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Dean Cline Classic Headlines Youth Sports Night At Antioch Speedway Saturday Night

Antioch, CA...In the midst of the stretch run in the championship race at Antioch Speedway, Saturday night will be another special occasion. It's Youth Sports Night at the races, meaning kids in their sports uniforms will get in for free. It will also be a special occasion.

Saturday's show will feature the fourth running of the Dean Cline Classic, which began in 2022 to honor Hall of Fame member Dean "The Blinker" Cline. Dean was a well-respected member of the racing community. As a driver, he competed in the Hardtops at Contra Costa Speedway in Pacheco before being a part of the early days at Antioch Speedway.

Dean progressed to compete in Stock Cars, Winged Sportsman, Street Stocks and Mini Trucks, winning over 40 Main Events through the years. Not only could he drive the car well, he built fast cars that also propelled other drivers to victory. In 1979, Dean was the Stock Car champion, but points weren't his main goal. To illustrate that, he twice sold his race car while leading the standings in 1968 and 1975 with the eventual 1968 champion Wayne Price winning the title Dean's old car.

It was Dean's son Lance who kept his father at the track in the 1990s and into the early 2000s. Lance built a Hobby Stock, and his dad drove it to multiple feature victories in the 1990s. He also put Dean in a Mini Truck in the early 2000s with his father winning there as well. The Cline family has been an important part of the Antioch Speedway legacy, and Dean's son Lance will be inducted into the Hall of Fame this year for his many contributions to the sport.

The Hobby Stocks will be the headliner for this show along with the IMCA Stock Cars, IMCA Sport Modifieds, WMR Midgets and Mini Stocks. 2021 champion Larry McKinzie Jr of Bethal Island won this race in 2022 and received a special custom-made trophy with a model of Dean's old Street Stock, built beautifully by the late Kevin Beard. A big trophy awaits the winner of this year's race.

Following McKinzie, Kenneth Robles of Rio Vista and Jared Baugh of Pittsburg were the other winners of the Hobby Stock race. Brentwood's Grayson Baca has won three times this year and has his eyes on the trophy and his second division championship. The consistent Baca has racked up eight Top 5 finishes and currently leads the tied James East of Oakley and Antioch's Jewel Crandall by 65 points.

The battle for second is a bit closer. Oakley's Hunter Hammett trails East and Crandall by just four points, while Oakley's Charlie Bryant is 27 points out. Of the four drivers, only East has a feature win at Antioch this year, and he also has two victories at Petaluma. Both Bryant and Hammett have a pair of second place finishes, while Crandall has one runner-up finish. All three drivers seem to be on the cusp of victory.

2020 champion James Thomson is sixth, 18 points ahead of Brentwood's Jesse Paladino and 20 in front of Aidan Ponciano of Oakley as McKinzie and Maddie Motts of San Pablo round out the Top 10 going into the night. Another noteworthy battle is happening among the rookies, where Oakley's Brodie Garner leads Daniel Braudrick of Vacaville by just four tallies. Both drivers have one Top 5 finish at Antioch so far, but Braudrick collected his first career feature victory at Petaluma last week.

In the IMCA Stock Car division, three-time Sport Modified champion Fred Ryland of Brentwood has his eyes on his first title in this class. With three feature wins, Ryland leads State point leader Austin Van Hoff of Chowchilla by 46 points and Manteca's Mitch Enos by 47. Enos picked up a feature win two races ago.

Currently fourth in the standings is Kenneth Robles of Rio Vista, leading top rookie Jared Baugh of Pittsburg by 16 points and his father Jason Robles of Rio Vista by 38. Oakley's Jake Archibald is the top rookie in the State this year and picked up his first IMCA Stock Car win at Merced last Friday night.

In the IMCA Sport Modified division, the recent tradition of the battle between Pacheco's Kenny Shrader and Jason Ryan Jr of Oakley continues. Two-time reigning champion Shrader managed to hold off Ryan to win the most recent race. Shrader's second win of the season keeps him nine points ahead of Ryan, while three-time champion Trevor Clymens of Brentwood is just 14 points out of the lead. Clymens has won at Antioch twice this year, while Ryan has one victory.

Meanwhile, Trevor's brother Tommy Clymens Jr of Oakley is still in the championship battle, 30 points out of the lead in fourth. The fifth place battle finds Brentwood's Fred Ryland leading rookie Alfred Johnson of Antioch by seven points and last year's top rookie James Graessle of Antioch by 10. 21 points out of fifth is Watsonville, Santa Maria and State point leader Danny Wagner of Bay Point.

Last week, Tom Brown of Santa Rosa fell short in his bid to repeat as Mini Stock champion at Petaluma Speedway. He went down swinging as he finished second in the Main Event to new champion Michael Valente of Penngrove. Brown now turns his attention to Antioch, where he has won all five races but has yet to win the Mini Stock portion of the Dean Cline Classic. He'll have his eyes on the big trophy this Saturday night.

The point lead is currently well in hand for Brown, who leads rookie Ryder Holmen by 58 points coming into the night. Holmen has finished as high as second this year, and the grandson of Antioch Speedway veteran Rob Waldrop is hoping to put his Mini Truck into the winner's circle this week. As it is, he has a firm handle on second in the standings.

Matt Wirth of Oakland is third, 14 points ahead of last season's top rookie Jackie Price of Antioch. Wirth and Union City's David Dupuis take turns behind the wheel of the #27 Mini Stock, and last weekend found Dupuis finishing fourth at Watsonville, while Wirth drove the car to a fourth a night later at Petaluma. Rounding out the Top 5 in the current standings is the Pinto of Don Anitz of Pittsburg.

Making their lone appearance of the season at Antioch Saturday night will be the WMR Midgets. The Echotec Midget program has been used to spark new life into Midget racing in California in recent years. Though the group's point race will only include eight races, they are still very active. They launched a special California Super Series this year with the BCRA.

The group made one visit last season, won by two-time champion Bryant Bell of Brentwood. So far, Logan Mitchell of Santa Cruz has been the driver to beat. After four races, he has three victories and a second, but his lead over San Jose's Anthony Bruno is still only 14 points. Bruno won the season opener. With a pair of seconds, Terry Nichols of Delano is just eight points behind Bruno and six ahead of Nathan Moore of Santa Cruz. Adam Weisberg of Santa Clarita is fifth in the standings on the strength of one third place finish.

Saturday's show should produce lots of excitement on the track with the Pacific Coast Hobby Stocks and the IMCA Stock Cars and Sport Modifieds. The good racing itself will be at tribute to Dean Cline, who was a part of many great battles through the years on the clay oval track. It figures to be an exciting night of racing from start to finish.

The gates will open at 5:00 with the first race starting at 6:00.

Adult tickets are $15, Senior/Military $15, Kids (5-12) $15 and kids four and under free. Don't forget, kids in their youth sports uniforms get in for free.

For further information, go to http://www.raceantiochspeedway.com or check out the Antioch Speedway by PROmotions Facebook page.

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