SAN BERNARDINO, California — The main event Saturday night (Oct. 22) at Orange Show Speedway is the 1-800LoanMart $15,000 Street Stock Shootout, a 65-lap race that will have more than 30 drivers competing for the winner’s $4,000 share of the purse.
"In addition to the 4,000.00 for the winner, there is 2,500.00 for second, 1,500.00 for third and 1,000.00 for fourth, and each of the 22 main event starters will get at least 250.00."
Two young women and experienced drivers from Las Vegas, Irwindale, Victorville, Lake Havasu City (Ariz.), Northern California and elsewhere will join recently-crowned Super Stock champion Steve Smith and the others who regularly race at Orange Show Speedway for what should be a memorable night at the historic ASA-sanctioned quarter-mile speedway.
The Shootout, and a drawing that will offer 10 fans a chance to win $25,000, has dominated the conversations among area short-track drivers and fans for the past few weeks, and justifiably so. The race will be run in two segments of 25 and 40 laps, and the unheard-of prize money awaiting the top finishers will guarantee excitement during those final 40 laps.
In addition to the $4,000 for the winner, there is $2,500 for second, $1,500 for third and $1,000 for fourth, and each of the 22 main event starters will get at least $250.
The fans will be winners, too. To commemorate Breast Cancer Awareness Month, 1-800-Get-Thin will have a gift for the first 1,000 spectators entering the track, Second Harvest Food Bank will be accepting donations of non-perishable food items, and everyone attending will be entered in the drawing to determine the 10 who will have a chance to win $25,000.
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.
The Shootout isn’t the only race on the schedule for the evening, and each of the three others will crown another champion on the final night of the California Speed Jams 2011 season.
Season-long leader Brandon Loverock is 12 points ahead of Matt Goodwin and needs to finish within seven positions of Goodwin to claim the Late Model title.
Tony Forfa III, the Factory Fours division pacesetter since late April, leads Danny Gutierrez by 6 points. That’s a difference of three positions. But Gutierrez’s four wins give him the title in case of a tie, so Forfa must finish within two positions of his rival. And neither of them can ignore reigning champion Dwayne Blay, who is just 12 points behind Forfa.
The picture is much clearer in the Pony Stock class. Erik Spring leads Beaumont (Ca.) neighbor Jack Hughes by 36 points (a difference of 18 positions) and will be the champion when he takes the green flag.
Those three races and the B main that will determine the final six starters for the Shootout will precede the Shootout itself and then, just for the fun of it, the season will conclude with another Drag Boat event that is sure to leave the fans laughing and the OSS infield littered with pieces of cars and boats.
