From The Grandstand

by Ron Rodda
May 24, 2005

Lincoln CA…When Chico cancelled their 3rd Friday of May due to midweek rains, the opportunity to make a rare visit to Sacramento Raceway Park took Silver Dollar’s place in the notebook. Sacramento has a smallish quarter mile dirt track adjacent to their much more often used quarter mile drag strip on the property in the southeastern part of the county. Busier this year, a 16 date agenda features the Central State Racing Association spec sprints with a 2nd class usually offered. It was fortunate for me that the BCRA midgets were part of last Friday at Sacramento.
The spec sprints usually draw around 18-20 but 13 were on hand tonight plus 14 midgets, not making the pits overflow, but there were enough to fill the underfed quarter mile. Two heats, a dash, and main was the plan for each division. Billy Garcia, brother of well-known sprint car scorer Kenny, and Mike Enos Jr. won heats before Tim Sherman won the dash.


Sacramento Raceway Park

The CSRA main was to be 25 laps but a series of yellows plus the need to meet a curfew as houses are on the horizon, saw their main shortened by five tours. Jerry Kobza led from flag to flag for the win with Garcia using the top of turn 4 to take 2nd on lap 10, his eventual finishing spot. Patrick Russum, only 16 years of age, finished 3rd behind the two veterans.
While the spec sprints were fun to watch, getting the BCRA midgets was quite special as they had not touched the clay of Sacramento for several years. From hot laps to the end of their main, each time they touched the track they thrilled the crowd with speed and gyrations. Thomas Meseraull and Ryan Kaplan won heats while Kaplan added the dash win to his evening, a four lap test that saw Brian Gard flip in turn 2. Eleven survived to start their 20 lap main with Meseraull lined up 6th.
Kaplan led initially from his outside front row starting assignment while Meseraull picked up spots using the bottom of turn 4 and was 2nd by lap 9. When Kaplan got briefly sideways in turn 2 on lap 16, Meseraull drove through the opening to lead and collect the win ahead of Kaplan and Pete Davis. While a small show, it was fun to be at the Sacramento track again.


Joe Mafara tows north from San Diego

Seating is on bleachers built into a steep hillside so fans are right on top of the action with a great view of the track as well as a decent look at the adjacent drag strip. Friday night on the strip is practice night so a variety of things were seeing how quickly they could go the distance. Ron Albright announces at Sacramento as well as the track in Marysville and his efforts are always well worth hearing. The quarter mile is next in action in June, racing on the 10th and 24th with spec sprints always part of the menu.
Saturday marked another drive south on the sometimes bumpy highway 99 to Kings Speedway in Hanford for two diverse sprint car divisions, the winged 410’s of Golden State Challenge Series and the nonwinged 360’s called Bandits. A large crowd enjoyed 30 GSC and 20 Bandits on a track that started out nicely dry but by the last main was too arid.
The Bandits always seem to put on an excellent show when I visit Hanford and May 21st was another of those times. Danny Sheridan was quick time at 16.030 and heat wins went to Jimmy Reeves, Greg Porte, and Davey Pombo. Eighteen of the 20 made the track for their 30 lap main with a ten inversion putting Jason Montgomery and Grant Jones on the front row while D. Pombo started 5th.


Mike Faria's new look for 2005

Four yellows in the first 13 laps for spins and minor tangles slowed proceedings, but the last 17 were nonstop. Montgomery led the first 10 before D. Pombo won a battle with Evan Suggs for 2nd and then got past Montgomery for the lead on lap 12. Once ahead, D. Pombo led the rest of the way with relative ease while Greg Porte and Montgomery raced for 2nd. Sheridan made some late race noise and dueled with Porte for 2nd over the last five laps with the pair trading the spot 3 times in the last lap before Porte prevailed as runner up.
Andy Forsberg made a rare nonwing start, the only driver in both divisions, and was 4th in a very entertaining effort. Forsberg dedicated his effort to the topside until later in the race when most all ran the lower portions of the first two turns. He did spend 30 laps racing the cushion at the other end and Forsberg probably passed more cars by himself that all other drivers did combined. The problem was he would lose those gained spots using the top of the south end of the track before getting them back, but his efforts, while not overwhelming rewarding in terms of spots gained, were very fun to watch.
The GSC 30 entries had the usual collection of followers of the series plus Joe Mafara from San Diego. Having a winged sprint car and living in San Diego does not represent the most convenient of racing options. Roger Crockett was fast time at 13.151 and after four heats plus a B main, a 22 car field was set for their 30 laps.
Stephen Allard, point leading before this night, was still in that spot after the show due to perseverance. When pushing off for qualifying, he got about 200 feet before turning into the infield and exiting with a burned piston. The team dropped their only other engine, a 360, into the chassis and did not qualify. A 7th in his heat put him at the tail of the B main but he hustled to a 5th to transfer to the A main, one of six allowed to do so by GSC format. His 11th place finish in the A keeps him 10 points ahead of Forsberg. The team plans on somehow getting a healthy 410 for the following weekend.
It took 3 starts to get the A main going and all three of them were poor examples of how to start a sprint car race. Fingers were pointed, more chalk was put on the track to show the proper place to drop the hammer, but no action was taken beyond that. This was a prime example why the Northern Sprint Tour’s rule of one try only at starting a race is so intelligent. The poorest NST start is better then 90% of the starts I see in California.


Danny Olmstead ran the Bandit class at Hanford

Several contenders for the win were essentially done before a lap was scored. The first time through turn four Blake Robertson, Brent Kaeding, Andy Forsberg, and Wayne Williams were all tangled and the second time Kaeding suffered steering failure to end his race with no laps scored. Once underway, Jonathan Allard led all 30 laps with five additional yellows for spins and stops slowing the race.
Mike Faria finished 2nd, putting intense pressure on J. Allard but with most everyone running the bottom, Faria would have needed a mistake to make a pass. Steve Kent was 3rd with the most interesting tussle for fourth between Ricci Faria and Garrett Ishii with R. Faria getting the spot.
Kings Speedway is hard to pass on when tacky as it is so fast, but his night went too far the other direction by main event time for the GSC crowd. Several drivers were completely running in the infield through turn 4 from about lap 18 to 25 until a message board shown after a lap 25 yellow ended that misdeed. J. Allard’s win kept the family name at the top of the GSC scoring charts as of the last 5 mains, each Allard has a pair of wins with Ronnie Day the only other surname to appear since early April.


Tyler Reddick Outlaw Kart
As many as 100 Outlaw Karts from California will head to Iowa in August

While everyone knows about the Knoxville Nationals, not as many are aware that there will be two Knoxville Nationals this year, running concurrently on Iowa dirt tracks. While a large group of sprint cars will test the renowned half mile, an even larger group of racers will convene just south of Knoxville at English Creek Speedway for the Outlaw Dirt Kart Nationals. The plan is if enough entries appear, a format identical to the other Nationals will be used with racing starting in the morning and finishing by mid-afternoon on August 10-12.


Kyle Larson will haul 3 Outlaw Karts to Iowa

As of now, the estimate is that somewhere between 75 and 100 karts will be towing east to English Creek from Northern California. Supporting this event is Bob Carrel as he is taking the Red Bluff CA transponder and computer scoring equipment to Iowa for the Kart Nationals. Some names have been mentioned of sprint car drivers that have shown an interest in also racing the Kart Nationals. This event is looking to be big enough that we are planning on adjusting our Midwest travels to attend.