Pit Stops - Jefferson Edition

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Pit Stops - Jefferson Edition

Practice In Hayfork And Coos Bay

The Jefferson area is roaring with the sound of race car engines as we end the month of April this weekend. Though some tracks haven't run their first race of the season by now, playdays are happening. Let the excitement begin!

In Hayfork, California, they are having their playday this Saturday night. Coos Bay, Oregon is also having a playday this Saturday night. For both tracks, the season opener happens a week later. Hayfork will feature Hobby Stocks and Mini Stocks this season as they also attempt to start a new Outlaw Pro Stock class. The first Outlaw Pro Stock car has already been built by Hobby Stock star Josh Smith.

In Coos Bay, the Les Schwab Racing Series will feature the divisions that the fans are familiar with from last year. The management will continue to offer up Winged Sprint Cars and Late Models, as well as Mini Outlaws, Hornets, Sportsman Stock Cars and Street Stocks.

Once again, Dave May led the charge into the 2016 season as the defending Sprint Car champion. May bested John Black by a mere five points to win that title as Lawrence Van Hoof, Truman Winningham and Erin Lyons filled the remainder of the top five in the standings. It is a modest Sprint Car division, but thirteen different competitors raced last season.

Getting to see a Sprint Car race or a Late Model race at some tracks is rare, but this track has both classes sometimes on the same night. Toby McIntyre won the Late Model championship by just seven points over Trina Post. Bill Hitner, Chris Ray and Chuck Bracelin were the top 5 last season.

Josh Bearden held off Daniel Land by 29 points to win the Street Stock title, while Brody Montgomery beat Dyllan Siewell by 24 points to win the Hornets championship. The other 2015 battles weren't as close as Wayne Butler (Sportsman) and Samuel Talon (Mini Outlaw) were the other campions.

Coos Bay speedway will continue to offer up a variety of different divisions during this season, and it should be an interesting show. While they have their playday, Douglas County Speedway in Roseburg had their first playday last week.

In fact, they have one more set for this Saturday that will follow their PRA association meeting. Then, on May 7th, they open up with Hornets, Mini Stocks, PRA Hardtops, Pro 4 Wedge Cars, Street Stocks and Modifieds.  It is also billed as Mother's Night, meaning mothers get in free. It will be a full slate of racing action on May 7th. May 7th is also the date for Shasta Speedway's season opener, though this writer hasn't heard what divisions will be featured there that night.

Opening Day At Southern Oregon Speedway

We do know that the season opener happens at Southern Oregon Speedway this Saturday night, and it will feature the Pennzoil Winged Sprint Cars, Valley Boys Auto Sales Outlaw Pro Stocks, the Southern Oregon Dwarf Car Association and the Mini Stocks. IMCA Modified and Sport Modified fans need only wait one week when those divisions debut at the speedway on May 7th along with the Sprint Cars and Mini Stocks.

There's an era of optimism over Southern Oregon Speedway. People have been wanting some change, and it has arrived. As the winds of change blow towards the speedway, we also welcome in a new era of Sprint Car racing. Of course, two of the young guns of Sprint Car racing, 2015 Outlaw Pro Stock champion Jeffrey Hudson and 2015 Dwarf Car point runner up Camden Robustelli, lead the division into the season opener.

Robustelli will be a busy young man this season as he races just about every weekend in either his Sprint Car or the Dwarf Car. He will be traveling throughout Oregon and Washington again and even into California for races this year. Robustelli impressed with his Sprint Car feature win right out of the gate last year. Could this young man be the driver to beat in the 2016 Championship?

Hudson certainly knows a thing or two about coming through at the end of the season after winning the Pro Stock championship on the last night of the season. What might he bring to the table in the Sprint Cars?

Bill Hopper has been confirmed as an entrant in the season opener. Hopper has raced for a number of years in California and had success as both a car owner and a driver. He won the last two Wingless Sprint Car championships to Orland.

Technically, the defending champion for the Winged Sprint Car class at Southern Oregon Speedway is Chadd Noland. The last season in which this division competed for points, (2010) found Chadd winning the championship. He maybe the driver to beat this year.

The 10 race schedule offers Todd Whipple an opportunity to get more comfortable behind the wheel of his Winged Sprint car. Todd ran selected races over the last few years with a Sprint Car, while being a top 5 IMCA Modified driver at Yreka last season.

Wayne Kniffen is excited about running his Sprint Car at Southern Oregon Speedway again. The last time he competed in that class, he was a top 10 driver in the standings. He is also a past Mini Stock and Modified B Main champion at the track.

We are also hearing word of other drivers competing, including the Wheeler Racing team with at least one car. Mike Wheeler and Vern Wheeler Jr. are both Sprint Car competitors. Who else might be competing is speculation, but we are anticipating a field of anywhere from 6 to 12 race cars for the opener. From there, management believes that the car count will build up.

The Dwarf Cars are in town, and word is that the car count could be pretty big for them. With Dwarf Car veteran Fred Hay out of the field after a terrible crash at Chico, an anonymous donor has put up $1,000 for a special 15 lap, winner take all race. All drivers will put up another entry fee, and that money will go towards a fund to help Fred Hay.

Josh King has set this division on fire over the last two years, and he won six Main Events at Southern Oregon Speedway last year on the way to his second consecutive championship. Then, you have young Calvin Morton, who won the season opener for the group at Yreka a couple weeks ago. Morton was fourth in the standings last year and has his sights set on a higher ranking this season.

Ryan Smith was the runner up in the standings in 2014. He ran well last year until fading at the end of the season. He is another driver to keep an eye on in the championship chase this year. The fact is, there is a talented group of drivers who compete in the Southern Oregon Dwarf Car Association, and among them are Brock Peters, Kaycee Sheeler, Rob Gergle, Tony Peters and Jesse Merriman.

Having won the Outlaw Pro Stock championship at 14 years old, Jeffrey Hudson has set his sights on the Sprint Car division. This opens the door for a new champion this season. Scott Flowers may feel like he has some unfinished business to take care of this year. Flowers was the driver who led the standings last year going into the finale, only to be passed by the young gun.

Flowers has back to back second place seasons and there's only one position higher for him to go to reach the ultimate goal. The Flowers family will have three race cars this season. James Flowers is coming off of a third place season last year and had a second place finish in Yreka at the opener. Young Julia Flowers has also joined the ranks of the Outlaw Pro Stock class and had a fifth place finish in her debut.

One of the fastest drivers on the circuit is Steve Borror. Borror may not want to run for points, but he was certainly impressive in winning at Yreka. Last season, he won several Main Events, and he is anticipated for the opener in Southern Oregon. Another fast driver and past Champion is Dave Everson. Dave was a Main Event winner last year, and he could be the guy to beat in the opener as well.

Word is that the Outlaw Pro stocks have a roster of roughly thirty cars this year. Further word is there could be anywhere from 16 to 20 cars for this race. That would certainly make this a very exciting event. Roy Bain is anticipated for this race as well. Another driver to watch out for is the #1 car of Ken Irving. Irving has been up in the top five in points in recent seasons and has won two championships.

Scott Bennett, Matt Harlow, Rocky Nash, Dave Quick, Tyler Lockwood, Tom Hackworth and several other drivers make this one of the most exciting divisions to watch in Southern Oregon. The group also announced that Valley Boys Auto Sales has signed on as a title sponsor this season.

You don't get a lot of hoopla and hype surrounding the Mini Stock division, but perhaps you should. The Mini Stocks have been an anchor division for Southern Oregon Speedway since the gates opened at the track back in 1996. Three drivers have held the top 3 point positions over the last two seasons. 2015 Champion David Marble will be running his IMCA Sport Modified, and he may be out at the track for practice laps this week.

We haven't heard any word on 2014 Champion Gary Anderson or perennial title contender Bob Burkett. However, we won't be surprised to see either car there this week. Burkett was coming off of his fourth second place finish in the last seven seasons, and he is due for that championship season.

However, there are other talented racers with championships in their sites. After top five seasons last year, teammates Eric Hanson and Mike Cloud would like to stake their claim as division champions. Whether they can pull that off or not, it will not be a surprise to see either one of them or both of them win at least one Main Event this year.

Randy Simmons and teammate Patrick Stringer are both ready to bring their cars out. Simmons is coming off of an eighth place season last year behind seventh ranked Kristopher Mix, who is also anticipated for the opener.

Marissa Henson has already been in Yreka and making some great laps, and she won her heat race two weeks ago. Like another Mini Stock driver, Dillon Lausen, Henson was a 250 Outlaw Kart competitor on the smaller track. In fact, she finished third last year behind Lausen.

Indications are that the Mini Stocks will debut with 10 to 12 cars minimum this week, and it looks as if this division is primed to grow even bigger.

The fact is that there are many good things in store for Southern Oregon Speedway this season and beyond as K.J.E. Enterprises and Mike McCann steps in at the helm as promoter. It's well known how big the race track was not too many years ago, and the intentions are to make it even bigger in the future. It starts with what is shaping up to be a strong showing for this week's season opener. So, who will pick up the wins this week? Stay tuned.

MacDonald's Mini Stocks, IMCA Sport Modifieds 

At Yreka Saturday

Out at Siskiyou Motor Speedway, rain stole the race from them last weekend. Perhaps that was Mother Nature taking her revenge as a week before it was the only track in California to get their race in when the rains hit. On the card for this event will be the IMCA Sport Modifieds, McDonald's Mini Stocks and IMCA Modifieds. Mud Drags and a Ladies Race are also on the billing.

David Steele is probably still the driver to beat in the McDonald's Mini Stock division. Last time out, the heat race win went to Marissa Henson and the Main Event win went to Marilyn Yawnick, but he was a close second in both races. He also won the Trophy Dash and was the winner of the season opening Main Event. This is not a big surprise as Steele is the 2015 champion and 2014 point runner up.

Knowing how fast Steele is, it had to be a bit disappointing for Mike Whitaker that he ended up on the sidelines during the last Main Event with a disappointing 10th Place finish. Whitaker knows he can't be giving up ground like that to Steele if he hopes to get the championship this year.  If Whitaker, Steele and Yawnick have their sights set on the win, there are other drivers to keep an eye on this week as well.

Aaron Jorgensen grabbed a third place finish last time ahead of Terry Kendrick, and both of those drivers are poised to grab a win this week. Another driver to keep an eye on is Jim Fettinger, who finished fifth in the Main Event last time out. The Mini Stock division is a pretty competitive class, so this Saturday's event should be very interesting.

2015 O'Reilly Auto Parts IMCA Sport Modified champion Colter Boswell has been absent from these past two weeks, but Ryder Boswell made his Sport Mod debut last week. That effort ended in disappointment as he had mechanical problems in his heat race to end his night early. Of course the association's Sport Modified champion, Doug Franklin, missed the top 5 with his sixth Place finish last time out.

At this point, it looks like the battle will be between Franklin, Garrett Hamilton, Kurt Lorenzini, Jimmy Lipke and Gary Foster. Lorenzini was the winner of the Main Event last time ahead of Southern Oregon Speedway "Rookie Of The Year" hopeful David Marble, who at last report was planning to go practice at Southern Oregon Speedway. There really doesn't appear to be a clear cut favorite in this division so far, so we could be looking at a new winner in the third appearance for this division Saturday night.

The unknown right now is what sort of car count the IMCA Modifieds will deliver. The record will show that the Main Events have been won this season by 2015 Champion Nick Trenchard and Jeremy Ohlde. The disappointment in all of this is that there were only five cars at the opener and just three the next time. So, the bigger question is, how will car count rebound in round #3 of the season? At this point, 2015 point runner up Duane Osburn is the leader in the standings. Hopefully, things will pick up for this division this week.

Susanville Opener And Other Jefferson Happenings

Things seemed to be looking up for Diamond Mountain Speedway in Susanville last week. The Lassen County Fairgrounds racing facility opened its gates to the first race of a ten race season. The featured divisions continue to be IMCA Modifieds, Strictly Stock Cars and Mini Stocks. No less than 12 cars appeared in any of the three classes.

With no home track to run his IMCA Modified, past Chico Speedway champion Duane Cleveland brought his Modified to Susanville and was rewarded with a Main Event win. 2015 Champion Wade Kennemore was a no show for this event, and Cleveland's win came ahead of Riley Simmons and Jeff Olschowka. Quincy competitors Chris Nieman and Chase Nieman rounded out the Top 5 before past Susanville Champion Jeff Chew claimed the sixth position.

It was Victor Richey denying 2015 Strictly Stock champion Richard Longacre the win in the season opener. Longacre had to settle for second ahead of 2015 Point runner up Nathan Howard. While the Strictly Stock class fielded 13 cars, the Mini Stocks had 12. Division kingpin Larry Whitebird picked up the Mini Stock Main Event win over Ray Talavera Sr. Meanwhile, 2015 point runner up Kyle Belli had a disappointing DNF last week. Next up at the Susanville track will be these three divisions racing once again on May 7th.

Out at Marysville Raceway, the Sprint Car division was delivering a respectable 16 car filled with Courtney Dozier picking up the win over past champion Jeremy Burt and Raquel Hall. Meanwhile, the NorCal Dwarf Car group continues to have a solid season and delivered 21 cars to Marysville. Johnny Reeves grabbed the checkered flag, while Thomas Leiby was second ahead of Kevin Bender.

Usually, the Winged Economy Sprint Car division does better at Chico than it does at Marysville, but there were eight cars for the show this time as Jeff Macedo won the Main Event over Jason Holt and Adam Ermalenko.  It was Ryan McDaniel beating a short field of Super Stocks, while pavement specialist Greg Rayl picked up the Hobby Stock feature win over Cameron Hammond.

Placerville Speedway hosted the King Of The West 410 Winged Sprint Car series. A solid 22 car field showed up for this event, and third generation star Bud Kaeding picked up the win over Bobby McMahon and Jonathan Allard. It was fourth generation racer Chase Johnson grabbing one of his better finishes in forth ahead of Dominic Scelzi. Scelzi's younger brother Giovanni, who has just gotten into the 360 Sprint Car class, grabbed a second place finish at Antioch Speedway.

The BCRA Midget Lites were the companion class to the Sprint Cars, and it was Kyle Offill winning the Main Event over defending Champion Craig Dillard and Australian native Scott Males.

And finally, we head to the southern end of Jefferson to Roseville's All American Speedway. Last Saturday night was actually the second event of the season for the track, and it featured the NSCS Modified series. The Modifieds delivered a strong 21 car field. When the checkered flag flew, it was Jason Philpot picking up the win in the 52 lap Main Event ahead of Rich Cobb and Mike Collins. Management had to be pleased with the turnout of Modifieds for this event.

It was a short field of Pro 4 Modifieds, and Jim Badeker had the biggest margin of victory of any of the divisions as he won the 35 lap feature by two and a half seconds over Cody Barber and Bud Anderson.

Meanwhile, the local Bomber division delivered a solid 12 car field of their own and Matt Manolis grabbed that 35 lap victory ahead of Eric Ray and Blake Disomma. The local F4 division had 13 cars for their 25 lap Main Event, won by Keith Hopkinson Jr. ahead of David Gates and Spencer Emerson.

While some tracks are having a playday this weekend, Southern Oregon Speedway opens for the real deal this Saturday night with Pennzoil Winged Sprint Cars, the Southern Oregon Dwarf Car Association, Valley Boys Auto Sales Outlaw Pro Stocks and Mini Stocks. The IMCA Modifieds and Sport Modifieds will be part of next week's (May 7th) program, and further information can be found at www.southernoregonspeedway.com.

Siskiyou Motor Speedway in Yreka comes at you this Saturday night with the O'Reilly Auto Parts IMCA Sport Modifieds, McDonald's Mini Stocks and the IMCA Modifieds. A Ladies Race and Mud Drags round out the show, and further information can be obtained by going to www.siskiyoumotorspeedway.com.