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Antioch Speedway Brings Racing To The Contra Costa County Fair this Saturday night

Antioch, CA...It's time once again for the annual Contra Costa County Fair, and Antioch Speedway will be bringing the racing excitement this Saturday night with a loaded program of great stock car racing action. The lineup will include the IMCA sanctioned Modifieds, Sport Modifieds and Stock Cars along with the Pacific Coast Hobby Stocks, Mini Stocks and a Figure 8 race.

The IMCA Modified race is also the first in a six-race series. It's the IMCA Modified All Star Challenge, and there will be two races each at Antioch, Watsonville and Merced. Years ago, when all three tracks were under the NASCAR banner, this was what remained of the NASCAR State of California point race, also known as the WAM series.

The drivers will be competing for a $1,000 championship with additional point fund money from the series paying down to drivers who have competed in all six events. It's a series designed to promote and grow the popular division, which is now in its 35th year at Antioch Speedway.

A look at the Antioch point battle finds five drivers within 18 points of each other, led by six-time champion Troy Foulger of Oakley. Despite winning the last two races, Oakley's Andrew Pearce is still seven points out of the lead and two ahead of reigning IMCA State champion Jacob Mallet Jr of Oakley. Antioch's Tyler Browne continues a solid season in fourth, 11 points out of the lead. 18 points behind is current State point leader Katelynn Robertson of Reno, Nevada.

The other battle people are watching is to see who will be the first driver with 80 combined career feature wins. Both Foulger and Watsonville point leader Bobby Hogge IV of Salinas have 79. What's interesting is Brentwood's Fred Ryland picked up IMCA Stock Car and Sport Modified wins last time out, giving him 78 combined wins at the track.

Ryland finds himself leading the IMCA Stock Car point race by three markers in front of Mitch Enos of Manteca. Enos has had second, third and fourth place finishes as he searches for his first win. State point leader Austin Van Hoff of Chowchilla is five points out of the lead, while the father and son duo of Jason Robles and Kenneth Robles of Rio Vista are 11 points out of the lead in a tie for fourth. After picking up two wins, Oakley's Troy Foulger sold his car to Jason Ryan Jr of Oakley.

At the most recent Watsonville race, Ryan picked up his second IMCA Sport Modified win, but he's still searching for his first Antioch victory of the season. He does have four Top 5 finishes and trails reigning champion Kenny Shrader of Pacheco by just three points. Shrader won the season opener. 13 points out of the lead in third is Brentwood's Trevor Clymens with brother Tommy Clymens Jr of Oakley just one point behind him.

Joseph Pato of Oakley continues a solid effort in fifth, 20 points out of the lead. Three-time division champion Fred Ryland picked up his second Sport Modified win of the season last time out. The Sport Modified division has been exciting with hard chargers such as State point leader Danny Wagner at Bay Point, Kelly Campanile of Oakley and Jeff Bentancourt of Brentwood among the group.

Once again, the Pacific Coast Hobby Stocks have been bringing the biggest car counts this year, and a check of the standings finds just 52 points separating first from tenth. It's early in the battle, but the championship contenders are going to need to step up their game. Currently, 2021 champion Larry McKinzie Jr of Discovery Bay has a one point advantage over 2023 champion Grayson Baca of Brentwood, who has one feature win this year.

Following a DNF last time out, Oakley's Charlie Bryant slipped to third in the standings, four points out of the lead and four ahead of former Spec Sprint competitor James East of Oakley. The much improved Hunter Hammett of Oakley is 24 points out of the lead in fifth, but two ahead of Jewell Crandall of Antioch and eight in front of Jesse Paladino of Brentwood. We've had four different winners this year, which includes Oakley's Aidan Ponciano and the Bakersfield duo of Ethan Johnson and Nicholas Johnson.

Reigning Antioch and Petaluma Mini Stock champion Tom Brown of Santa Rosa is approaching 50 career feature wins between the two tracks. Brown won the Soares Memorial at Antioch two weeks ago after a good battle with Santa Rosa's Jason Higgins. At Petaluma, Higgins does have a feature win, while Brown has three and leads Michael Valente of Penngrove by 17 points In that battle. Valente finished third at the Antioch opener.

Newcomer Ryder Holmen of Antioch made his Mini Stock debut last time and took a checkered flag in fourth. Ryder is the grandson of long time Antioch competitor Rob Waldrop, and he's also the fourth generation of his family to go racing. He's an early fourth in the standings and the top rookie, while last year's Rookie Of The Year Jackie Price of Antioch trails him by just two points.

Winding down the program for the night will be the only appearance of the Figure 8 for the season. The race was returned to the lineup in 2022 and generated quite a bit of excitement at the time. Last season, Brandon Carpenter of Galt won the championship belt in a close battle with David Rosa of Antioch. Carpenter was also a feature winner. Other winners last season included Terry DeCarlo Jr of Martinez and Clarence Holbrook III of Galt. Holbrook's win came at the County Fair.

With the County Fair as the backdrop, Saturday is an opportunity to have a little bit of fun at the Fair before coming to the race track to experience all the excitement the speedway has to offer. It's a good lineup of divisions that will keep you entertained from start to finish.

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

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