to watch the Paris Auto Speedway Facebook page for that news.

I talked a little bit about this on my show on Monday. The whole season's been lost at Southern Oregon Speedway. We know that now. I realize that everything that we've done to build things up, all the momentum, it's all been lost. We are back to square one again, and there's no guarantee that when the gates open again in 2021, unless something else stupid happens, the numbers will pick up where they left off in 2019. You can be hopeful of that, but there's no guarantee. What's going to happen to the Late Model and Sprint Car divisions that have been built up? Where will the IMCA Modifieds and Sport Modifieds stand? You get the picture. That's an unknown.

A few weeks ago, we lost the Fourth Annual Hall of Fame night, and this weekend is the R Charles Snyder Salute, or it should have been. Those nights are special to me, because I'm the one who instigated them. I don't think either would exist if I hadn't been flapping my mouth since the day I got up here. I'm a tradition and history minded person, and I respect Southern Oregon racing history. Hall of Fame night has been a winner. The biggest night of the year has been the R Charles Snyder Salute. 

True, that was the weekend of the Lon Skinner Memorial, but if we're honest, that night had gotten stale in recent years for whatever reason. Compare the numbers that we had for this race for the past two years to the last several of those Lon Skinner races. Not even close. We put two of the biggest car counts on the track for those events that have been seen there for the last 10 years.

There are a few reasons for that. We did things that made Southern Oregon Speedway a place people wanted to be again. We had work to do, but we were making clear progress. We ran a consistent and fair show. We might have stumbled here or there, but people pretty much knew we were going to work to make things right. I take a lot of pride in the work that I did. One of the reasons I've kept my mouth shut on this subject lately is because I knew we probably weren't racing this year, and it pissed me off. I came into the year not knowing if I would be back in 2021 as it is, but I felt like some really big things were lined up for the season. All was lost.

I knew enough in my research that Charles was a beloved figure in the community. I researched him a little bit before even coming to Oregon, and I had it in my mind that we should honor this man. I didn't know that it would take the place of the Lon Skinner race, but I knew it needed to be on the schedule. I was in Uncle Rich's ear about it as well as Mike McCann's constantly that first year. "We need to do this. We need to do this." Mike will chew on certain things for a while and then make a move when he feels the time is right. He was listening, and 2017 was the year we made that race happen as well as Hall of Fame night. 

I was right. The people were excited about the night. People wanted to see some of the best IMCA Modified and Sport Modified drivers on the West Coast come to Medford. Travis Snyder embraced the show. We even had some good support from Travis Hoppes for a couple of years. It was good in that sense, but I hate the way nights get away from us there sometimes. 

I don't know what it is about that venue, but when you get that many cars out there, it is a struggle to not take all night. I don't think John Skinner even worried about it. He just ran as long as he needed to, but Mike and I did stress on getting it done. When it's something that's out of your hands, that's one thing. When you do it to yourself, that's another. But overall, this event has been a big success.

I can't let this moment pass without mentioning Bryan Hammond. He passed away at Southern Oregon Speedway moments after taking a checkered flag in a Top 10 finish in the Pro Stock race at the R Charles Snyder Salute last year. I did interact with Bryan a little bit before the race. He was a guy who got into racing later in his life and seemed to enjoy every minute of it. He supported the association whole heartedly and even sponsored them on more than one occasion. It was definitely one of the saddest moments I ever witnessed, but the one nice thing was he died doing something he loved.

The people in Medford are all left to wonder what will happen in 2021. I don't know the answer to that. 2020 has been lost, and Siskiyou Golden Speedway was poised to step in and take up some of the slack. They haven't had an ideal situation either. It seems like Kevin Barba had a lot of momentum on his side until the July 3rd and 4th weekend came. They fumbled in such a way that it killed the momentum, but he and his team haven't given up. They've stayed committed. This brings us to Labor Day weekend as they take another swing at it. There's just a little bit more money than usual on the line for the IMCA Modifieds and IMCA Sport Modifieds.

As I understand it, they have qualifying day on Friday. I'm assuming there's some sort of preliminary Main Event, but I don't have all of the details at the moment. I do know that Saturday night is $800 to win for the Modifieds and $700 to win for the Sport Modifieds. The Pro Stocks are running two complete shows. I've gotten conflicting reports on what the Mini Stock division is doing, but it appears that they are racing on Saturday night. It's time to take another swing at a big show, but are the racers on board this time?

The numbers haven't been as good as they probably should be the last couple of weeks. Let's face it, the Medford racers aren't doing much of anything. It's kind of disappointing to see the people who could come to Yreka taking a look that way and saying, "No thanks." The other thing they are doing is having Friday night practices, and I notice teams that haven't come out to race on Saturday. They come out for Friday practice instead. Is it counterproductive to hold a practice the day before your race? Is it costing you money in the long run? I don't know the answer to that, but it's just something I am looking at and thinking about.

I feel like if they can't put up car counts in the teens in both Modified classes this weekend, they need to take a look at what they're doing the rest of the year and ask themselves if it's really worth it without fans? They should be able to get car count that high at least. They are going to have an internet pay-per-view service thanks to Roy Bain on the Tri State Pro Stock Challenge Series page. Roy is able to do a pay-per-view service through Facebook that is functional enough. The track needs whatever revenue they can generate, and Roy is willing to help them out with that. Even if it's just a couple hundred dollars, it's still something that they need pretty badly right now.

Roy isn't claiming to be a professional broadcaster. Even before he and Gordon Russell Jr put the Tri State Series together last year, he would go live on Facebook at the Outlaw Pro Stock races. It's a way to put the word out about your group, and Roy has created quite a bit of buzz about the Pro Stocks through Facebook. Marketing matters people, and Roy gets that. Facebook was looking at what he was doing as he continued doing these live streams on race night and also doing updates on the Tri State page as needed. This is why they granted him the ability to do pay-per-views.

It's still a work in progress. He's figuring out what he needs and how he needs to do it, but the first test run of the pay-per-view happened at Antioch Speedway. Anybody who was there watching through him was able to keep up with what the Pro Stocks did that night. Roy and I have been talking since before the July race. He reached out to Kevin Barba and Misty Bushman to see if he could help them get a streaming service going for the July 4th weekend. It almost happened, but they went another way with disappointing results on that occasion.

Roy hit me with an offer to announce that weekend had he gotten the gig to broadcast the show. We even spoke about the possibility of me helping out this weekend. It's just not easy for me to get down that way. I really don't have the drive in me to jump on a bus and head down there for a weekend and head back. I think about the only place I would have done that for was Antioch Speedway. I kind of hoped at one time as they were trying to get started that I could go down there and help them for a few weeks to get it up and running. I could have helped get Wade more organized or do whatever I could to help that track. The call never came, and I'll get over it eventually. 

Yreka wouldn't have been an issue for me if it had been easy for me to get down there. I handled their newspaper media for four years, and this is the fifth year for me covering the track on the blog. I'm familiar enough with the racers down there that I would have been able to add a little bit of color and present the track the way they need it. Unfortunately, it's not to be. If there's a way I can help Roy out so that he can be more effective, I will certainly do that. Roy is one of the good guys. He's been an MVP for a few promoters, delivering them good shows with the Pro Stocks. Roy would be the first to say he's had some great support through sponsorship. 

My fingers are crossed for Yreka to hit a standing double if not a homerun. Just get decent numbers. I'm hoping to see the Pro Stocks come out in better numbers than they did the last time, and the two Modified classes should at least hit double digits in their classes. I would hope the IMCA Sport Modifieds have a shot at getting in the 20s. The intangible here is how many drivers are going to head north for the show at Cottage Grove Speedway, which takes place on Saturday and Sunday. I don't have the answer to that, but I always tell people to go to the Siskiyou Golden Speedway Facebook page for updates from Misty on whatever might be the case.

As I was putting things together for the post this last week, I noticed Orland Raceway had some pictures posted. There's actually a little bit of Orland news, and it's good. I didn't have full results to go with, so we were unable to put an article together. There were 26 Pure Stocks and 12 Wingless Spec Sprints last week. They also had Mini Stocks, Mini Trucks and Micros. As far as winners, I understand Kevin Pendergrass won the Pure Stock race, Tony Richards won the Wingless Spec Sprint race, Zach Webster was the Mini Truck winner and the Mini Stocks went to Tom Davis.

They've had their challenges trying to get a race in. This was only their second event. They were going to come back after the first one, but the excessive heat led to a cancellation. Then they canceled one because of smoke. The one bit of encouraging news we're hearing is that Orland is getting into the 2020s. That is to say they now have electronic scoring. They are still working out all the bugs, but what it means is they should start posting results on MyLaps very soon and they might even be looking at running the Race Monitor app so we can see scoring in live time. This is incredible news for that track. Orland has been the best kept secret in Northern California through the years.

I have been somebody who's hunted for clues through the years to write stories for that track. I've gotten some good ink in newspapers down there to help spread the word, and I know we had an impact on them when it came to drawing fans. It also helped that Christina Meeds was getting them pictures as we would get full coverage in the sports pages down there. I feel pretty good about that, but the track has walked very slowly into the Social Media age. Christina has done her best to get them to open their eyes. Electronic scoring is big, because it does a lot of the work for you.

You run the MyLaps system, make a couple of adjustments as needed. When the night's done you just hit send. It does the rest. If you've got the Race Monitor app going in the background, people will just see the statistics live. This is also something that's going to happen at Antioch Speedway at some point. At least ways, electronic scoring. I can't vouch for Race Monitor, although I'm hopeful that they run the app in the background. Some of the places go with the other company, My Race Pass, but others use both. There's no harm in using both, in my opinion. For Antioch, it was a no-brainer to go in this direction. 

I've heard there's a little bit of throwing each other under the bus going on down there. The results weren't getting posted because the scorekeeper is lagging. The scorekeeper is not getting the points together and this and that. I don't know. I know that had I been down there, this stuff would have been handled. That's what disappoints me. I think what management has done there under these difficult circumstances is impressive, but I have a record of helping new promoters at different venues get things done. I could have done the same for my beloved home track, and I wanted to. Even if I was only down there temporarily, I wanted to help. Again, I was never asked. Disappointing

I am encouraged to see Antioch Speedway doing what they can to make the results more accessible to the people. It needed to happen. When people have gotten Chad Chadwick's attention and offered things that could help the situation, he's been very receptive. Whether that's been sponsorship or people offering shows to him. We saw the Hunt Series event come together practically overnight. The Tri State Pro Stock Series has been able to work their way in there three times with more visits to come. We've been making noise here on the blog about the Central Valley Mini Stocks. In my conversations with Dan Myrick, I've even mentioned Antioch to him, and it looks like there's a date on September 12th that could see some of the CVMS guys come to town.

I do believe strongly that Chadwick needs to find somebody down there who can build cages for cars and help get some cars ready to debut for 2021. This is something that could be started now, and I know they can find buyers for cars pretty quickly. I know he's committed to this class. Considering there haven't really been many cars showing up, it shows something that he's willing to pay a purse if they can even give him five vehicles. Myrick will bring you more than five. What he's done to show the value of Four Banger racing is simply amazing. 

The Central Valley Mini Stocks are the premier Four Banger series anywhere on the West Coast. Where else do they have a series sponsor like House of JuJu of Clovis and Morro Bay offering point fund money? Again, September 12th isn't an official CVMS race at Antioch, but Dan is getting some racers to come out and support the show. He will be one of them. I think the next official race for the group is on September 26th at Bakersfield Speedway. At least, that's what they have listed, but I'm curious what Bakersfield will announce as I don't see anything at the moment

Getting ahead of this weekend's event for just a moment, I've looked at the Bill Bowers Memorial race. I like that Chad renamed the event from the West Coast Nationals, because I like events that honor great people. Bowers was certainly one of the great ones, which is why we inducted him into the Antioch Speedway Hall of Fame last year. This will be the biggest IMCA Modified and IMCA Sport Modified race anywhere on the West Coast. Southern Oregon Speedway has handed the mantle over to Antioch as of last October when Chad had his first huge event. It's $5,000 to win for the Modifieds and $2,000 to win for the Sport Modifieds at last report. It goes from the practice, barbecue and cornhole tournament on October 1st to two great nights of racing, the second of which will be with the big money on the line.

I'm kind of happy I am a few hours behind schedule as news breaks hourly in some cases. Last night I had checked the schedule for the Bowers race, and IMCA Stock Cars weren't there yet. This is something that Brian Pearce, the right-hand man for Chadwick, floated on Facebook over a month ago. He asked the IMCA Stock Car community who might be interested in being a part of the big weekend, and the overwhelming response was positive. You had drivers from Bakersfield, Hanford, Merced and Watsonville expressing their approval of the idea. The response came swiftly, but not so swiftly was the official acknowledgement that the division was added to the show.

On September 3rd, it was made official, and that's a good idea for a few reasons. First of all, let me say to the Hobby Stock community that the there was a race initially announced at $1,000 to win on October 24th for your class. I think the reason for no inclusion of Hobby Stocks at the Bowers Memorial race is because this division could deliver 30 or more cars on that occasion. Management has reason to expect big car counts in the IMCA Sport Modifieds and IMCA Modifieds, so there's no reason to overdo it too much in car count. The IMCA Stock Cars won't.

I believe you could get the biggest car count in California IMCA Stock Car history, but getting 20 cars would accomplish that task. They're not going to take too much time from the program if you are talking about maybe two or three heat races and a Main Event on both nights. This also gives Antioch Speedway fans a sneak peek at what's coming in 2021. The look of the cars and the style of racing is slightly different from Hobby Stocks, and being that it is IMCA sanctioned, it becomes a big night in California for the sanctioning body. Though I count myself as more of a Hobby Stock fan than a IMCA Stock Car fan, I wholeheartedly endorse this move. Bill Bowers Memorial weekend at Antioch Speedway just got better.

What has also been announced is that this Saturday night is the third round of the George Steitz Big Kahuna Freedom Series. George was the instigator behind the Freedom Series being created by Tom Sagmiller at Chowchilla, and it's been a nice little deal for Antioch Speedway. The first round was the biggest car count in Antioch Speedway history with about a 150 cars in the pits. I don't think the numbers will be quite that big, but they should get a good turnout for an increased purse for IMCA Modifieds, IMCA Sport Modifieds and Hobby Stocks. Antiochspeedway.tv will be the place to watch and the Antioch Speedway Facebook page will have more details.
 

I've been impressed with some of the things that Kenny Shepherd does at Madera Speedway. It blows me away that he's giving away such a quality broadcast for free every week. Nutupindustries.com is the sponsor making that happen, and as they record footage for MavTV this weekend, you can watch it live once again. It will be the best of pavement Late Model racing this weekend for sure. The Nut Up Pro Late Models have a great field of competitors, and this time they're running for $5,000 to win. Second place is getting $3,000 and third is getting $2,000, so the money really is on the line in the second round of the Race 2B Drug Free Big3 Series.

As if that isn't enough, Kenny got the inspiration from somewhere to pay $3,000 to win the Semi Main. What? You heard me, $3,000 to win the Semi Main. If you win that race, you are not being forced to miss the Main Event in order to collect that money. You can transfer and go for the bigger money. Just finishing second in this race is $750, and the $500 for third isn't bad either. I know what you're thinking. Go slow and intentionally run the Semi Main to win that money. I don't see that necessarily happening, because the risk is you might get caught up in a crash doing that. However, it's hard to tell what people might use for a strategy on this occasion.

If you've been watching the broadcasts, you've probably enjoyed watching the young kids 10 to 16 years old piloting the 51fifty Energy Drink Junior Late Models. I admit I am only begrudgingly getting on board with this idea, but if I fully end up accepting the premise, I'll give a lot of the credit to Shepherd and the program he runs here. There will also be some kids competing in the Bandoleros vs Mini Cups, so the show will be quite enjoyable. You've also got Steven Blakesley and Outback Andy Foster doing the announcing. You can go to the Madera Speedway Facebook page for more details.

Ukiah Speedway doesn't have quite the notoriety that Madera does, but they have a nice show there. I've made no secret of my appreciation for that paved oval. It's a racy little joint that I liked from the first moment I went there back in the 1990's with Gary Jacob. There's an Upstate Bombers Series race, which means drivers from places like Eureka, Shasta and Lakeport should be on hand to battle the local stars for $1,000 to win. This division has been very enjoyable to watch as far as I'm concerned. The Limited Modifieds will race for $500 to win, and I think they were trying to get an Open Modified show for $1,000 to win.

They don't have high-dollar equipment, but they are broadcasting these shows for free on Facebook. The quality has been good enough that I've made it a point to watch it live. That's the plan this weekend as well. I need to figure out what the guy's name is who does the announcing there. I've enjoyed listening to him. I believe they've got the Jammers running there and I think the Bandoleros and Legend Cars are welcome. I'm not sure they will get any, but you never know. The infield track will not be ready in time to have the Jalopies, unfortunately. You can go to the Ukiah Speedway Facebook page to find other details.

At Petaluma Speedway, you may not be able to watch the USAC/CRA Sprint Cars as originally scheduled, but the Sunday show will offer the USAC Western Midgets vs the BCRA Midgets. Thanks to the support of the West Coast Stock Car Hall of Fame, Sunday's race and the race on October 24th will have its own separate point series. I think we should get a good turnout of Midgets. Considering the way things have been going with the General Hydroponics Redwood Dwarf Cars, we'll probably have a bunch of them as well. I'd like to say we're going to get a bunch of Jake's Performance Hobbies Mini Stocks, but that hasn't been the case so far. The Santa Rosa Auto Body 600 Micros should do okay. 

I'm kind of surprised they didn't throw in the McLea's Tire Service IMCA Modifieds for this one. Looking at the date, I thought it would fit in perfectly. You could piggyback off of the Antioch show. There's a few drivers who seem to be running for IMCA State points, so you might have gotten a couple of extra cars in the field to maintain their point efforts. I'm sure what they have planned will work just fine. Floracing.com will offer the broadcast for this one, and you can find further details at the Petaluma Speedway Facebook page.

I think Drake Nelson can see the finish line at Coos Bay Speedway. He jumped ahead of everybody else in getting his place opened and reaped the benefits in bigger car counts and crowd attendance. It wasn't the best of news when he got hit with the suspension of his liquor license a couple of weeks ago, but he soldiered on with a couple of events that could still have fans but no beer sales. When Willamette Speedway opened up, he took another hit in the car count department. Willamette has held events for the past three weeks, and Coos Bay is pretty much getting their regular crowd now.

I was cranky when Willamette Speedway decided to run a $1,000 to win 40 lap Street Stock show. I felt, and still feel, that they were mimicking what Coos Bay had been planning to do all along. I understand that when somebody offers you money during a pandemic when you can't afford to pay a full purse, you take it. So, I get why Loren would take the money and do it. It still didn't sit right with me, because Coos Bay had a special Street Stock show planned that week. 

Why did the money have to be put on the line at the same time Coos Bay was running their show? Both tracks did okay. Coos Bay got their 15 cars, which is still really good for them. Willamette had enough cars for a B Main and had most of the big stars. Kyle Yaeck left town $1,000 richer, which is a surprise to nobody. At Coos Bay, 2018 Sportsman Late Model champion Dyllan Siewell got the win and the $500 prize.

Coos Bay will wrap up their Limited Sprint point race on Saturday, and it's interesting how it all cycled back to Lawrence Van Hoof. Lawrence hasn't been the fastest guy in the field, but he does have more experience than any of their regulars. I suspect he'll try to bag his first Main Event win of the year in their sixth event this weekend. I wouldn't expect more than 8 or 10 cars at the most as Cottage Grove Speedway will have two races this weekend for that class. I'm still wondering if the September 26th show will be an ISCS Limited Sprint event as originally scheduled and what the pay might be. I can see Brian Crockett allowing them to reduce the winner's prize just a little bit under the circumstances. If they can make that happen, Drake might take the deal and see what Cottage Grove support he might get.

It's all about the NASCAR Whelen All American Series at Coos Bay. The drivers who have signed up for this thing know that at the end of the season they get point fund money. The biggest chunk of that money goes to the America's Mattress Super Late Models, and it's still going to be a battle between Brody Montgomery, Braden Fugate and Justin Johnson. It seems to me that Montgomery is peaking at just the right time, but there are still two races to make it happen. The track championship is worth $3,500, but the Top 5 drivers get pretty good money out of it.

Saturday's show will be important. The Sportsman Late Models get a $1,000 championship, the Street Stocks are running for $700 for the title and the Hornet champion gets $500. Point fund money goes to the Top 5 in those classes as well, and Mini Outlaws and Junior Stingers will round out a full program on Saturday. They remain the only track in Oregon that can have a seemingly unrestricted amount of fans in the grandstands, and more information can be found at the Coos Bay Speedway Facebook page.

I don't think that anybody would dispute that the premier Street Stock series over the last few years on the West Coast has been the Iron Giant Series based in Oregon. Oregon seems to have been caught in a time loop. While the Street Stocks evolved in California to become Super Stocks/Pro Stocks, time stood still in Oregon. The Street Stocks of the 90s live on here, but the formation of the Iron Giant Series was necessary after promoter and track owner Jerry Schram got a little bit upset with the group and started IMCA Stock Cars at Willamette and Sunset. It took Chris Sine and James Whitehouse to organize something really spectacular. 

It is not uncommon to see over 20 Street Stocks show up at any of their events, and the Iron Giant race at Willamette Speedway on Labor Day weekend was the one that capped it all. This event has paid $5,000 to win in the past, but everything came to a grinding halt thanks to the virus shut down this year. Whitehouse suspended operations, but he didn't say it was dead. As River City Speedway in St Helens, Oregon got open, they found a place for the Iron Giant Series to run on Labor Day weekend. When they made that announcement, there was no word at Willamette Speedway that the track would open under any conditions, so the Iron Giant Series got behind this deal as the only race they would sanction. 

I admit I was a bit disappointed that the Iron Giant Series didn't formally endorse the Battle At The Beach at Coos Bay Speedway last week. After all, that race was created for them. Drake Nelson has been getting such good numbers this year that he went ahead and kept the race for the local Street Stocks there, but it would have been nice to see the series page formally endorse the show. Privately, Whitehouse endorsed it on his own page, but there might have been some politics behind the move. With Willamette reopening and paying $1,000 to win that weekend, maybe he didn't want to piss off Loren Kruesi. That's just speculation.

What is known is they have a two-day show happening at River City Speedway this weekend, and it's paying $700 to win. That's as of now, which means it will be the second highest purse for the division in Oregon this year behind what Willamette just did. Knowing how the people support this class, that number could go up by the time race day happens. It won't be the final race for the Street Stocks in Oregon, but it could be the last big race for them, depending on what happens to the Prather family race at Coos Bay in October. I'm sure they'll make an announcement at the River City Speedway Facebook page, which is likely to broadcast the show for free as well. 

We've heard a little bit of chatter from Mountain Valley Raceway in Hayfork. They've had the September 12th date on their schedule for a while now, and they recently announced that this would be the annual Clyde Cordell Memorial race. Clyde was instrumental in helping get the track going there. Sadly, he didn't live to see the fruits of his labor. This is usually a race they have during the Trinity County Fair, but that's been canceled this year. To keep this tradition going, they've made this show his race, and they will have Hobby Stocks, Mini Stocks and Enduro cars there. It looks like they'll be shooting off fireworks, though I'm unaware of any fan attendance being allowed or what sort of broadcast they might have. Information can be found at the Mountain Valley Raceway Facebook page.

We're watching the season hit the stretch run. I don't know how much I will be worried about doing weekly stuff after September, but I would like to make sure we have race result articles posted for the tracks we've been covering while they're still trying to do something. I don't see us maintaining two posts a week at that point unless I feel it's absolutely necessary. It's getting time to disengage. I need to actually go through my stuff and find the content that I typed for the book prior to arriving in Oregon. It's editing time for that one. I could end up working on two books simultaneously, as I did six years ago, but I'm not sure what the second project would be if I do it.

I'm bouncing around a few ideas for special articles that I might post on the racing news blog in the days ahead. It's been inactive as I've just done all of my reporting on the DCRR Racing News blog this year. As I've got four years of history on the other blog, I have no desire to remove it entirely. I've got a couple of ideas that I'm gathering information on right now and just need one good day to start putting something together. I'm also contemplating a rebranding of that blog in the future, though everything is still in the thought process at this time. I doubt anybody would be interested, but I would entertain selling the Jefferson Racing News blog as is with all the content intact.

Labor Day weekend racing should be good. I hope the tracks enjoy some good support in the pits. We're all looking over at the governors and wondering if they're going to loosen things up a little bit. When we hear certain reports about where the numbers really are, you start to wonder if they'll admit that maybe we've overreacted just a little bit. It won't give us back the time that we lost, but at least we can begin to move ahead and pick up the pieces from the damage that's been done. I don't know what will happen, but I try to be hopeful. We'll be at the news desk monitoring as much as we can again this weekend.

On that note, I will end this column. Until next time...