King of the West 410 Sprint Car Series Notes & Info

From Gary Thomas

Round 13 at Santa Maria Speedway

Santa Maria, California – Saturday July 27

What:

The King of the West 410 Sprint Car Series will make its one and only appearance in the 2013 racing season at the popular Santa Maria Speedway this Saturday evening. The night of competition will mark Round 13 in the fight for the series crown and is the first event at the track since 2011. With its coastal and pleasant climate the track is always a favorite stop among teams and fans alike, especially during the heat of summer.

Leading the King of the West 410 Sprint Car Series standings going into Saturday happens to be Sacramento’s Kyle Hirst, who picked up his first career series victory at the Santa Maria Speedway in 2005. At the time Hirst was a 17-year-old youngster and has now grown into being one of the very best Sprint Car drivers on the west coast. This past Saturday he drove the Roth Enterprises No. 83jr to his ninth top-five finish in the first 12 events of the KWS season.

The man to look at going into the weekend is certainly three-time & defending King of the West 410 champion Jonathan Allard, who has won the past two series events and also captured the most recent KWS race at the Santa Maria Speedway. The Chico, California pilot has been the hottest Winged Sprint Car driver out west over the last month and will look to continue the hot streak at the cool confines of Santa Maria in his Williams Motorsports No. 0 mount.

Sacramento’s Willie Croft will bring the famed Tri-C Machine into the Santa Maria Speedway looking for his third King of the West 410 Sprint Car Series win of the year. The driver known as “Double Down” scored yet another top-five finish last Saturday, as he continues having the best season of his Sprint Car career. Croft finished eighth during the most recent KWS 410 event at Santa Maria in 2011.

Fresh off his best finish of the King of the West 410 Sprint Car season Fresno, California’s Craig Stidham will be gunning to get into victory lane for the first time this year on Saturday at the Santa Maria Speedway. Stidham last week brought home a runner up finish to Jonathan Allard in the main event and has been right on the cusp of breaking into the win column with the series.

Rounding out the top-five in the King of the West 410 Sprint Car Series standings is Sydney, Australia native Peter Murphy, who we continue to keep in our thoughts and prayers following his accident last Saturday at Antioch Speedway. Keep glued to our Facebook page as we try and keep everyone updated on Peter’s condition.

Veteran driver’s Jason Statler and Brent Kaeding are currently tied for sixth in the point standings. Statler captured a World of Outlaws win at the Santa Maria Speedway in 1999 and also won a Golden State/ King of the West main event at the track in 2003. Kaeding began his Sprint Car career at Santa Maria Speedway and earned the 1978 Rookie of the Year Award at the track.

There is also amazingly a tie for eighth in the standings between Oakhurst’s Doug Gandy and Grass Valley’s Carl Droivold. Droivold is coming off a 10^th place finish last Saturday and will be looking to move further up the order in Santa Maria. Completing the top-10 in the KWS 410 standings is Auburn’s Richard Brace Jr. More drivers expected Saturday will include Fresno’s Dominic Scelzi & Carson Macedo, Easton’s Tommy Tarlton, Scotts Valley’s Evan Suggs, Elk Grove’s Bobby & Sean McMahan, Fair Oak’s Chad Compton, Laton’s Geoffrey Strole, Grass Valley’s Pat Harvey, Hanford’s DJ Netto, Merced’s Mark Barroso and more.

When:

The front gate of the Santa Maria Speedway this Saturday will open at 4:30pm with qualifying around 5pm and racing anticipated to get underway around 6pm. Please make note of the earlier start time. The drivers meeting will be held at 3:45pm so give plenty of time to get to the track early.

Where:

The Santa Maria Speedway is located 12 miles inland from the Pacific coast, three miles north of the city of Santa Maria and is located a 1/4-mile north of the US 101/166 interchange on Hutton Road. The facility is one hundred seventy miles north of Los Angeles and 260 miles south of San Francisco.

Tickets:

Adult tickets will cost $25, students, military and seniors will be $23, kids six to 12 will be $6 and kids five and under free.

On the Internet:

King of the West Sprint Car Series-

Official Website- http://www.kwssprints.com/
Facebook- http://www.facebook.com/kingofthewestsprints
Twitter- http://www.twitter.com/KWSSprintRacing
You Tube- http://www.youtube.com/user/kingofthewe … ature=mhee
Instagram- kwssprints

Santa Maria Speedway-

Official Website- www.racesantamariaspeedway.com
Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/ruben.munoz.90?fref=ts

About the track:

Doug Fort built the Santa Maria Speedway in 1964 and helped mold it into one of the top dirt tracks in the country as the owner/promoter until his passing in 1999. The unique one-third mile clay oval has been named “Best Short Track Operation West of the Mississippi” on two separate occasions and is nestled in a semi amphitheater of natural terrain, sheltered by dense eucalyptus trees at the top and to the back of the bleacher area.

The all-time King of the West 410 track record is an 11.272 set by Campbell’s Brent Kaeding on July 10, 2004.

Amenities at the Speedway include free parking, handicapped parking, free transportation and assistance to bleachers and return for the handicapped, senior citizens and military rates, a designated “Family Section” in the bleachers with no smoking or drinking allowed, reserved terrace seating at both the north and south ends of the bleachers designed for lawn chairs, excellent P.A. system, stadium quality track lighting, clean restrooms, digital scoreboard and reasonably priced refreshments.

Recent Golden State/ King of the West 410 history at Santa Maria Speedway:

The King of the West 410 Series competed at the Santa Maria Speedway on two occasions in the 2011 season, with the first being captured by Placerville’s Andy Gregg and the second won by Chico’s Jonathan Allard. The victory for Gregg marked his first career Golden State/ King of the West 410 triumph and was a night many will never forget.

In 2010 the Golden State 410’s also competed at the track twice, with the early season event captured by Easton’s Tommy Tarlton, who performed a clean sweep of the night’s action. The summer showcase that season saw Oroville’s Sean Becker win a last lap thriller over Andy Gregg. In 2009 Los Angeles throttle masher Tyler Walker picked up the lone Golden State 410 event held at the track.

Top-15 in driver standings after 12 rounds of competition:

1. Kyle Hirst 1812; 2. Jonathan Allard 1791; 3. Willie Croft 1765; 4. Craig Stidham 1685; 5. Peter Murphy 1575; 6. Jason Statler 1562; 6. Brent Kaeding 1562; 8. Doug Gandy 1313; 8. Carl Droivold 1313; 10. Richard Brace Jr. 1312; 11. Chad Compton 1310; 12. Dominic Scelzi 1265; 13. Geoffrey Strole 1250; 14. Rico Abreu 1239; 15. Pat Harvey 1164

Winners so far this season with the King of the West 410 Sprint Car Series:

Antioch Speedway April 20: Willie Croft
Placerville Speedway April 27: Kyle Hirst
Silver Dollar Speedway May 4: Rico Abreu
Petaluma Speedway May 11: Willie Croft
Reno Tahoe Fernley Speedway May 17: Rico Abreu
Reno Tahoe Fernley Speedway May 18: Jonathan Allard
Tulare Thunderbowl Raceway May 25: Jason Meyers
Tulare Thunderbowl Raceway May 26: Jason Meyers
Placerville Speedway June 29: Jonathan Allard
Reno Tahoe Fernley Speedway July 6: Kyle Hirst
Ocean Speedway July 13: Jonathan Allard
Antioch Speedway July 20: Jonathan Allard

Upcoming King of the West events:

On Saturday August 3 the King of the West 410 Sprint Car Series will make its anticipated debut at the brand new Stockton 99 Dirt Track. After a very successful World of Outlaws event, everyone is eager to see Winged 410 Sprint Cars return to the venue on August 3. The Stockton 99 Dirt Track is located on the San Joaquin County Fairgrounds in Stockton, California and is built inside a one-mile horse track. The grandstands are some of the nicest we will see all season long with KWS & makes it a unique experience for Sprint Car racing.