IRWINDALE, California — Toyota Speedway will celebrate Trucking and Truckers this Saturday night with a special rally for all styles, shapes, and sizes of working trucks. "If it's got wheels and it's legal for the highway, it'll be here on Saturday night," said track GM Bob DeFazio.
"Cool Trucks and Fast NASCAR Races: A Great Family Fun Event."
"We're located in one of the most truck-intensive parts of southern California and we couldn't operate this place without them," DeFazio added. "Once a year we let it all hang out and really celebrate the hardest-working and coolest-looking of them all, right here on the racetrack and then we invite all the fans out to see them."
And appropriately the track's premier truck division will be featured on Saturday night when the King Taco Super Trucks get down to the short strokes in a tight season of exciting racing. With only two races left to go, Connor Cantrell from Santa Clarita has had three good races in a row winning all of them and banking a nice, round 150 points for a total of 564 after 12 races. Cantrell's only problem is that guy from Rancho Cucamonga (Ryan Partridge) ran second in those three races and is only 12 points behind at 552! Following the lead pair are a number of drivers who all only need a bit of luck (good for them/bad for the other guys) to move up on the chart: Todd Cameron (Monrovia) 514, Matt Kimball (Mission Viejo) 474, and Dennis Arena (Duarte) 446, are all still in there and plenty racy!
Aptly-named Legends Cars (sponsored by our friends at Echo Equipment) will their penultimate (second-last) event of a long season on Saturday night with the title still very much in doubt. After 15 races only 4 points separate the top two drivers, neither of whom got points last weeks (they were both at a national qualifier in Las Vegas). Chad Shug (Oak Hills) comes in at 644 points with Brent Scheidmantle (Alta Loma) drafting him closely at 640. The 2011 series looks like it is theirs to loose for one of the top two but Aaron Wells (Studio City), Mark Borchetta (Valencia), Jared Torres (Perris) at 562, 560, and 510 points respectively, are just not about to let either guy cruise and collect. Watch for some spirited sliding-around on the Irwindale third-mile!
After this Saturday night the mighty Mini-Stocks will be down to one race in their 2011 chase for the championship of the Justice Brothers-sponsored division. Sunland's own Daryl Scoggins has the points lead (14 points after 8 races!) 378 to Beaumont's Ryan Bragdon's 362. Again with 50 point to win and 0 points if you break or crash out, the next three in line: Kevin Bernhardt (Fontana) 344 points, Dennis Croasmun (Alta Loma) 314 points, and Rod Schmitt (Alta Loma) 306 points, all think that they'll still have something to say about it on Saturday night at the Speedway.
The Langers Juice S-2's have been a great show all year long, tight racing in technically-identical cars with Andrew "Mr. Podium" Anderson from Lancaster having a grand time, racing hard, and never finishing out of the top three. But, even with all that, young Andrew Porter (LaVerne) is only 18 points behind (388 to 370). And the next two are not all that far behind with only three more races after this one. And they would be: Austin Dyne (Malibu) 326, Mike Colato (Winnetka) 312, and Bill Waters (Simi Valley) with 298, who all are still capable of grabbing the magic 100 points left in the pot.
And there's one more horserace the Vista Paint Super Stocks where 6 points are the difference between Curtis White from Norwalk at 410 and Rich DeLong, from Santa Clarita, at 404! Zack Green, Brad Keegan, and Gary Frankovich (from Long Beach, Burbank, and Barstow) have 378, 340, and 326 points respectively and little or no "respect" for the points leaders this late in the going. Going for it? Yeah, could say that.
In addition to all of the above, the always-exciting DriveTech Late Models will be on the half-mile and the run-whatcha-brung Ken Porter Auctions Open Comp racers will burn the track's fast, flat inner third-mile track on Saturday night.
GATES OPEN AT 4PM AND THE KING TACO ON-TRACK AUTOGRAPH SESSION AND GALA TRUCK SHOW (THIS SATURDAY ONLY) STARTS AT 5:45PM ALL FANS ARE WELCOME RIGHT DOWN ON THE BANKED TRACK SURFACE SEE THE TRACK FROM THE DRIVER'S POINT OF VIEW!
AND REMEMBER: SUNDAY AT THE SPEEDWAY IS THE ANNUAL TRUCKING FOR THE KIDS SHOW THE BEST ALL-TRUCK SHOWS ON THE PLANET!
EVERY COOL TRUCK ON THE WEST COAST WILL BE HERE! GATES OPEN EARLY ON SUNDAY
For more information and advance tickets:
www.toyotaspeedwayatirwindale.com
