STOCKTON – The day began with an opening ceremony, a drifting exhibition and stunt motorcyclists and ended with Tim Spurgeon of Danville spinning his tires in a victory smoke show and an infield fireworks display that popped, crackled and lit up the words “99 IS BACK.”
"It couldn’t be better – back again at the 99 Speedway"— Tim Spurgeon
The new Stockton 99 Speedway, alive again after two years of inactivity, held its debut show in the NASCAR20Whelen All-American Series on Sunday with action in the Western Late Model, Grand American Modified and Street Stock divisions before a crowd of more than 4,200.
Spurgeon did what he couldn’t do before Stockton 99 closed – win a main event. He was joined in Victory Lane by Scott Winters of Tracy (Modified) and Chad Holman of Valley Springs (Street Stock).
“It couldn’t be better – back again at the 99 Speedway,” Spurgeon bellowed during a trackside interview after collecting his trophy. “The biggest disappointment I ever had was that we could never win a main event here. We certainly wanted to win the last race here.”
That was two years ago,=2 0when Stockton 99 shut down after 60 years of turning left to make way for development. But the only development has been carried out over the last six months by a few hundred volunteers under the guiding hands of Carol and Tony Noceti of French Camp. The Nocetis leased the property, spent the fall and winter moving, fixing, replacing, adding, digging, planting and painting, and racing is back.
The Nocetis thanked those volunteers and the fans during the opening ceremony, and they introduced track officials and special guests, including San Joaquin County Sheriff Steve Moore and Stockton 99 property owners Bob Hunefeld and Ken Clapp.
Mark Holeman of Los Altos (Late Model), Wes Miller of Turlock (Modified) and Holman had the distinction of being the fast qualifiers on the quarter-mile paved oval. Winters, Guy Guibor of Stockton (Late Model) and Jeff Ahl of Lodi (Street Stock) won the trophy dashes. Street Stock driver Kannai Scantlen of Valley Springs took the ch eckered flag in the first heat race.
The 50-lap Late Model main required a restart after a five-car collection of wreckage in turn 1 that included Holeman. Greg Potts of Manteca led the first 17 laps. Guibor led for five laps before Spurgeon blew by on a restart. He led the rest of the way, though Guibor made two serious threats, the last with about five laps remaining.
“He was better in the end,” Guibor said of Spurgeon.
Potts finished third in the 18-car race, and Holeman rebounded to finish fourth.
Jason Philpot of Sacramento led the Modifi ed feature for 34 of its 40 laps – with Winters on his back bumper – before Winters finally drove around him. Winters backed off after nearly tapping Philpot into a spin going into turn 1 on lap 33 and finally made the pass on lap 35.
“I didn’t mean to do it, so I backed off and let him catch back up,” Winters said. “We’ve raced a lot of years together.”
Salida teenager Michael Ostrowski finished third.
Holman took the lead from Scantlen on lap 3 of the 30-lap Street Stock main and built a comfortable lead on his way to the checkered flag.
“The car is awesome,” Holman said. “Every tim e I bring it out, it’s ready to go.”
The NASCAR Whelen All-American Series resumes this Saturday night with action in the Western Late Model, Grand American Modified, Street Stock and Bomber divisions.
