Antioch, CA — Last week at Antioch Speedway, the All Star Series Winged 360 Sprint Cars and A Modified division both saw their no repeat winner streak snapped as the first two time winners emerged. Will those drivers become three time winners this week? In addition to those two divisions, the Hobby Stocks, Dwarf Cars and B Modifieds will also be on the card this Saturday night. The B Modified division saw the point lead change last week. What will happen this week?
Shawn Arriaga #56 is the reigning Winged 360 Sprint Car champion and a threat to win on any night he’s there. Photo by Ryan Brown
In the Winged 360 Sprint Cars, we hadn’t seen veteran Art McCarthy in the winner’s circle since the season opener. Since then, McCarthy had one night where his car failed to start just before the Main Event, and it cost him the point lead. His win last Saturday night, combined with his heat race victory, were was just what he needed. However, he didn’t gain too much in the championship battle as Billy Aton finish second. Aton has been having a brilliant season so far, and the one time winner continues to set the pace.
Two time Wingless Spec Sprint champion Dan Gonderman has had a difficult time of it lately in his Winged Sprint Car. Though he has had two wins in the Wingless division this year, Gonderman is still searching for that first win in the Winged class. In fact, a flip left him absent from the previous two races, but he bounced back last week with a Top 5 finish. That finish enabled them to reclaim third in the standings.
Making his move into fifth in the standings was reigning champion Shawn Arriaga. Last week, Arriaga finished fourth, just ahead of Gonderman. Though he is the reigning champion, Shawn is running a relaxed schedule this year as he takes some races off to spend time with his family. He could be there this week, and surprise visitors show up all the time, including Marissa Polizzi. Marissa is a regular at Petaluma Speedway, and she finished third in the Main Event last week. Other drivers to watch for include Tim Burcher, Rick Brophy, Chris Magoon, Matt Barber and Burt Foland Jr.
The A Modified division ran their tenth race last week before finally seeing their first repeat winner in Brian Cass. A past champion at Watsonville and Hanford, Cass has also had his moments at Antioch Speedway through the years. To get this win, he had to hold off a four time champion in Troy Foulger, who was giving the Bill Bowers car a shakedown run before an upcoming series race out of town. Surprisingly, Foulger still hasn’t had a win in Antioch this year, but he has finished second multiple times.
Nine A Modified championships have been won by these two drivers at Antioch Speedway as Scott Busby #73 is the reigning five time champion and Troy Foulger #49 won four championships in a row. Photo by Ryan Brown
It was not a great night for point leader Carl Berendsen II. Last week, Carl managed to beat his rival, five time champion Scott Busby. That was the good news. Unfortunately both drivers finished at the back of the pack in ninth and tenth, respectively. Busby had just gotten his car back together after motor problems two weeks ago, and hopefully there wasn’t too much damage on his #73 car this week. He started the night off pretty strong early on with a heat race win, but it was all downhill from there.
Trent Wentworth returned last week with a Top 5 finish. We hadn’t seen Aaron Crowell in an A Modified since he blew his motor a couple months ago. Josh Combs has a fast car and he put Crowell put him behind the wheel. The 2004 champion Crowell then drove to a third place finish last week. The A Modifieds should put on a good show this week as other competitors such as Sean O’Gara, Bobby Montalvo, Raymond Lindemann, Chester Kniss and Anthony Slaney could be among the field.
Trevor Clymens missed a B Modified race early in the season. Since that time, he’s been steadily gaining ground on the leader, Al Johnson. Last week, he won his second straight feature and fifth of the year, and that catapulted him past Johnson into the point lead. It’s not just Johnson that Trevor may have to worry about in the weeks ahead. Johnson is the driver in second, and he maintained that was his fifth place finish, but there’s another driver closing in fast on both of them.
In this case, it is rookie Shane DeVolder. DeVolder has been racing just about everywhere he can, and much like Trevor, he missed a race earlier this year. However, with his fourth second place finish last week, Shane is in position to make another move in the points this week. Much like Johnson, DeVolder is still looking for his first feature win.
Despite the fact that the B Modifieds are in a marathon season in which they have more dates than any other class at the track, car count numbers haven’t been too bad. It helps when you have newcomers such as Michael Smith and Mike Mates joining the field last week. Danny Jones maintained his top five point status last week with a fourth place finish, and the double division racer is anticipated this week. Other competitors to look for include K.C. Keller, Ron Brown, Chuck Golden, Randy Brown, Tim Hammett and Brian Pearce.
Pearce was making his return last week after a hard crash the last time he was out left his frame badly damaged. On the night in question, he led several laps before losing the lead late. With his third place finish last week, it would appear that Pearce is just as fast as ever and could be a threat to win this week.
While Danny Jones and Guy Ahlwardt continue to battle for the Hobby Stock point lead, there was another driver making the headlines last week. This would be Michael Cooper. Cooper is in his fifth season, and he finally grabbed his first Main Event victory last time out. The season started off with Cooper scoring two second place finishes, and it looked like he might be the driver to beat in the race for the championship. Unfortunately, work sometimes takes him away from the track, and his absence from a couple of races has hindered his championship hopes. The win was a gratifying moment, and the fact that he did it ahead of brother in law Jordan Swank last week made it a good night for the family.
Ahlwardt continued his summer slump as he pulled into the pits late in the race and finished out of the running. Likewise, Chris Sorensen saw his bid for another Top 5 finish snapped. Sorensen led the race for seven laps before he broke a transmission to end his night. The low buck racer will be scrambling to get something back together, and we’ll see if he is able to make it out this week.
It is a competitive Hobby Stock division at Antioch Speedway, and like Cooper just proved, anybody can win on any given week. Rookie Anthony Vigna had his best showing of the year last week in third, followed by another rookie and top five point competitor Lindsay Buirch. This duo should be in action this week, and others to watch for include Natalie Perry, Frank Furtado, Cameron Swank and Mitchell Loccicere.
The Dwarf Cars were on the schedule and then off and were just added back to the schedule. The reason for pulling them in the first place was because management wanted to let the racers attend a big Nationals event in Oregon. When management heard that many of the racers didn’t have the budget to go, the date was put back on the schedule to give them a place to race closer to home.
Therefore, the battle will continue between two time winner Kevin Miraglio and one time winner Mike Corsaro for the championship. Miraglio actually has the biggest point lead at the track, and Corsaro was giving it a good run last week in second after a heat race win. However, Miraglio was just a bit faster and joined reigning champion David Teves and Mark Biscardi on the two time winner’s list.
While David Teves saw his bid to repeat in the car of the late Brian Tilseth end early, a pair of Davids were having a good night. Nobody at the track has had more Street Stock feature wins than David Rosa. The two time Street Stock champion has been steadily dialing in his #68 Dwarf Car, and he collected a heat race win before his best division effort in third. It was a nice comeback from the previous race, where he had the front end knocked out of his car in a crash. Not to be outdone, son David Michael Rosa closed in on the Top 5 in points with his fifth place finish.
The Dwarf Cars are that sleeper division you may not think about when you go to the races, but you generally leave having been entertained by their good race. Other competitors to watch for this week include ageless veteran Charlie Corriea. young gun Buddy Kniss, Robert Coe, Timmy Ryan and Brian Gray.
This five division program at Antioch Speedway, featuring The Winged 360 Sprint Cars, A Modifieds, B Modifieds, Dwarf Cars and Hobby Stocks, should be an exciting show this week. For further information on this race and other happenings at the track, go to www.antiochspeedway.com.
Antioch Speedway Points
Winged 360 Sprints
Billy Aton 372
Art McCarthy 349
Dan Gonderman 226
Burt Foland Jr. 206
Shawn Arriaga 189
Rick Brophy 174
Matt Barber 136
Bobby McMahan 136
Chris Magoon 118
Adam McCarthy 102
A Modifieds
Carl Berendsen II 384
Scott Busby 319
Bobby Montalvo 310
Sean O’Gara 304
Trent Wentworth 292
Troy Foulger 278
Ray Lindeman 274
Brian Cass 20r
John MacDougall 194
Aaron Crowell 192
B Modifieds
Trevor Clymens 642
Al Johnson 636
Shane DeVolder 606
Danny Jones 504
K.C. Keller 410
Randy Brown 292
Anthony Giuliani 269
Brian Pearce 228
Lloyd Cline 226
Chuck Golden 210
Hobby Stock
Danny Jones 483
Guy Ahlwardt 474
Michael Cooper 402
Lindsey Buirch 396
Jordan Swank 372
Chris Sorensen 369
Cameron Swank 368
Natalie Perry 321
Rob Waldrop 288
Anthony Vigna 288
Dwarf Car
Kevin Miraglio 426
Mike Corsaro 354
Tim Reeder 296
Buddy Kniss 268
Robert Coe 230
David Michael Rosa 224
Charlie Correia 210
Brian Gray 199
Josh Miller 182
David Rosa 182
