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$5 Fan Appreciation Night Kicks Off August At Antioch Speedway

Antioch, CA....It has been an exciting season at Antioch Speedway so far. The fans have been treated to a wide variety of divisions for their racing entertainment, and we're not done yet. We begin the month of August with another special occasion.

This Saturday night will be Fan Appreciation Night. This is a thank you to the racing fans who have kept Antioch Speedway going and an opportunity for new fans and fans who haven't been there in a while to come see the show. As an enticement, there will be a $5 admission price for all.

This event was put together by Antioch Speedway Hall of Fame member Ron Brown last year and attracted over a thousand fans. When Ron offered to sponsor the show for the reduced ticket price, many people within the community came on board to sponsor his effort.

Ron wasn't content just to have a reduced ticket price. He also wanted to make this is a more family-friendly event. He started gathering sponsors for bike giveaways for the kids as well as Hot Wheels and candy and other goodies. This will happen again this Saturday night.

The reduced ticket price and the giveaways isn't all that's on the agenda for Saturday night. The core five divisions that the fans have come to know and love will also be in action. This means IMCA Modifieds are back along with the IMCA Sport Modifieds, IMCA Stock Cars, Pacific Coast Hobby Stocks and Wingless Spec Sprints.

Following his second place finish at the most recent event, past IMCA Modified champion Kellen Chadwick of Oakley gained a two-point advantage over his nephew, Andrew Pearce of Oakley, in a close title chase. While Pearce has all Top 5 finishes in his five starts, Kellen has picked up a pair of victories. Reigning State champion Pearce may need to get a win in order to beat Chadwick for the track title.

32 points out of the lead in third is two-time NASCAR Pacific Coast Regional champion Bobby Hogge IV of Salinas. Hogge picked up his second win of the season last time out, giving him a combined total of 78 wins in his career at Antioch Speedway. He is the track's all time Main Event win leader, and he has a four point lead over reigning champion Troy Foulger of Oakley. 20 points behind Hogge is current State point leader Jacob Mallet Jr of Oakley.

The IMCA Sport Modified division also has a tight battle at the front between reigning champion Kenny Shrader at Pacheco and Jason Ryan Jr of Oakley. Following his second place finish last time out, Ryan moved to within two points of Shrader for the lead. Both drivers have one victory to their credit so far as there have been five different winners in seven races.

Tommy Clymens was having a strong second place run last time out before spinning in the fourth turn with two laps to go. He still holds third in the point race, nine ahead of Oakley's Kelly Campanile.

Rookie James Graessle of Antioch continues a solid effort this year in fifth, but after his second win of the season, Antioch's Dylan Connelly has moved to within 12 points of Graessle for fifth. Pittsburgh s Chuck Golden is seventh in the standings, while leading the State battle by a wide margin.

Last week, Oakley's Jacob Tuttle picked up his second Hunt Wingless Spec Sprint Main Event victory in their final Antioch appearance. That race didn't count towards Antioch points. However, Tuttle has a pair of victories in the regular events, giving him a 30-point advantage over two-time Antioch champion Bob Newberry of Brentwood. Newberry finished fourth in the recent Hunt Series race.

Two races ago, Sonora's Steve Maionchi had taken the point lead. However, he had to miss the most recent race for a wedding, dropping him 12 points behind Newberry in third. Maionchi finds himself fighting to hold on to third. After his fourth place in the most recent Antioch race, Brentwood's Dylan Newberry moved to within 24 points of Maionchi, 20 ahead of Blake Bower of Brentwood in 28 in front of ageless veteran Roy Fisher of Antioch.

While the Spec Sprints will bring the open wheel excitement, the fans love the style of racing offered by the Pacific Coast Hobby Stocks. Clarence Holbrook III of Galt and Ryan Hart of Dos Palos have been battling fiercely for the point lead. Hart has a pair of Merced Speedway titles and decided to give Antioch a shot this year. Holbrook hasn't pursued a championship until this year.

Hart has a pair of victories to his credit in Antioch, but Holbrook used his third win of the season last time out to increase his slim advantage to six points in the title chase . Pittsburg's James Thomson is the 2020 champion and the current Petaluma point leader. He trails Hart by 32 tallies. Following her Top 5 effort last time out, San Pablo's Maddie Mott's moved into fourth, 10 points ahead of one-time winner Jared Baugh of Pittsburg and 16 in front of Rick Rogers of San Pablo.

The IMCA Stock Car division is regrowing their ranks this year, but the excitement on the track continues to be entertaining. Two-time winner Jason Robles of Rio Vista is coming off of back-to-back runner-up seasons in the standings. He has his sights set on the point lead, but there is another Jason in his path. Pittsburg's Jason Jennings took a year off following his Rookie of the Year effort of 2022, but he's been a force on the track this year.

At the Dean Cline Classic, the 2004 Miini Stock champion Jennings finally collected his first IMCA Stock Car victory. This snapped Robles's two-race winning streak. Jennings is 23 points ahead of Robles and hoping to have a good month of August. If all goes well, he will be hard to overtake in September.

In fact, Robles has just an 11 point advantage over Scott Foster for second. Foster is the State point leader and helped that effort with his second place run at Merced last week. Brentwood's Fred Ryland and reigning champion Troy Foulger of Oakley are both one-time winners this year and make up the balance of the Top 5 going into this race.

The drivers are looking forward to putting on a good show for the fans this Saturday night. They know there will be new fans in the stands with the $5 admission price. This is also a good tune up race for the big money Hetrick Memorial race set to take place on August 17th. Saturday night is going to be a night you won't want to miss.
The gates will open at 4:00 with the first race starting at 6:00.

General Admission is $5, and kids four and under are free.

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

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