Teen Safe Driving Night at Toyota Speedway

Teen Safe Driving Night At Toyota Speedway
Saturday June 12 … Exhibits, Reminders, Racing

Irwindale, Calif. - - School’s out and many more teen drivers are on the road and, on Saturday night the Speedway will host a number of special exhibits and reminders that night to urge young and old alike to drive more carefully.  

“What we’re really saying leave all the dangerous stuff to our professional drivers here at the track,” said track General Manager Bob De Fazio.  

Gates at the Speedway open at 4PM and representatives of the Auto Club of Southern California, the California Highway Patrol, as well as the Toyota-supported Advanced Driving Dynamics group, will all be on site with information and active driving programs to talk to young drivers about driving smart.  “We are very serious about this night, there are far too many heartbreaking stories in the news each week about teen driving tragedies,” said De Fazio.  If we can get to a couple of kids this Saturday night, I’ll consider it a worthwhile effort.”

Of course there’s a full card of racing action on for the night as well, beginning with the action-packed Auto Club Late Models where 2009 division champ Nick Joanides from Woodland Hills has a slim 10-point lead over the next four drivers in the top five!  

His 250 checkmarks is followed four times in the total points column by the number 240 after the names of his Canyon Country neighbor Rod Johnson Jr., Santa Ynez's Christian Copley, Bakersfield’s Chris Holloway, and Travis Irving from Long Beach.  
 
Of interest is that both Johnson and Copley are rookies in this division and the fact Joanidies and Johnson have won two events each with Irving accounting for a fifth of the six races already run in the 17-race series that leads to the 2010 championship crown.

In the commanding King Taco Super Trucks third-gen racer Ryan Partridge from Rancho Cucamonga (what the heck is in the water there anyway?) has a perfect record: five races/five 50’s in the point column on the track’s website.  Fans who have followed this young driver and his crew (a couple who have been with him from his earliest days in a Legends Car) have seen a steady march of progress, he’s still got a lot of season ahead, but his success here has not been anything but expected and well-deserved.  

Keeping Partridge honest Monrovia’s Todd Cameron has shadowed him in second place for three of his wins and finished third in the other two with Mission Viejo’s Matt Kimball grabbing a second and a third among his other high finishes.  Because of the Speedway’s tight points payout the numbers for the above are 250, 236, and 214 each.  Miss a race (in any division) and get a 0 in one of those columns and your name drops like a rock down the chart.  It’s all about the championship and all of the above know that quite well.

Rich DeLong has one of the best points leads on the page.  After winning four and racking up a second and a third in the six vivacious Vista Paint Super Stock races already run this year, the Santa Clarita driver is a whopping (for this Speedway anyway) 20 points out on Riverside’s Brian Harrell (294-274).  Twenty back of Harrell, Gary Read, with 254 ticks, has been putting up consistently high finishes and must be considered a threat to both of those first two dudes.

And there’s a new twist to the compelling Ken Porter Classic Stocks … They’re going to have company!  The new and highly-anticipated Third-Mile Open Division will share the track (but be scored and awarded as a separate event) with the Classic for the rest of the season.  That means more cars, more track action, and more close finishes.  

Lawndale’s Ken Michaelian leads these machines onto the tough third-mile with 246 points and a pair of race wins.  

(Remember, race fans, in the case of a tie at season’s end, the roadblock is broken with number of wins, placing a premium on winning as well as piling up points).

Mike Colato Jr. has one win and enough high finishes to be only 6 points down after four of the season’s 10 scheduled events, with the “other” Michaelian (Harry) hanging on there in third at 218.  Arcadia’s favorite son Mark Garrett and Tommy “Too Good” Mason from Canyon Country round out the top five with 196 and 194 clicks after their respective names.

OK … wait for it … oh man! … AUTO SOCCER is back!  In a tribute to the World Cup in South Africa the Speedway will put on another scintillating, YouTube-favorite, belly-laugh-inducing, cluckbucket.com-recommended episode, of everyone’s favorite car and large metal ball game wherein men and women in various sized cars take turns (often times not even waiting for their turn) whacking a great huge old 300-pound hollow steel ball around that’s all painted up like a soccer ball.  In truth, there’s a lot of skill needed to herd a 5-foot tall steel sphere around with the nose and front tires of a Chrysler Imperial or a Honda Civic … Fans who have not see this show are encouraged to check out the phenomena on any “Tube”-type website, and then come out to the Speedway to see it for themselves:  Gooooooooooooooooal!