6/20/2024
Antioch Speedway
Hobby Stocks, Wingless Spec Sprints Back At Antioch Speedway
Antioch, CA...Summer has finally arrived as racing season is in full gear. On the heels of last week's exciting Winged Sprint Car show, Antioch Speedway returns this Saturday night with an exciting lineup of Wingless Spec Sprints, IMCA Sport Modifieds, Pacific Coast Hobby Stocks and Mini Stocks.
The Wingless Spec Sprints have brought the excitement this season. With three races in the books, Oakley's Jacob Tuttle leads the standings. We first started seeing Tuttle competing with the Winged 360 Sprint Car effort at Antioch five years ago. However, he has hit his stride with the Wingless Spec Sprints.
So far, Tuttle has picked up two wins, giving him a 24 point advantage over two-time division champion Bob Newberry of Brentwood. Just eight points behind Newberry is Tuttle's teammate, Blake Bower of Brentwood. Tuttle and Bower are piloting Ted Finkenbinder owned race cars.
Bower is a WMR and USAC Western States Midgets champion, but he got off to a bit of a rough start in the opener. He seems to be hitting his stride. Just six points behind Bower is Steve Maionchi of Sonora. Steve got a new car this year and has been getting it dialed in. Bethel Island's Kevin Box is back in fifth, 16 points ahead of the tied Roy Fisher and John Ulrich, both of Antioch. Ulrich is a rookie this year, piloting the former Rick Panfili car.
Typical of the IMCA Sport Modified division's competitive nature, there are five races in the books so far, and five drivers have each had a victory. This list includes reigning champion Kenny Shrader of Pacheco, three-time champion Fred Ryland of Brentwood, Antioch's Dylan Connelly and Tyler Bannister of Bakersfield. With his recent win, however, Jason Ryan Jr of Oakley has taken sole possession of the point lead.
What's interesting is people are talking as much about who finished second last week as Ryan's dominant performance in victory. Oakley's Kelly Campanile ran a race-long second and held off a late surge by Shrader to finish there. It was her best finish to date in the division. Kelly is a past feature winner in Mini Stock competition.
As it is, she's following in the footsteps of her parents, John and Lily Campanile. Both John and Lily drove VW Beatles at Petaluma Speedway and won Mini Stock features some 30 years ago. The family enjoys spending their Saturday nights at the race track, where Kelly finds herself just 10 points behind third place Tommy Clymens Jr of Oakley in the standings.
Further ahead, Ryan now holds a slim two point advantage over Schrader with Clymons 17 points back in third. Last week also saw the return of reigning State champion Trevor Clymens of Oakley. In his first start since hip replacement surgery, Trevor finished fifth.
Other drivers to watch for this week include State point leader Chuck Golden of Pittsburg, rookie James Graessle of Antioch and Haley Gomez of Antioch.
In the Pacific Coast Hobby Stock division, Galt's Clarence Holbrook III currently holds a 20 point advantage over Ryan Hart of Dos Palos. Holbrook has a pair of feature wins, including the most recent race. He also won the $1,000 Figure 8 race at the County Fair. Hart, a two-time Merced Hobby Stock champion, also has a victory, keeping him just two points ahead of 2020 champion James Thomson.
Thomson finished second in the most recent recent Petaluma race last week and is also a feature winner at Antioch this year. A bit further back in fourth is San Pablo's Rick Rogers. Rogers is a past Dwarf Car champion with wins in that division as well as the Street Stocks, but he's hunting for his first Hobby Stock victory. He's just eight points ahead of Brandon Carpenter of Galt and 20 in front of Maddie Motts of San Pablo.
The Mini Stock division is now in its 13th championship season. At the season opener, Tom Brown of Santa Rosa finally matched past champion Justin Silveira at the top of the division's all-time win list with 13. Not to be outdone, Tom Davis of Corning collected his 12th victory in the Delbert Rios owned car last time out. Davis is the reigning champion and Brown is a two-time champ.
Davis stays within eight points of Brown following his win last time out. With his second third place finish of the season, Corning's Tony Quininez is also in the hunt, 12 tallies out of the lead. Tom Carse of Novato has a 12 point advantage over fellow rookie Jackie Price in the battle for fourth.
Saturday's show offers a glimpse of the type of excitement you can find at Antoch Speedway on any given week. The Wingless Specs Sprints will bring the speed, but the excitement offered by the IMCA Sport Modifieds.Pacific Coast Hobby Stocks and Mini Stocks will make this a fun night at the races.
The gates will open at 4:00 with the first race starting at 6:00.
Adult tickets are $20, Senior/Military $15, Kids (5-12) $15 and kids four and under free.
For further information, go to www.raceantiochspeedway.com or check out the Antioch Speedway by PROmotions Facebook page.
Article Credit: Candice Martin, Photos by Katrina Kniss
Submitted By: Wylie Wade
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