USAC Midgets to race at Speedway
| Wednesday, Aug 26 2009 09:08 PM
Last Updated Wednesday, Aug 26 2009 09:09 PM
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Californian staff writer
USAC Midgets will roll back into town on Saturday night to headline five divisions of racing at Bakersfield Speedway.
The Midgets last stopped at the third-mile clay oval on March 21 and Garrett Hansen left with the victory. He's won two more times since then and returns to Bakersfield with a 127-point lead over Jerome Rodela in the the Western Midget Car championship points standings.
This is the second, and final, appearance of the season for the Midgets and the first race in more than a month as the last race came on the pavement at Madera Speedway on July 18. Hansen won the last dirt-track race, July 11 at Ventura.
Also racing will be Shannon McQueen of Bakersfield, who finished sixth in the March 21 race and ran fifth in her last outing at Ventura. McQueen is sixth in points.
Other drivers expected include Rodela, Randi Pankratz, who was second in the first Bakersfield race, Josh Ford, David Prickett and Alex Schutte.
The East vs. West Super Street Series, Hobby Stocks, Mini Stocks and NMRA Three-Quarter Midgets also will be in action.
Tim Randolph of Santa Maria leads the East-West series with Bakersfield's Lonnie Welch second.
Racing starts at 6.
Pinks All Out at Famoso
Pinks All Out, the extremely popular grass-roots drag racing show which airs on Speed TV, is making a stop at Auto Club Famoso Raceway on Sept. 12 for the final show of the season.
More than 400 competitors, all in full-bodied cars, will practice at the historic drag strip on Sept. 11 then make timed runs on Sept. 12 with cameras rolling in hopes of making a cluster of 32 from which one driver will emerge with $10,000 in cash and a tool chest from NAPA valued at $8,000.
"It's going to be a neat deal," said Famoso's Blake Bowser, who expects a crowd approaching 10,000 for the event. "Speed and Pinks have found a way to pack a (facility) by racing bracket cars."
By the nature of the production, there is a bit of "down time" which Blake plans to fill with a variety of nostalgia cars -- Top Fuel Dragsters, Funny Cars, a wheelstander, an AA/Fuel Altered and a jet car.
A variety of ticket packages are available at www.famosoraceway.com or by calling Pete's Seats at 323-7383.
Quick shifts
Bakersfield Speedway will be the host track for the 2009 Dirt Track Shootout/George Steitz Memorial Race on Oct. 22-24. The event, featuring modifieds, street stocks, hobby stocks and mini stocks, has been held at several different tracks and took place at Kings Speedway in Hanford the past two seasons.
Rookie Dallas Montes of Bakersfield raced to his second consecutive victory in a 35-lap Legends Cars feature Saturday at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale. He finished .167 of a second in front of division championship points leader Ryan Reed, also of Bakersfield.
Bakersfield Junior Sprint drivers had a good weekend as Garrett Fine raced to victory on Friday night in Visalia and Buddy Shepherd won on Saturday night in Lemoore.
