PERRIS, California — This Saturday night, July 25th, Perris Auto Speedway will host a six-division show, which will utilize the famous half-mile clay oval and the track’s inner quarter mile oval. Heading the program will be the California Lightning Sprint Cars. The PASSCAR Super Stocks, Street Stocks, Modifieds, Pick-A-Part Factory Stocks and the Sport Compacts will join them. The Super Stocks, Street Socks and Modifieds will be on the half-mile while the Lightning Sprints, Factory Stocks and Sport Compacts will do battle on the quarter-mile. Spectator gates will open at 5:00 PM with the first race at 5:30.
The Lightning Sprints, which have been a springboard to the USAC/CRA Series for many drivers, will have a couple familiar USAC/CRA stars in their midst on Saturday. “Super” Rickie Gaunt of Torrance and “Dynamite” David Cardey of Riverside will both be in action when the series goes wingless on the tough quarter-mile oval. Gaunt, who will be taking his initial ride in a Lightning Sprint Car, will be wheeling the #82 Dan Hillberg owned car normally driven by Toby Sampson (Sampson will be in another car) and Cardey will be in one of potent Shane Rosson entries.
Both Gaunt and Cardey have had success in the past at The PAS. Gaunt, the 2004 SCRA and Non Wing World champion, won the 1999 Oval Nationals and numerous features through the years. Cardey began at The PAS in a Lightning Sprint Car and in 2003, when he won the CLS championship, he was undefeated at the Don Kazarian promoted track.
This year both of the drivers have tasted success at the Riverside County clay oval. Gaunt won the Sokola Shootout to open The PAS season in February while Cardey won the SCRA main on April 25th and one week later he bested the field to win the Lightning Sprint Car main event.
While those two big names from USAC/CRA ranks will be dropping in on Saturday night, they will be hard pressed to beat the top stars in the Lightning Series. Point leader Stuart Hielscher Sr. and his son Stuart Jr. of Murrieta, defending series champion Brent Sexton of Lakeside, AJ & Bobby Bender from El Cajon, Jarrett & Seth Kramer of Spring Valley, John Bluntach (PAS winner earlier this year), Ventura winner Sampson of Torrance, Jason Bennett of El Cajon and young Cory Ballard, son of past Speedway Motorcycle racer Jan Ballard and winner last month at Santa Maria, will all be gunning for the win on Saturday.
The question on the Super Stock portion of the program is can anyone overtake defending series champion Ed Perry of Carpinteria as he seeks his second straight track championship? Perry has three wins and a second place finish in the first four races of 2009. Heading into Saturday’s race, Perry leads Ken Searcy of Nuevo by 36 points. Tom “Slick” Smith became the first driver to beat Perry this year at the last race on June 6th. Likewise, Alan Updyke of Tustin, the all time leading Modified winner at The PAS, leads Riverside’s Larry Lord by 34 points in the PASSCAR Modifieds. Updyke has won two of the first four races of 2009. Lord has one win and his son David has the other victory in the class thus far this year.
Things are much tighter in the Street Stocks and Factory Stocks going into Saturday’s race. In the Street Stocks, “Big Jake” Everhart of Perris leads Temecula’s Henry Wesolowski Sr., the 2006 champion, by 11 points. In the Factory Stocks, young driver Schyler Yarbrough of Perris is 18 points in front of Riverside’s Jeff Gillum in the championship hunt.
The biggest leader of all is racing grandma Linda Denver of Sun City who has a 117-point lead over Nick Braddy in the Sport Compacts.
Saturday’s program will include heats and no holds barred main events for all of the classes.
Advance tickets for this Saturday are available 24 hours a day by calling 1-800-595-4849. They can also be ordered on the Internet at tix.com or perrisautospeedway.com.
For more information call The PAS at: (951) 940-0134.
Perris Auto Speedway is on the Lake Perris Fairgrounds (home of the Southern California Fair), approximately one hour east of Los Angeles and one hour North of San Diego. To get to the track, take the 215 freeway, exit on the Ramona Expressway and go two miles east to the fairgrounds.
