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10th Annual Soares Memorial Set For This Saturday Night At Antioch Speedway

Antioch, CA...Antioch Speedway enters May with an exciting lineup of races on the schedule for the month. Saturday's event is the 10th Annual Soares Memorial race, paying tribute to the founding family of the city's 65 year racing institution.

For the night, the IMCA sanctioned Modifieds, Sport Modifieds and Stock Cars will be in action, joined by the popular Pacific Coast Hobby Stocks, Late Models and the season debut of the Mini Stocks. It's going to be a night featuring the best Stock Car racing the track has to offer.

Between father John Pershing Soares and son John Michael Soares, they promoted the track for 42 years. John Pershing opened the track in 1961 and ran it until the conclusion of the 1980 season. John Michael first promoted the track in 1998 and ran it until the conclusion of the 2019 season.

The Soares family also includes Jim, who prepared the racing surface on many occasions. Like his brother and his father, he also promoted multiple race tracks. The wives of the Soares men, Gladys, Donna and Karen, are also remembered on this occasion. The family had a major impact on Bay Area and Northern California racing. Petaluma Speedway even honors the family with a special race in August.

Another exciting story that fans are watching unfold this year is the race to become the first driver to reach 80 combined feature victories in speedway history. The driver who made it first to 70 wins was Antioch Speedway Hall of Famer JD Willis, who retired as the all-time leader at the time with 72 victories. He sits fifth behind 73-time winner Scott Busby.

The Top 3 combined feature winners are all active, and we have a tie at 79 between IMCA Modified rivals Troy Foulger of Oakley and Bobby Hogge IV of Salinas. Third with 76 wins is IMCA Sport Modified star Fred Ryland of Brentwood.

The season opened with Hogge picking up his 79th victory, which was also his 70th win in the IMCA Modified division. Nobody has more wins in that division at the moment then Hogge, but can he reach 80 combined wins before Foulger? Foulger happens to be the point leader after two Modified races, but his race for victory on both occasions had him settling for second behind Hogge at the opener and Oakley's Andrew Pearce at the most recent event.

A look at the point listings finds Foulger leading Oakley's Jacob Mallet Jr and Martinez's Anthony Slaney by four tallies. Mallet is the reigning IMCA State champion, while Slaney is the reigning Xtreme Late Model Series champion. Eight points out of the lead in a tie for fourth are 2023 State champion Pearce and current State point leader Katelynn Robertson of Reno, Nevada.

In the IMCA Sport Modified division, feature victories so far this season have been collected by two-time reigning champion Kenny Shrader a Pacheco, Tanner Thomas of Atwater and Brentwood's Fred Ryland. For Ryland, that was his 40th career Sport Modified win, topping the division's all-time list.

Shrader has been the model of consistency with a pair of seconds to go with his win, giving him a four point advantage over Oakley's Jason Ryan Jr. After back-to-back runner-up seasons, Ryan is hoping to break through for a championship this year. He has a pair of thirds and a fourth so far, keeping him four points ahead of Brentwood's Trevor Clymens.

Trevor's brother Tommy Clymens Jr of Oakley is 12 points out of the lead in fourth and four ahead of Oakley's Joseph Pato. A win for either of these drivers would be their first in the division, and both are considered strong contenders.

Jeff Bentancourt of Brentwood is knocking on the door to fifth as he trails Pato by just two points. Kelly Campanile of Oakley, James Graessle of Antioch, rookie Alfred Johnson of Antioch and State point leader Danny Wagner of Bay Point are the current Top 10.

In the Hobby Stock division, we find longtime speedway supporter Charlie Bryant of Oakley in the lead. Charlie is a past Street Stock Main Event winner still searching for his first win in the Hobby Stocks. What he has done is collect three Top 5 finishes in as many races, and that's good enough to give him a 14 point advantage over 2021 division champion Larry McKinzie Jr of Discovery Bay.

With a season-high second place finish to her credit, Antioch's Jewell Crandall is next on the list, eight points out of second and two in front of James East of Oakley. East had a Top 5 run going last time out when he was spun late in the race. Longtime Hobby Stock competitor Chris Long of Antioch ranks fifth despite breaking a driveline late in the most recent event. He's only 10 points out of second.

Recent winner Grayson Baca of Brentwood is just a point out of fifth right now and one point ahead of the rapidly improving Hunter Hammett of Oakley. San Pablo's Maddie Motts, Jesse Paladino of Brentwood and Week 2 winner Aidan Ponciano of Oakley make up the balance of the Top 10 in the standings. Unfortunately for Ponciano, his night ended on the opening lap of the Main Event last week.

Not only is Oakley's Troy Foulger leading the Modified standings, he's also the IMCA Stock Car point leader. In this case, he's won both Main Events. He leads Brentwood's Fred Ryland by just three points. Ryland has a second and a third to his credit, and the third place finish he had last time out was behind runner-up finisher Mitch Enos of Manteca. This keeps Enos four points out of the lead, while fourth ranked Jason Robles of Rio Vista is six points back. State point leader Austin Van Hoff of Chowchilla trails the leader by seven tallies.

Late Model victories so far this year have gone to reigning champion Rod Oliver of Yuba City and Livermore's Shawn DeForest. At the moment, Oliver leads recent Placerville Tilford Tribute winner Ray Trimble of Auburn by eight markers. DeForest is third, six points ahead of Paul Guglielmoni of Vacaville and 12 in front of Tim Yeager of Belmont. The most recent race had a lower turnout than hoped, but this show is expected to draw a few more entrants.

After consulting with the racers, it was decided to add the Mini Stocks to this week's show as their season opener. Reigning Antioch and Petaluma champion Tom Brown of Santa Rosa has won two of the three Petaluma races with fellow Santa Rosa resident Jason Higgins the other winner. Both drivers are anticipated for the Antioch race as is Michael Valente of Penngrove in his Pinto Wagon. Valente trails Brown in the Petaluma standings.

Antioch Speedway is hoping to build more local support for the class. In fact, their addition to the schedule on this occasion was meant to send a message that the speedway is committed to the entry level class. Ryder Holman of Oakley will be making his debut in a truck owned by his grandfather, Rob Waldrop. He goes for Rookie Of The Year honors this year, an award won by Jackie Price of Antioch last season. The team of Matt Wirth of Oakland and David Dupuis of Danville is also anticipated this week.

Antioch Speedway is offering a great lineup of divisions for the fans this week as we pay tribute to the founding family of the track. It's sure to be a night of thrills and excitement that you won't want to miss.

The gates will open at 4:00 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.

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