---

Hall Of Fame Ceremonies And IMCA Championship Night At Antioch Speedway This Saturday

Antioch, CA...Racing resumes this Saturday night, and it's a special occasion at Antioch Speedway. This week's show will see the track crown champions in the IMCA sanctioned Modifieds, Sport Modifieds and Stock Cars as well as the Dwarf Cars. The Pacific Coast Hobby Stocks will have their second to last point race this week.

Saturday's show will also see the track induct seven new members into the Hall of Fame during intermission. This year's honorees include Lance Cline, Bart Reid, Jim Reid, Fred Baker, Ricardo Rivera, Chet Thomson and Ruth and Charles Yingling. This group represents big accomplishments both on the track and behind the scenes.

Lance Cline competed in Street Stocks and Hobby Stocks, but he's better known for his efforts building winning race cars in both divisions as well as the IMCA Modifieds. Cline also built several of the cars that competed in the first year of the Mini Stock division and served as the Race Director at the speedway. Likewise, Fred Baker has built several winning race cars among multiple divisions as well as being a big sponsor of racing.

From the late 1980s through the early 2000s, Bart Reid and his brother Jim Reid teamed up to win many races together. Bart won two Street Stock championships and an IMCA Modified title with Jim as his crew chief. They were constantly in the hunt for wins as well as championships. While Bart has since retired, Jim still plays a role in helping other race teams at the speedway.

Ricardo Rivera has won 58 Main Events in the Dwarf Car division as well as five championships, making him the all-time leader in the division in both categories. Chet Thomson started racing in the 1950s at Pacheco, Vallejo and then at Antioch Speedway. During the first four seasons of Antioch, he won six Main Events and finished fifth in the 1964 standings before going on to win a championship at Vallejo. The biggest Hardtop race at Antioch is held in Chet's memory. Ruth and Charles Yingling of Ruth's Tax Service helped many racers with sponsorship and support.

With one race remaining to decide the IMCA Modified championship,Troy Foulger holds a 16 point lead over fellow Oakley resident Andrew Pearce. Troy's numbers have been strong with one win, 5 seconds and a third place finish. It may be that he needs to just take a green flag in the Main Event to lock up his division-leading seventh championship.

2023 IMCA State champion Pearce would still love to get his third Antioch win of the season to carry a little momentum into the Bill Bowers Memorial on September 27th. Meanwhile, reigning State champion Jacob Mallet Jr would also like to get a win before point racing is done. He's also clinging to a two point advantage over Bobby Hogge IV in the race for third. Hogge picked up his third Antioch win of the season last time out.

Antioch's Tyler Browne earned his third Top 5 finish of the season last time out to move into fifth by 14 points over State point leader Katelynn Robertson of Reno, Nevada. Granite Bay's Matt Kampfraat is within 20 points of Browne in the race for fifth.

The IMCA Sport Modified championship battle may seem a little bit closer, but Kenny Shrader of Pacheco is on the cusp of his third-consecutive championship. He's holding a nine point advantage over Oakley's Jason Ryan Jr, and he averted disaster last time out. Shrader was involved in a mishap on the opening lap of the most recent race which dropped him all the way back to 10th. Rather than stall for a yellow flag, he kept racing. When the checkered flag waved, he had charged back to a third place finish.

Ryan was doing all he could that night as he picked up his second runner-up finish of the year, but he only cut one point off of Shrader's lead. Shrader has picked up two feature victories with Ryan earning a win as well. Ryan is only four points ahead of three-time Antioch champion Trevor Clymens of Brentwood in the race for second. Clymens is also a two-time winner this year.

Tommy Clymens Jr of Oakley is fourth in the standings, 19 points ahead of Fred Ryland of Brentwood. While Ryland has three Sport Modified wins this year, Tommy is looking for his first win in the division as he contemplates moving back to Tennessee at the end of the season. 11 points behind Ryland is the division's top rookie, Alfred Johnson of Antioch. Two races ago, Alfred scored a popular first career victory.

In IMCA Stock Car competition, Ryland could skip the night and he'd still be the division champion. His feature win in the most recent race was his fifth of the season, giving him a 51 point lead over Manteca's Mitch Enos. Enos has been running strong in recent visits with a pair of seconds and a win in his last four starts. This has him 32 points ahead of State point leader Austin Van Hoff of Chowchilla. Van Hoff has a pair of seconds, but he'd love to get a win.

Rookie Jared Baugh of Pittsburg notes the differences between driving an IMCA Stock Car and a Hobby Stock. The Stock Car has been a bit more challenging. His third place finish two races ago is his best of the season, and he has locked up at least fifth in the standings and top rookie honors. He's still in mathematical contention for fourth, currently held by Kenneth Robles of Rio Vista. Robles has a second and two thirds in his last four starts, but he's in search of his first win of the season.

The Hobby Stock division has one more point race after this, but Brentwood's Grayson Baca is in a position to lock up the title this week after his third runner-up finish of the season last week. Baca also has three feature wins among a division-leading 10 Top 5 finishes. With those kind of numbers, it's of little doubt why Baca is on the cusp of his second division championship.

Antioch's Jewell Crandall was in a difficult position last week as she had motor problems early on and did not run the Main Event under full power. While she knew her odds of closing in on boyfriend Baca weren't very good, she still has Oakley's Hunter Hammett nipping at her heels in the race for second. She earned an eighth place finish under difficult circumstances last week, and that kept Hammett 10 points behind her in a battle where one bad night could end it for either of them. Hammett did just a little better in sixth last week. Both drivers have finished second this year but are still looking for their first feature wins.

Charlie Bryant has finished second three times this year as he pursues his first feature win in this division. He's fourth in the standings by 39 markers ahead of fellow Oakley resident Aidan Ponciano. Ponciano used his third win of the season last week to move into fifth in the standings by just 16 points over James Thomson of Pittsburg, who collected a fourth place finish last week. Jesse Paladino of Brentwood showed both of those drivers that he is a factor in the race for fifth. He earned a season-best fifth place feature finish last week after winning his heat race and trails Ponciano by 20 points.

Oakley's James East destroyed his car in a race at Petaluma, causing him to miss the last three races and drop to eighth in the current standings ahead of Maddie Motts of San Pablo and Larry McKinzie Jr of Discovery Bay. Daniel Braudrick of Vacaville is just 18 points out of 10th as the top rookie in the standings with Nicky Skidmore of Benicia two points behind him in what is turning into a good battle to make it into the Top 10 in the standings.

East isn't the only driver to see a crash at another race track end his championship hopes. A few weeks ago, Brentwood's Sean Catucci had a bad flip at Watsonville, resulting in him suffering a serious back injury. Catucci has won five Main Events in seven starts, but he missed the most recent race. With his second place finish that night, reigning champion Travis Day of Concord gained a four point lead over new runner-up David Hays of Brentwood. Catucci fell 12 points back in third. David Rosa of Antioch and Russ Sieber of Elk Grove make up the rest of the Top 5 going into this week's point finale.

IMCA fans will see three championships decided this week as the track wraps up it's sixth-consecutive season under the IMCA banner. The Dwarf Cars may not have a huge car count, but their championship could go either way this week. The Hobby Stocks are sure to bring the excitement and fender-bending action. With Hall of Fame induction ceremonies set for intermission, this will be a special night at Antioch Speedway.

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.

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

Picture Info
IMCA Modified racers Paul Guglielmoni #22g, Jacob Mallet Jr #127, State pioint leader Katelynn Robertson #7 and Petaluma point leader Michael Paul #50. Photo by Katrina Kniss

IMCA Sport Modified racers Al Johnson #43, James Graessle #44g, Tommy Clymens Jr #19c, Jeff Bentancourt #32 and Sate point leader Danny Wagner #11d. Photo by Katrina Kniss

IMCA Stock Car racers Mitch Machado #22m, Nick Caughman Jr #32, Jared Baugh #07 and Mitch Enos #09.

Brody Garner #976, Maddie Motts #13, Jared Baugh #07 and Trevor Clymens #2c do battle in a Hobby Stock Main Event. Photo by Katrina Kniss

Dwarf Car racers Sean Catucci #43, point leader Travis Day #88, David Hays #9 and David Michael Rosa #2. Photo by Katrina Kniss

---

Article Media

Back to News