SAN BERNARDINO, California — The two teen-aged girls don’t know each other, but they share the same sense of excitement and have the same goal for Saturday’s 1-800LoanMart $15,000 Street Stock Shootout at Orange Show Speedway.
Marissa Henson, of Oak Hills (Ca.), is 15 and will be recognized as the Rookie of the Year at ASA-sanctioned OSS after a competitive season in the Super Stock class. Kayli Barker, of North Las Vegas (Nev.), is 14 and was the Bandoleros Outlaw division champion at the Bull Ring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
They are among the early entries for the Shootout and the $4,000 check that will go to the winner of the richest Street Stock race in Southern California history and they both say their objective is to be one of the 22 drivers who qualify for the 65-lap main event. They say accomplishing that would constitute success. But they also know that once the race begins, anything can happen, especially given the incentive here.
The winner’s share of the purse is as much as any of the drivers could make for winning 10 or 15 events at his or her home track and Orange Show Speedway officials are anticipating about 40 entries. Of those, 16 will earn their spots in the main event field on their qualifying times. The other six will have to race their way in in one or more “B” mains. The main event will be run in two segments, an initial 25 laps followed by a 40-lap run for the money.
The Shootout is the centerpiece of the Oct. 22 schedule, but the Late Models, Pony Stocks and Factory Fours also will be on hand for their final races of the year and another wild, entertaining boat drag race will bring the curtain down on the California Speed Jams season.
Sponsor 1-800LoanMart and its affiliates haven’t forgotten the fans, either.
Ten fans chosen at random will get the chance to win a $25,000 prize posted by 1-800LoanMart. Every fan attending the event will be entered in the drawing to be one of the 10 trying for the grand prize, everyone contributing a non-perishable food item to the Second Harvest Food Bank will get extra entries, and 1-800LoanMart will match a portion of the spectators’ donations with a check to the Food Bank.
In addition, to commemorate Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the first 1,000 fans entering the speedway will receive a gift from 1-800-Get-Thin.
Spectators gates will open at 5 p.m. and racing will commence at 7 p.m. Tickets are $15 for adults and $12 for seniors, students with valid identification and active military personnel with identification. Children under 12 are admitted free. Parking is $5 with entry through Gate 4 off Mill Street.
“I’m excited,” said Henson, who finished sixth in the OSS Super Stock standings despite missing three of the eight races. “I think it’s going to be a lot of fun and it will give me a lot of experience. And I’m kind of nervous to see how many people show up and how it all plays out.
“I want to make the A main, qualify into the A main. If I can at least do that I’ll feel like I accomplished something. And if you (qualify for the main and) survive (all 65 laps) I think you’ll end up finishing well.”
Barker, who finished fifth in the NASCAR Charger main event at Las Vegas Sept. 8 in just her fifth race in her Chevrolet Camaro, said that she, too, is “excited, but I’m not really nervous. I haven’t really been nervous in this car at all. I just like getting to race it. It’s so much fun. My goal is to try to make the A main.”
Both fathers are doing their best to make sure no one expects too much of their daughters.
Ron Barker said even though Kayli has had success in Bandoleros and shown some ability in her five starts in the Camaro “we have no delusions of her winning the race. If she can make the A main it would be a dream come true, and if she can have fun and not get lapped it would be even better.
“She likes the (Orange Show Speedway) track so it was kind of like ‘let's do this.’ She doesn't care. She’d go race on ice in Alaska if I said let's go.”
Jay Henson, an experienced racer who recently finished fifth in the World Figure-8 Championship in Indianapolis, Ind., said he’d been asked several times if he was going to drive their Camaro in the event and his response was an emphatic no.
“I couldn’t do that to Marissa,” he said. “I built the car for her and she’s been wanting to drive it for a long time. I don’t think she has a chance to win, but I do think she’s got a chance to get a good top 10 finish and that would be a win for her.”
Henson, who has followed her grandfather and father into the sport, said when her classmates at Oak Hills High School hear she drives a race car, a lot of them don’t believe it. And if any of them want to see it for themselves, she’d prefer they wait until next season.
“There are a couple of friends that come down and watch,” she said, “and that’s really more pressure on me. It makes me more nervous and I always feel bad because they’re there, but I don’t go into the grandstand to see them or anything. I tell them ‘I’m in race mode. I don’t know who you are anymore. When I’m racing, people (off the track) don’t exist to me.”
