Mike Griffith: Your chance to ride along with 'Mr. Excitement'
| Wednesday, May 20 2009 10:00 PM
Last Updated Wednesday, May 20 2009 11:26 PM
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Tom Macht / Special to The Californian Jackie Wood is a passenger in a two-seater Late Model stock car driven by John Lowrey, as it makes a turn Saturday at Bakersfield Speedway.
He's known as "Mr. Excitement" when he takes to the track in his Late Model race car and now John Lowrey is giving fans a taste of how he earned that nickname.
Lowrey will be competing in a West Coast Late Model Series race Saturday night at Bakersfield Speedway and at least one lucky fans will get to see what it's like to circle the third-mile clay oval at full throttle.
The Bakersfield racer recently acquired a Late Model built with a passenger seat and is raffling off rides with all proceeds going to charitable organizations. It's the ultimate E-ticket ride, which can be attained for a $2 raffle ticket.
"My goal is to have whoever rides in that car to tell people how great it was so we can sell more tickets," said Lowrey, who had the car last week at Bakersfield Speedway where Wendy Dotson and Jacky Wood were each given a 10-lap taste of Late Model racing. "I'm trying to drive it as hard as I can without crashing it. I'm not going to putt around. Anybody who know me, knows I'm not a putt around guy."
Lowrey had the car at two races in Santa Maria earlier this year year but never got to drive. A pit crew member for Late Model racer Jerry Stewart won the ride one night so Lowrey let Stewart drive. The next time out Late Model racer and high school teacher Mike Johnson did the driving as one of his students won the raffle.
It's all about giving back, said Lowery, who will race a different car in competition and also fields cars for Larry Brown and Kevin Nichols.
"I want to do this charity deal and give back," he said. "Us racers take a lot and it's time to give back a little."
The two appearances at Santa Maria raised $1,000 for relay for life and $800 was raised last week for the Veterans of Kern County, who will also receive all the money raised from Saturday night's raffle.
"We should raise more money this Saturday night and I think we'll keep getting more and more as time goes on," Lowrey said. "What I'd really like to do is auction off a full night of racing in the car -- qualifying, heat races and the feature. That could raise a lot of money but we'd have to work out the insurance side of of it."
But until that gets worked out, Lowrey plans to raffle off rides at the remaining Late Model races at Bakersfield Speedway and Santa Maria as well as selected other races at Bakersfield Speedway.
"There's no lack of charities," he noted.
Quick shifts
* Joining the Late Models Saturday night at Bakersfield Speedway will be Hobby Stocks, Mini Stocks and Mini Dwarfs. Racing starts at 6.
* Bakersfield's David Mayhew finished third overall in a Camping World Series East-West combination race Sunday at Iowa Speedway which earned him a victory in the West Series as he was the highest finisher out of 16 West Series drivers. NASCAR Sprint Cup driver Kyle Bush was the overall winner with East Series driver Brian Ickler outdueling Mayhew for the runner-up position.
* Bakersfield's Mike Williams of Bakersfield is having quite a season in D/Gas competition. He won the March Meet, followed up with a victory at Fontana in April and won last weekend in Las Vegas to make it 3-for-3 in NHRA Hot Rod Heritage competition.
* Garrett Fine of Bakersfield raced to his first Junior Sprint victory last Friday night at Plaza Park Raceway in Visalia.
* Ryan Reed of Bakersfield set fast time in qualifying for the third time this season and finished second in a Legends race at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale on Saturday night. Fellow Bakersfield drivers Brandon Toy and Dallas Montes finished fifth and sixth, respectively.
* M.K. Kanke of Frazier Park will be trying to make it 3-for-3 as the SRL Southwest Tour Series heads to Madera Speedway on Saturday night. Kanke leads Dave Byrd by 14 points after winning the first two races of the season.
* Looking for some tools, car parts or maybe a set of wheels? Or are you wanting to unload various auto-related parts, accessaries or maybe a complete car? Then the first of three planned auto swap meets on May 31 at the Kern County Fairgrounds is the place to be. And the best thing is the first one is free to all -- vendors, buyers and looky-loos. "They're really popular in Long Beach and Pomona and I thought this would be a good thing to do about four times a year in Bakersfield," said organizer Blake Bowser. The event takes place from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. (Vendor gates open at 4 a.m.). For more info, go to bakersfieldswapmeet.com
