IRWINDALE, California — - - Saturday October 1st has been designated as Toyota Speedway's annual Breast Cancer Awareness Night and, this year a special Invitational Female Demolition Derby will cap off the night and raise funds for and awareness of the still-deadly disease.
"Breast Cancer has touched one out of four families in the United States, has cost us countless lives, and has taken far too many of our moms, wives, daughters, and friends."
"Breast Cancer has touched one out of four families in the United States, has cost us countless lives, and has taken far too many of our moms, wives, daughters, and friends," said track VP/General Manager Bob DeFazio.
"Research and early detection have saved many lives, but there's a long way ahead, and we always set aside one weekend per season to call awareness to the disease, to cheer on the research, to back early detection, and to celebrate the many survivors who are here with us because of those things," DeFazio went on. "We're really going to have some fun on Saturday night, some great NASCAR racing, and a wild All-Women Demolition Derby, but our focus will be on detecting and defeating Breast Cancer I hope that everyone will join us in that effort."
As of today regular NASCAR competitors Toni McCray from San Bernardino and Bailey Thompson from Bakersfield have joined the fashion world's Mikey Koffman and the stock car racing daughter of well-known driver/car builder Steve Saleen, Molly, on the celebrity driver list for the "Ladies Only" Demo-Derby. The fast and fun event will raise funds for breast cancer research and the Susan B. Komen Foundation. More drivers for the invitational will be announced presently.
All ten of the celebrity participants will be the track's special guests (along with their wildly-painted DD event cars) and will meet the fans in the Chalet Village of the Speedway on Saturday from 4:30 to 5:30 PM before the races. Fans will be able to make a pledge for their favorite lady driver and the track will match the amount that the top three drivers bring for the Derby.
Toyota Speedway's good friends at Pick Your Part, S+J Towing, and Jan's Towing have all supplied rolling stock (this will be an all front-wheel drive compact car event) for this round of organized chaos. The infield "track" will not only be wet down, but it will also receive a liberal coat of liquid soap, just to make the action a bit more slippery-fun-and-games. Demo Derby is a LAST LADY STANDING affair with drivers attempting to disable their opponent's machine by backing into it without wrecking their own car. (If that sounds a little like the Trader Joe's parking lot in Culver City to you, you've got the correct mental picture!)
Also on the card for a great Super Saturday (kids under 12 FREE!) night of NASCAR oval rack racing (with no water nor soap on the track) is the second last round of the hotly-contested Lucas Oil Slick Mist Super Late Models, these top pros will go 75 laps in Saturday night's main event.
Canyon Country's Rod Johnson Junior comes into race nine with a 22-point advantage over his nearest rival Rancho Cucamonga's Ryan Partridge 378 to 356. Both young men have had good runs, with Johnson taking the win in five of the first eight races and Partridge hanging in there by stringing together a series of high finishes (and winning his first race last outing!). Race Liberate (Quartz Hill), Kevin Thompson (Conroe, TX), and Dennis Furden (Stevenson Ranch) round out the top five with points tallies of 340, 324, and 294 respectively. In his first race back after a car-destroying wreck in race six, early championship contender Jason Patison (Corona) looked sharp grabbing fourth place, unfortunately the short series will not be very kind to his efforts.
The Pick-You-Part Outlaw Figure-8 machines are involved in a very close points battle that sees Jay Hensen from Oak Hills only four points ahead of Long Beach's Steve Stewart (324 to 320). There's only one more race after this one for the 2011 honors and both of these drivers want the title as well as feeling the heat from the guy who's won the most races this season (4 out of the 7 run so far) Rod Proctor, from Riverside. The art of going very fast and making one's self very scarce when blasting through were X marks the spot on this crazy criss-cross course is something must be seen to be understood fully and even then, there are always questions, like: "Who is crazy enough to do THAT?
Coming into this second-to-last race Chad Schug from Oak Hills has a two-point lead over Alta Loma's Brent Sheidmantle in the Echo Equipment Legends Cars (688 to 686). These two have traded wins and top finishes all year long and there's a (very) good chance that they will continue to do so on Saturday night. Mark Borchetta (Valencia) enters this one in third (at 600 points even) with Aaron Wells (Studio City) only two behind him at 598.
The Jan's Towing Bandoleros are yet another two-car race after twenty-five races so far this season! Christian McGhee with 11 wins and 7 seconds on the year (so far) has a 30-point lead (1168 to 1138) over Daniel Nikolai. Fans from La Verne (C.M.) and Granda Hills (D.N.) will be in the stands on Saturday.
In the Justice Brothers Mini-Stocks, first time-winner Pasadena's Seth Wilson moved up to third in the season standings behind Daryl Scoggins (Sunland), and Ryan Bragdon (Beaumont). The points go: 416, 408, and 354.
Langers Juice S2's tell a real story about racing for a championship and consistency. Lancaster's Andrew Anderson ran second last week, but still stayed in the points lead over another Andrew (Porter from La Verne). Anderson has 388 to Porter's 370. With three races to go Anderson has run; 2nd,1st, 2nd, 2nd,1st,3rd, 1st, and 2nd, and Porter has run: 1st, 2nd, 1st, 3rd, 4th, 4th, 5th, and 3rd. Tight stuff and Malibu's Austin Dyne who's right behind at 326 with 150 points to go well, it really does make for some great stage-setting, right?
All of the above and the (DID WE MENTION IT IS FREE) King Taco On-Track Autograph Session at 5:45 makes a Saturday afternoon and evening at Toyota Speedway one of the most budget-friendly family outings ever! Be here!
GATES OPEN AT 4PM & TICKETS CAN BE PURCHASED ON THE WEB:
www.toyotaspeedwayatirwindale.com
