2016 Irwindale Champions
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ MORE IRWINDALE 2016 OVALTRACK CHAMPS CROWNED... Two more of the 2016 crop of Irwindale champions were crowned on Saturday night, September 10, during the track's annual Salute to First Responder's Night. Darren Amidon from Lakeside, California took the INEX Legend Cars series crown for the third time and Trevor Huddleston from Agoura Hills was the best of the best winning his second championship in a row in Irwindale's tough NASCAR Pick Your Part Late Model division. Trevor Huddleston, who won ten of the 21-race Late Model series events this season, ended the year a tight 28 points ahead of second place Nick Joanides, from Woodland Hills, who won nine of the series' races including the final double points event on the 10th. The only other driver to score a Late Model win in 2016 at Irwindale (and in this case it was two) Christian McGhee, from Claremont, finished third in season points only 54 points behind Joanides. In all, forty drivers from across the southwest (and even one from New York City) took part in fourteen nights and hundreds of fast laps of exciting Pick Your Part NASCAR Late Model racing in 2016. Darren Amidon only won two of the ten-race INEX Legend Cars Series races at Irwindale this year, but his string of high finishes in all eight of the other races put him at the top of the points pile with 524, fully 52 points clear of second place finisher Chad Schug out of Oak Hills. Parker Steele, from Peoria, Arizona, who would have come into the night's contest with a 2-point lead, did not race on Saturday. Steele's 430 points were still good enough for third place in the 2016 Legend Car championship. The Legend Cars division at Irwindale saw forty different drivers from as close as Claremont to as far away as Peoria, Arizona; Lake Oswego, Oregon and Albuquerque, New Mexico all competing here at Irwindale in 2016's 10-event series.. Young Kayla Eshelman, from Fontana, took the 2016 Irwindale Bandolero title earlier in the season winning four events in the 10-race series and besting Lakeside's Madison Gay by 12 points (532 to 518). Ramona's Olivia Manke rounded out the 2016 podium with 376 points for third place overall. Fourteen young drivers took part in the "Bandos" this past season, with entries (again) from all over southern California. The Bandolero division at Irwindale is unique of all the classes that race here as all of their races (except the final one) are two-night affairs with points races both Friday and Saturday nights on their designated weekends. A small, but enthusiastic crowd is always on hand in the pit grandstands to cheer the youngsters on when they run on Friday, and the fans in stands all get a big kick out of watching the Bandos when they are part of the big show on Saturday nights. (And ... there's one more shoe to drop in Irwindale's 2016 track championship season but that one won't hit the floor until October 29.) Which means that cross-town (friendly) rivals Lucas McNeil (Saugus) and Conner Cantrell (Valencia) will have a whole bunch of time to think about that final DOUBLE POINTS race and the fact that they when they finally do roll their Seidner's Collision Centers Irwindale Race Trucks in for that October 29 race they'll be only 6 points apart (advantage McNeil) after ten tough races of which each driver won four. Eighteen different drivers went "race truckin" on the Irwindale half-mile during the 2016 season, and, again, southern California was widely represented by the field. And then there's Dennis Arena (an Irwindale local, living just one town north of the track in Duarte), he's only 24 points behind Cantrell and just 30 south of McNeil in the Seidner's Race Trucks. Arena tends to be of the "...anything can happen on any given race night," persuasion. He's been racing at Irwindale since the very beginning and knows that the winds of fortune not only blow both ways, but that they are often quite capricious, which is to say, count him out at your own peril. Besides this one pays 100 point to win. It will be a long wait before we can congratulate our final 2016 track points champ ... and it WILL be worth it. IRWINDALE SPEEDWAY NASCAR - INEX 2016 DRIVING CHAMPIONS INEX BANDOLEROS: Kayla Eshleman (#90) from Fontana California and of the Eshleman racing family won four of the 10-race Bandolero 2016 season and finished second five times in the smallest type of cars that race on Irwindale's third-mile oval. The second female to win an annual championship at the Speedway handily keeping it in the family as first cousin McKenzie Eshelman was the 2015 "Bando" champ and the first female champ at Irwindale. Kayla's future as a winning driver looks very bright. INEX LEGENDS: Skillfully driving what must be the feistiest of all the divisions that race on the Speedway's inner third-mile; Lakeside resident Darren Amidon picked up his third Legend Car track championship running right up front all year long, posting top finishes in every race on the 2016 card. Amidon won two contests outright and backed those wins up with five second place finishes, two thirds and a fourth for his impressive 2016 championship run. SIEDNER'S COLLISION CENTERS IRWINDALE RACE TRUCKS: (FINAL RACE 10/29/16) The final shoe is yet to drop in one last Irwindale NASCAR division and the upcoming late October 100-point race should be a very hotly-contested one with the top three drivers here separated by only 24 points after ten races. PICK YOUR PART LATE MODELS: All year long, and at each and every one of the 21-race series, Irwindale's premier national points division was a study in top-flight NASCAR short track competition. From the first race it was a three-driver contest that would go right down to the last race of the year (for double points!). In the end Trevor Huddleston from Agoura Hills prevailed, but his shadow was long all year long and his two close pursuers trod on it plenty over the course of the long season. He won 10 of the 21 events and placed second six times, a very good batting average in anyone's book, except for those two other guys who kept on him like bubble gum on a tennis shoe. Huddleston drove fast and smart all year long, he and his crew always taking the long view and working for the championship The final count showed Huddleston 28 points clear of second place after seven months of highly-competitive racing. This was Trevor's second Late Model championship in a row which put him only one shy of tying his father Tim's tally of three championships (2005, 2007, and 2008) in that division. Irwindale's 2016 NASCAR home track division season was, by far, one of the best and most competitive on record. One hundred and seventeen drivers took part in fifty-one championship points races over the season; with surprises, new stars, old pros, and micro-close finishes all part of the fun and excitement. Thousands of autographs and countless selfies were taken with drivers during the track's signature "On-Track Autograph Session" that takes place (right on the track ... where else?) at 5:45pm before racing every Saturday afternoon. IRWINDALE DRAG STRIP 2016 NHRA SUMMIT SERIES DRIVING CHAMPIONS This year's set of six NHRA Summit Series Sunday events on the Irwindale eighth-mile yielded some of the best and most competitive drag racing competition seen in quite a while. SPORTSMAN: John Wise from Mission Viejo is the Summit champ in the Sportsman category for 2016. He had two rough (30 point) races in the short, six-race series but his first race win and his win in the final event put him 43 points in the lead for his class win. Sixty-one drivers took part in the Sportsman division this year at Irwindale. PRO CLASS: Willie Hoefer from Yucapia had the smallest number of points in the "margin of victory" column for the Summit Pro Stock class at the Dragstrip this year, a scant 20 (496 to 476). And, proving that Pro is a tight class, third place clocked in only ONE POINT behind second at 475! All told some fifty-nine competitors rolled up to the starting line to challenge each other for the 2016 title. PRO BIKE: Dave Miller from Whittier just rode away with the Summit Series two-wheel championship for 2016. Winning three of the six races (and finishing well in two out of the other three races) Miller amassed a 169-point advantage over his next nearest competitor for the 2016 two-wheel Summit crown. Only six bikes were on hand to vie for the Summit Championship this year on the Irwindale eighth-mile but the racing was VERY fun to watch, with riders leaning out over the handlebars to keep front wheels on the track, and close finishes at the light. SUPER PRO: Alex George of Huntington Beach prevailed in this year's edition of the division that regularly makes most of its runs in the 6-second and below range. George's early season form saw him at season's end with a sixty-seven point advantage over second place. Twelve different drivers clashed on the Irwindale 'strip in this division during the 2016 season. The Summit Series of six championship races that take place over the over the course of spring and summer here at Irwindale Dragstrip always add up to an exciting half-dozen Sunday events best described as: "Serious Fun". "Serious" because the competition is always the most professional, most focused, and most exciting to watch (and for fans to talk to the competitors about in the open pits during the event), and "Fun" because the drivers and their teams really enjoy what they are doing ... and it shows. In all 138 drivers (and their very helpful crews and families) took part in the Summit Series races in 2016. We salute the champions, of course, but we also salute and thank every participant who gave the series its color and life. Those were six fun Sundays, for sure! There are only six Sunday NHRA Summit Championship racesper calendar year here at Irwindale, but (only with the exception of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years eve) NHRA Drag Racing testing, tuning, and assorted quick times go on every Thursday night (gates open a 4 and racing runs from 5 to 10pm) at the Irwindale eighth-mile. Fans fill the stands, "Hot Rod" Bob Beck calls the action, and the tire smoke gets bigger and badder as the night goes along. Any Thursday that's not a national holiday is an NHRA Thursday Night Thunder night at Irwindale ... As we say: Watch: $10, Drag Race your own car: $20. Just maybe the best bargain in drag racing. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FOR COMPLETE POINTS LISTS, UPDATES, COMING ATTRACTIONS, NEWS, OPINION & MORE: www.irwindaleevent [http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=0014MJRiVkKkcJPvlYOeIXq_O0o8mLl6WDAWvcb0D0SYhT1e44q9hR5YuCIrKFdDMLzf0ykpIaTKSAKYazLfbnJbkvQ09YBZ5DO_nLJDcl14tKMp5pha2pcqi-Z7TsmZkVrXYu5_bfwptXzfY288dsskW8ypXBEhCxPW7NsMoKyDMM=&c=RLFNbJ0G84jazUWSuigJyUjf-hbk9kqHWLLFxHHqpURnDPYWbKuKVw==&ch=enCGc9X3aK8AvQyMqGogoLSEAi_NekUlOcvRhUsSK6PSj0yH18svDg==] center.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Copyright © 2016. All Rights Reserved. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Forward this email http://ui.constantcontact.com/sa/fwtf.jsp?llr=ubv4kndab&m=1103180583988&ea=$submit@theautochannel.com$&a=1125908301316 This email was sent to submit@theautochannel.com by noreply@irwindaleeventcenter.com. 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