Antioch,CA — On the heels of last week’s action packed Winged 360 Sprint Car race, another exciting six division program of All Star Series racing takes place at Antioch Speedway this Saturday night.\u00a0 Two of the top divisions racing anywhere in California these days are Winged 360 Sprint Cars and DIRTcar Late Models, and the speedway will have them both this week.\u00a0 Also in action will be the Wingless Spec Sprints, B Modifieds, Limited Late Models and Dwarf Cars.<\/p>\n
As we have been saying, they’re coming from everywhere to do battle at Antioch speedway in the Winged 360 Sprint Car division.\u00a0 Last Saturday night saw Seth Nunes make an appearance.\u00a0 Hailing from Medford, Oregon, Seth has been driving for Petaluma car owner Jim Van Lare this season and competing at several different race tracks.\u00a0 On this occasion, he was joined by another Petaluma speedway mainstay, Roberto Kirby, at the front of the pack.\u00a0 Kirby led much of the way with Nunes shadowing his every move.\u00a0 Kirby was headed for his first feature victory when Nunes made a last lap pass to take it away from him.\u00a0 This makes eight different winners in nine races.<\/p>\n
Point leader Billy Aton has a knack for grabbing Top 3 finishes this season, and he maintained his point status with a solid third place finish, while rival Art McCarthy, the only two time winner in the division this season, finished back in fifth.\u00a0 With McCarthy also winning a heat race, the points didn’t shake up too much.\u00a0 Aton is due for his second win of the season, but it just may be that you should watch last week’s fourth place finisher this week.\u00a0 For the second straight week, third ranked Dan Gonderman drove to a Top 5 finish in fourth.<\/p>\n
The Gonderman family name is one longtime fans can appreciate.\u00a0 Dan’s father, Sportsman legend Ken Gonderman, won the 1970 Sportsman division championship.\u00a0 In fact, you can usually find Ken in the pits with Dan on race day.\u00a0 Dan’s brother Dave Gonderman won Sportsman and Street Stock Main Events through the years, and even his daughter Abigail and nephew Nathen have competed at the track.\u00a0 When it comes to Dan’s accomplishments, he has won two Wingless Spec Sprint championships at the track and is a two time feature winner in that division this year.\u00a0\u00a0 Though he has won Main Events in three different divisions, he is still trying to get his first win in the Winged 360 Sprint Car class.\u00a0 Given his ability, it could happen at any time.<\/p>\n
Zack Lynsky is another talented racer who has won Main Events at Antioch Speedway and looked like he could be a feature winner last week when he won his heat race.\u00a0 The Main Event didn’t go so well for Lynsky as he put his car on its lid on the opening lap.\u00a0 Bob Newberry took his first laps of the year in a Winged Sprint Car.\u00a0 Newberry, much like Gonderman, has risen through the ranks from Street Stocks to Dirt Modifieds and Wingless Spec Sprints and has won races in all three classes and a championship in the Wingless Spec Sprint class.\u00a0 He finished a respectable sixth last week in his maiden run.<\/p>\n
It’s always interesting to see who will show up and race each week in the Sprint Car class.\u00a0 The roster of drivers who have competed so far this year is nearly 40 now, and other racers to watch for this week include Adam McCarthy, Tim Burcher, Matt Barber, Matt DeMartini, Burt Foland Jr., Rick Brophy and reigning champion Shawn Arriaga.<\/p>\n
It’s time once again for another appearance of the DIRTcar Late Models.\u00a0 These high horse powered Stock Cars are the pinnacle of Stock Car racing on the dirt track, and Antioch usually gets anywhere from 8-12 competitors for any given race.\u00a0 If it’s Late Models, you know Richard Papenhausen will be in competition.\u00a0 Papenhausen is the current point leader and 2014 champion in the division.\u00a0 He has one win, but he’s usually battling for the lead if he’s not winning and has multiple second place finishes.\u00a0 Not surprisingly, second in the standings at the moment is reigning champion Jeff Decker.\u00a0 Decker is also a feature winner this season and still very much in the championship hunt. These two competitors are anticipated this week.<\/p>\n
The steady Dennis Souza is the last of the Pescadero contingent of racers who started racing Street Stocks at Watsonville in the 1990’s.\u00a0 Dennis has been racing Late Models these past few seasons and having a blast.\u00a0 At the moment, he leads Mike Hynes by just 15 points in the battle for third.\u00a0 Hynes has been rather quietly earning his points and sneaking up the point ladder.\u00a0 Third did belong to Chester Kniss, but after rolling his car and discovering more problems, Chester skipped the most recent race making repairs.\u00a0 We haven’t heard when we might see his Late Model again.<\/p>\n
Much like the Winged Sprint Car division, you never know what drivers might show up on any given week.\u00a0 The house car has made a few appearances, most recently with Dirt Modified veteran Ed Daviess behind the wheel.\u00a0 Unfortunately, his night ended on the unhappy end of a tow truck hook.\u00a0 It’s likely that that car will be back again this week, but it remains to be seen who will be driving it.\u00a0 Other competitors to watch for include Denny Malfatti, David Newquist, past Dirt Modified champion Rob Norris and Paul Guglielmoni.<\/p>\n
Early in the season, past Wingless Spec Sprint champion Jim Perry Jr. got off to a good start the and is a multi time winner.\u00a0 Unfortunately, Jim went into a bit of a slump with some motor issues at the same time as Marcus Smith started coming on strong in the Richard Basden owned car.\u00a0 The two time winner Smith finds himself trailing Perry by just 18 points in a close championship battle.\u00a0 Perry seems to be getting things sorted out, and that means we could have an exciting battle between these two drivers this week.\u00a0 As it is, Smith has been enjoying the races up front with teammate Dan Gonderman as both drivers have wins in recent weeks.<\/p>\n
Another battle is developing for third between Rick Panfili, past Chowchilla Speedway champion Brandon Burd and one time feature winner Roy Fisher.\u00a0 Panfili leads Burd by just eight points with Fisher trailing by 16.\u00a0 Much like Perry, Panfili is rebounding from a couple of bad races, and he’ll be hoping to make another play for his first career feature win this week.\u00a0 There are some very competitive racers in this division, including James East, reigning champion Kyle Bakkie, one time feature winner Jeremy Newberry, Shannon Newton and Alan Miranda.\u00a0 Two races ago, top rookie Adam Teves blew a motor, and the team has been scrambling to get him ready with a new motor.\u00a0 It was uncertain whether Adam would be ready for this week or not, but he remains Top 10 in the points.<\/p>\n
It is still a three car race in the Limited Late Model division.\u00a0 Ageless veteran Larry Damitz is the current point leader and has won four of the last five championships.\u00a0 Last time out, Damitz picked up his fourth victory of the season ahead of his closest point rival, Mark Garner.\u00a0 Mark has not given up on his quest to bring the championship trophy back to the Garner household, but he knows every race he starts will be important in his quest.\u00a0 Garner has already won three Main Events, but perhaps as big a highlight for him this year is the fact that his son Billy Garner has joined him for some racing this season.<\/p>\n
It is interesting to note that Billy runs the number 76jr car.\u00a0 This is a tradition started by Mark when he began racing Dirt Modifieds in the 1990’s.\u00a0 Mark’s father, Jerry Garner, put the jr on the end of his number since he was a rookie.\u00a0 Jerry told Mark that he would have to earn those letters being removed.\u00a0 Of course, it wasn’t long before Mark was running up at the front of the pack.\u00a0 Billy is continuing the family tradition by running the letters.\u00a0 As he gets more comfortable behind the wheel and gets faster, the letters will be removed.<\/p>\n
If Mark had a good mentor in racing, the same holds true for rookie Kimo Oreta.\u00a0 Oreta is learning from the man he parks next to every week, Larry Damitz.\u00a0 In fact, Oreta is running the Sundrop logo on the hood of his car the same as Damitz, who has had the nickname “The Sundrop Kid” for years.\u00a0 Oreta picked up his second heat race win last time, and the next goal is to win his first career Main Event in this division.\u00a0 Nobody has won more Hobby Stock Main Events at Antioch Speedway then Oreta, who has over 20 of them, and it’s just a matter of time before he adds a Limited Late Model win to that.<\/p>\n
The Limited Late Model roster has been up and down this year, so it’s unknown who might show up this week.\u00a0 It’s likely that you’ll see fourth ranked driver John Evans and fifth ranked driver Mike Gustafson.\u00a0 Mike is a two time champion with a win this year, and nobody has won more Main Events in this division through the years than he has.\u00a0 Other drivers to watch for include one time winner Jim Freethy, Lori Brown, Calvin Louis and John Keith.<\/p>\n
In the B Modified division, Trevor Clymens has hit his stride, and that just may be bad news for the competition.\u00a0 Last week, Trevor won for the sixth time this season as he puts a little bit more distance between himself and second in the standings.\u00a0 Al Johnson came into the night second in the points, and he blew a rear end taking the checkered flag in fourth last week.\u00a0 The driver who may be taking up the chase of Trevor could be Shane DeVolder.\u00a0 DeVolder scored his fifth second place feature finish.\u00a0 Shane is getting lots of seat time at other race tracks, and though he has second place finishes elsewhere, he’s still searching for his first feature victory.<\/p>\n
Double division racer Danny Jones is quietly earning a fourth place ranking so far in the B Modified division.\u00a0 With the Hobby Stock division off this week, Danny has an opportunity to focus more on the B Modified and see if he can pick up the pace a little bit.\u00a0 K.C. Keller is a feature winner this year and is a threat to win on any given week.\u00a0 Other hard chargers to watch for this week include two time winner Anthony Giuliani, Brian Pearce, Lloyd Cline, Chuck Golden and Randy Brown.<\/p>\n
The Dwarf Car division point battle was shaken up last week after the date was removed and then put back on the schedule at the last minute.\u00a0 Point leader Kevin Miraglio and third ranked Tim Reeder had already committed to the Dwarf Car Nationals in Medford, Oregon.\u00a0 In their absence, the show went on.\u00a0 Mike Corsaro took advantage of the opportunity to close the gap on the point leader as he finished fourth in the Main Event and won his heat race.\u00a0 Rookie Buddy Kniss used his career best third place feature finish to overtake Reeder for third in the standings.\u00a0 Though Miraglio continues to lead the standings, it got much closer.\u00a0 As a two time winner, he knows he needs to add to that total to stay ahead of the pack.<\/p>\n
The star of last week was Jenna Frazier.\u00a0 Jenna won her heat race for the second time this year, but the best was yet to come as she won her first career Main Event ahead of David Rosa.\u00a0 Rosa’s credentials in the Street Stock division are second to none.\u00a0 The winner of over 40 Main Events in that class and two track championships, Rosa was fifth on the track’s overall win list coming into the season.\u00a0 The Dwarf Cars have presented a challenge to him, however, as he struggles to get his car dialed in.\u00a0 In the previous race, David had his then best finish in third, and his second place finish last week seems to indicate that a win is just around the corner for him.<\/p>\n
There are some good drivers on the Dwarf Car roster at Antioch Speedway, and other competitors to watch for include Robert Coe, David Michael Rosa, Charlie Correia, Timmy Ryan and Chuck Weir.<\/p>\n