By Steven Blakesley
BAKERSFIELD, CALIFORNIA (June 8, 2025) – Camarillo’s Ricky Lewis slid past Templeton’s Kaleb Montgomery for one of the largest traditional sprint car prizes in California for 2025, claiming the $5,000 prize in Saturday’s Salute to Bob Vermeer & Narcie Ferreira at Bakersfield Speedway at Kevin Harvick’s Kern Raceway. The Ultimate Sprint Car Series event attracted 33 entries for the combined 360 and 410 cubic inch series at the one-third mile dirt track.
“Holy moly that was one of the most fun races I’ve ever had in my career. Hats off to Kaleb, he goes and kicks everyone’s butt in the wing cars and obviously he’s really good in the non-wing too. That’s about as tricky as a race track as you can get. You got to be careful and not get in too hard and smoke the fence. I knew on that green-white-checkered I was going to send it. It’s really cool when you race guys like that. Hats off to the track crew and Malyssa at USCS for putting on these races.”
David Gasper, Braden Chiaramonte, Cole Wakim, and 2024 champion Blake Bower split the four groups of time trials before Gasper, Jake Swanson, Lewis, and Montgomery won the heat races. Danny Faria, Jr. won the 12-lap B-Main.
Montgomery and Lewis traded sliders on a restart just past the halfway point of the feature. The leaders then approached lapped traffic. Lewis slid Montgomery for the lead out of turn four but the caution flew for a lapped car spinning into turn one in front of the leaders to nullify the move. The battling continued and was halted crash for Connor Speir in turn two, setting up a green-white-checkered finish.
Coming to the white flag, Lewis threw a bomb inside of Montgomery but Montgomery crossed it over to lead lap 29. Ricky Lewis made the move again in turn one and it stuck down the backstretch, holding off Kaleb Montgomery for the $5,000 prize. Montgomery finished second followed by Swanson, Chiaramonte, and former USAC-CRA Champion Brody Roa.
Kyle Rasmussen of Clovis scored his third IMCA California Racesaver Sprints feature in a thrilling 25-lap contest. Points leader Davey Pombo of Kerman finished second followed by 14th-starting Koen Shaw, Joe Delisle, and George Tristao, Jr.
Jeff Dyer of Yucca Valley won his first California Lightning Sprints 20-lap feature of the 2025 season. Zate Legend of Riverside, Brayden Collie, A.J. Bender, and Leland Day followed him across the finish line.
Carson Conway of Bakersfield took the $500 victory in the American Stock special non-points feature. The victory is his second at Bakersfield Speedway at Kevin Harvick’s Kern Raceway this year. Eric Cimental charged from 11th to finish second, followed by Jon McKinley, David Haasgma, and Mason Conway.
Mini Stocks returned to Bakersfield Speedway for their first appearance of season on the new one-third mile dirt track. Jason Cook, Jr. of Porterville topped last October’s Kern winner Rylan McCoy of Hanford for the 15-lap win. 2024 Bakersfield Speedway champion Jason Cook, Justin Alves, and Chuey Gonzales made up the balance of the top-five.
The USAC Western States Midgets invade Bakersfield Speedway at Kevin Harvick’s Kern Raceway on Friday June 13 along with IMCA Modifieds, IMCA Sport Mods, IMCA Stock Cars, H&S Body Works Hobby Stocks, and American Stocks. Tickets are on sale now for the Friday night racing action.
For more information on Bakersfield Speedway at Kevin Harvick’s Kern Raceway, visit www.BakersfieldSpeedway.com or follow the speedway on social media. Kevin Harvick’s Kern Raceway is located at 13500 Raceway Blvd, near Enos Ln and Interstate 5 in Bakersfield.
Bakersfield Speedway at Kevin Harvick’s Kern Raceway June 7, 2025 – Race Results
A Feature 1 (30 Laps): 1. 41-Ricky Lewis[7]; 2. 3-Kaleb Montgomery[1]; 3. 17X-Jake Swanson[6]; 4. 73B-Braden Chiaramonte[8]; 5. 91R-Brody Roa[10]; 6. 18-David Gasper[3]; 7. 51T-Eddie Tafoya Sr[9]; 8. 54-Cody Majors[12]; 9. 53-Michael Pombo[13]; 10. 86-TJ Smith[14]; 11. 17-Blake Bower[2]; 12. 12B-Danny Faria Jr[17]; 13. 29T-Ryan Timmons[11]; 14. 87P-Jacob Tuttle[4]; 15. 88-Koen Shaw[23]; 16. 22-Bryan Whitley[15]; 17. 9C-Chris Wakim[24]; 18. 10-Jeremy Stout[19]; 19. 63D-Jon DeWees[20]; 20. 72T-Trenten Shelton[21]; 21. 58-Mark Henry[16]; 22. 5E-Elexa Herrera[22]; 23. 57S-Connor Speir[18]; 24. 73-Cole Wakim[5]
B Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 12B-Danny Faria Jr[5]; 2. 57S-Connor Speir[2]; 3. 10-Jeremy Stout[11]; 4. 63D-Jon DeWees[4]; 5. 72T-Trenten Shelton[9]; 6. 5E-Elexa Herrera[10]; 7. 88-Koen Shaw[1]; 8. 9C-Chris Wakim[3]; 9. 43-Hannah Mayhew[7]; 10. 72-Jeff Shelton[13]; 11. 71D-Bryan Drollinger[12]; 12. (DNF) 99T-Tanner Boul[6]; 13. (DNF) 29C-Camie Bell[8]; 14. (DNF) 39-Jeff Dyer[14]
IMCA California Racesaver A Feature (25 Laps): 1. 38N-Kyle Rasmussen[8]; 2. 2-Davey Pombo[5]; 3. 64C-Koen Shaw[14]; 4. 88J-Joe Delisle[7]; 5. 23T-George Tristao Jr[6]; 6. 31H-Phil Heynen[3]; 7. 67-Rodney Henderson[12]; 8. 11T-Tylor Henson[2]; 9. 36B-Kevin Barnes Sr[13]; 10. 30-Jon Williams[11]; 11. 87-Jake Vermeer[9]; 12. (DNF) 15-Rino Felicioni[10]; 13. (DNF) 5-Cole Danell[1]; 14. (DNF) 22-Maverick Myrick[4]; 15. (DNS) 3-Anthony Pombo
California Lightning Sprints A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 4-Jeff Dyer; 2. Z8-Zate Legend; 3. 44-Brayden Collie; 4. 41B-AJ Bender; 5. 97-Leland Day; 6. 8G-Eric Greco; 7. 42 Jon Robertson; 8. 59-Drake Cardey; 9. 21x-Bobby Minchowicz
American Stocks A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 25-Carson Conway[10]; 2. 21X-Eric Cimental[11]; 3. 70-Jon McKinley[7]; 4. 22-David Haagsma[5]; 5. (DNF) 72-Mason Conway[8]; 6. (DNF) 01-Colton Hay[4]; 7. (DNF) 22J-Andrew Johnston[9]; 8. (DNF) 23-Ryker Goforth[1]; 9. (DNF) 74M-Miranda Scott[2]; 10. (DNF) 725-landen linenberger[6]; 11. (DNF) 954-John Robinson[3]
Mini Stocks A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 26X-Jason Cook Jr[5]; 2. 33M-Ryland McCoy[6]; 3. 32X-Jason Cook[4]; 4. 16-Justin Alves[1]; 5. 13B-Chuey Gonzales[3]; 6. 97L-Ava Laney[2]; 7. 9-Gene Glover[7]; 8. 95-Skylar Corellla[8]