NARC NEWSLINE, By Jim Allen, September 10, 2017 …  Walking into the annual Calistoga Speedway Hall of Fame Dinner is literally like stepping into a time warp of open wheel racing in California.  Hey, isn’t that LeRoy?  And over there … there’s only one guy who wears that 10-gallon hat.  That’s got to be Johnny Anderson.  In a good way, you can almost describe this HoF dinner in joke form … “Jimmy Boyd, Rendy Boldrini and Chuck Gurney are standing at a bar.  In walks Jack McAfee and Jimmy Sills … and Gary Gerould.”  It was like hanging out in the Calistoga pits … vintage 1976 – and many of the cars were there as an extra touch.  Pinch me, I must be dreaming.

But it’s not a time warp of the Twilight Zone variety.  It was a nostalgic visit into the past, courtesy of the Hunt Family.  More specifically, the sixth annual induction ceremony at the 10th Louie Vermeil Classic.  It gives open wheel enthusiasts a chance to rub elbows with living legends and experience a wheel-to-wheel flashback to the era of open face helmets and dry rotted catch fences.  And to give credit to where it’s really due, we offer a toast of our beer to the Tommy and Jeanie Hunt and their army of volunteers for orchestrating this very entertaining event.  I can pretty much guarantee that for every hour you enjoyed it, hundreds were spent preparing it.  The fact that it was held in the air conditioned Tubbs Building on the Napa County Fairgrounds made it the coolest place in California to hang out – literally.  The temps at the half-mile loomed well above 105 degrees over the two-day Vermeil weekend.

A tip of our hat go out to the 2017 Hall inductees which include Rendy Boldrini, Duana Bonini, Dave Bradway Jr, Jack Gordon, Chick Lastiri, Jack McAfee, Don Melvin and Galen Unruh.  It was also nice to see one of the most talented photographers on the planet – Steve Lafond – get acknowledged for his life’s work at race tracks across the nation.  Steve is retiring to take care of some major back issues that he has done a commendable job of hiding.  The good news is that Steve promises to continue to share his extensive photo library and open wheel history lesson with us on social media.  By the way, if Steve cut off his beard, we probably wouldn’t recognize him if he decided to return in the future.

KWS-NARC PETALUMA SPEEDWAY (August 26th):  It almost turned out to be Bobby McMahan’s night at the fastest 3/8 mile in Northern California.  Looking for his first NARC-sanctioned win since he held off Tommy Tarlton to score a 1998 victory lane appearance at Oildale, McMahan won the Hoosier Tires Dash and led the first 20-laps of the 30-lap Fujitsu Sprint Car headliner.  He ended up fifth. …  How hard is it to win on the KWS-NARC tour these days?  Bud Kaeding was dominate when he led all 40-laps of the Peter Murphy Classic at Tulare back on April 22nd.  It looked to be the first of many victories this season.  In the four months since then, seven other drivers have made victory lane appearances for a total of nine this season.  Only two cars owners have won multiple KWS-NARC events this season:  Roth Motorsports with five (Gio Scelzi 3, Kyle Hirst 2), and Williams Motorsports with Kaeding behind the wheel. …

… The championship points standings got thrown under the grader and mixed up bit at Petaluma.  Gio Scelzi led by six going in, but finished 10th after having a tie rod bolt fail during main event hot laps.  With Bud’s victory and Cory Eliason’s second place finish, Kaeding now leads by five over Scelzi and only six over Eliason.  How close is this three horse race?  Kaeding and Scelzi have scored the exact same amount of points during the past three races (168).  Eliason has scored 169. … Jason Statler was finally back in action after getting his equipment destroyed and bell rung at the Dave Bradway Jr. race back in April.  He won his heat, narrowly missed disaster in the dash, and finished an impressive fifth in the main.  Can you say HAPPY CAMPER? …  In addition to 20 sprint cars, there were 54 Dwarf cars in the pits and eight 600’s.  With all of that, the program was checkered at 9:26 p.m. … DJ Netto’s third place run was his fourth podium finish of the season.  With a break or two – or a hot streak, DJ could find himself in the thick of the championship battle.  He is only 23 points behind Kaeding. …  Promoter Rick Faith prepared a good racetrack! …

… The KWS-NARC drivers took their helmets into the grandstands after the national anthem to collect donations for Margaret Lingron.  The generosity of race fans continues to amaze as more than $5000 was raised for Margaret who was injured in a freak accident at Petaluma on July 29th.   By the way, Margaret is doing well, but still faces an extremely long recovery period. We wish her well!  … The tough break of the night goes to Menne Motorsports and 2005 series champ Sean Becker.  This team found themselves at the wrong end of an ugly four car skirmish in the Hoosier dash.  If it was be bolted on, it was now broken.  After a lot of hard work, they had it rolling for the feature, but the car would not fire. The night before, they won Pepsi Night in Chico.  Checker to Wrecker.  Sprint car racing can be so fickle. …

… During the break in KWS-NARC action from Watsonville to Petaluma, California drivers were rocking it.  Chase Johnson had a good night at the first race of the Knoxille Nationals.  Of course we all know about Kyle Larson’s “please let him race” stellar run that resulted in a runner up finish in the finale.  Brad Sweet (5th), Rico Abreu (8th) and Cory Eliason (17th) proved that just qualifying for the 50-lapper is a win. … Gio Scelzi hopped into the BDS Motorsports sprint car at 34 Raceway in Missouri on August 22nd.  The result?  A clean-sweep win of course.  And then there is Kyle Hirst at Chico, who won three 410 races in three weeks.

 

NARC NOTES:  Here’s a reality check for many of you long time sprint car fans — Brent Kaeding just turned 60-years old.  Yes, the 13-time “King of California” and 13-time Northern Auto Racing Club champ is as old as Donnie Osmond, Ray Romano, Vanna White and Steve Harvey (Millinnials: Google them!).  Happy Birthday! …  There are only three more events left on the KWS-NARC schedule.  So after the Outlaws depart the Golden State with some of your hard earned cash, check us out at Ocean Speedway on October 6th; at the October 14th Cotton Classic at Keller Auto Speedway; and the big season finale at the Stockton Dirt Track on November 4th.  The finale at Stockton will determine both the KWS-NARC and SCCT champions.  Don’t miss it.  … Some of the best innovations in sprint car racing are the ones you don’t see.  If you go spy around the Shawn & Cyndi Thomas number 68 sprint car, you will find an on-board fire retardant system.  Nobody ever plans on needing this type of equipment, but it sure comes in mighty handy when you do.  This system automatically deploys at 280 degrees, so it doesn’t require any action by the driver.  All he has to do is get out of the car.  At $500, it’s money well spent. …

… What do Gio Scelzi, Buddy Kofoid, and Nathan Rolfe have in common?  The obvious answer is that all three are in the top 10 of the King of the West-NARC championship points standings.  The not so obvious answer is all three 15-year olds are not old enough to race with the World of Outlaws during their Fall Swing.  Let’s call it the “you have to be old enough to driver yourself to high school to run with us” rule.  … While it’s been a great summer for racing, it’s been absolutely brutal from a temperature standpoint.  We thank all of you for the support for enduring the heat.   It might time to solicit a new sponsor in the form of the Banana Boat 75 SPF Summer Nationals. … And let’s be honest here, is there anything more exciting than watching Rico Abreu racing lap after lap with all four wheels up in the cushion at Calistoga?  It’s the fastest way around the half mile, but it’s no-mans land as far as most racers go.  If Chuck Gurney was the “Rim Rider,” what do you call Rico’s exploits? … As of right now, it looks like the KWS-NARC championship awards banquet will take place on Saturday, December 16th. More info to follow soon. …

Congratulations to Mr. Excitement Andy Forsberg who claimed his 10th Civil War Sprint Car Championship – and his third sprint title at Silver Dollar Speedway.  That kind of top notch longevity in this sport is hard to accomplish. …  Hanford’s Mitchell Faccinto continues to win everything non-KWS/NARC.   He pocketed more than five grand at the King of Kings event in Hanford.  He also has a pair of SCCT victories and is always a consistent frontrunner.  My prediction is he will be the 10th different winner on the King of the West tour before the season is over. …

… How about California’s dominance at the 64th Gold Cup Race of Champions!!!  The most interesting stat of the weekend was that seven full-time World of Outlaw teams failed to qualify for the 40-lap headliner on Saturday.  Just in case you couldn’t tell by Kyle Hirst’s victory lane celebration, Friday night’s win was his first ever with the World of Outlaws.  He earned $8000 for holding off Shane Stewart.  The next five to cross the checkered were Dominic Scelzi, Cory Eliason, Justin Sanders, Jonathan Allard, and Shane Golobic.  Yes, this was an Outlaw event. … Chasing Stewart to the line on Saturday was Sanders, Hirst, Australian Jamie Veal and Willie Croft. …  In my eyes, Justin Sanders is one of the most underrated drivers in the Golden State.  We don’t get to see him too often, but when we do, there is an urge to save a spot for him on the podium.  It’s an even money bet that he will probably become the 11th different KWS-NARC winner this season.  Or the 10th before Faccinto, considering our next race is at Ocean Speedway; a track where he dominates. … Geoff Ensign and Justyn Cox would be my second and third drivers on my underrated list. …

Coming to you live from Auburn, CA.  See ya!