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  AUSTIN GRABOWSKI TO TAKE ON CALIFORNIA SPEED WEEK BY HIMSELF
 By Scott Daloisio

 (Perris, CA, August 9, 2020) A quartet of Perris Auto Speedway regulars will hit the road this week for the first-ever IMCA Modified California Speed Week. The grueling series will consist of six straight nights of action on six different tracks. The races will start on Monday, August 10th at the Placerville Speedway before heading west to the Petaluma Speedway on the 11th. The series will then commence its journey southward for a race on the 12th at the Antioch Speedway. From that point on it will dip into Central California where it will wrap up on the 13th, 14th, and 15th at the Merced Speedway, Keller Auto Speedway in Hanford, and the Bakersfield Speedway.

One of the four PAS regulars contesting the series will be Riverside, California racer Austin Grabowski. In a career starting when he was six years old in quarter midgets on the track located on First Street in Pomona, the 31-year-old has since raced legend cars, late models, super late models, and speed trucks on pavement. However, he is a relative newcomer to racing dirt track modifieds, but that is not stopping him from competing in this week’s demanding series.


Austin Grabowski photo courtesy of Bobby Kimbrough.

“I am bored,” he said with a laugh from his hot rod shop (Grabowski Speed Shop) in Riverside on Friday when asked why he is taking on the challenging series of races. “Ever since the Corona Virus deal started, I have been working seven days a week, 14 hours a day in the hot rod shop because racing was not going on. So, I need an escape. I need to get out of the shop and go out and race. I was committed to a few cars (jobs in his shop) which is why I was not able to make it up to a few of the Bakersfield races. I ran the first race of the year at Ventura in March. I started eighth, and finished second.”

Grabowski raced in California up until he was 19. That is when he left So Cal to attend McPherson College in Kansas. He headed to the Midwest school because it was the only school in the nation that offered a bachelor’s degree in automotive restoration. However, he graduated with a business degree with a minor in automotive restoration. He returned to California upon graduation in 2013

Before heading to the “Corn Belt” for school, all the affable driver’s racing efforts had been on pavement. But, while in Kansas he picked up a job working at an automotive shop. His Monday through Friday work schedule revolved around his classes. The weekends were quite different. The owner of the shop raced dirt modifieds and he offered Grabowski the opportunity to go along with him to the races. Needless to say, he jumped on the chance and it was there that he initially learned about setting up the suspension and how dirt cars worked. He also occasionally was given the opportunity to wheel pack and hot lap the car. It was literally his indoctrination to dirt track racing.

One of the differences in Grabowski, who has only been racing modifieds for a year and a half, and the other entries in the series, is the fact that he is doing the deal all by himself. While the other teams will have pit crews on hand to deal with the car at the track and the daily maintenance between races, Grabowski will be a “one-man band.” He is going to do all of the driving to get to the races, all of the work on the car at the track and all of the off-track maintenance, and, of course, the fun part, driving the car, by himself. It will be like at his hot rod shop where he restores and modifies 1930s, 40s, and 50s hot rods and customs (his main bread and butter are 1932 through the 40s Fords), basically resurrecting cars from the dead.

“It is like my hot rod shop,” Grabowski explained. “I work by myself in my hot rod shop restoring cars. I know that car (his modified) forwards and backward and upside down. I am able to go from track to track to track by myself and it will not be the first time it has happened. I have taken off by myself to the tracks before, so I might as well do it again now.”

While his time in a modified is still somewhat limited, Grabowski has already had success. Last year he won seven heat races. He also captured main event victories at the Ventura Raceway and Perris Auto Speedway. When he hits the trail for California Modified week, he will be racing at neither of those tracks as they are currently closed due to the COVID crisis. Of the six tracks on the Modified Week schedule, he has only raced at Bakersfield and Merced. However, he has friends at all the tracks that he can lean on to help him with setups if needed.

Grabowski will be one of Dave Stall’s guests today on the “Racer Radio Show” and he will be talking about California Speed Week. The show airs from 3:00 – 4:00 P.M. PDT and fans can listen in online at www.kcbq.com or 1170 AM on the radio dial if they live in the San Diego area.

Grabowski’s racing efforts are supported by Grabowski Speed Shop, Mustang Hotels, and Snooty Fox Inn.

In addition to Grabowski, other PAS regulars contesting California Speed Week will be the Norco father and daughter racing team of Tom and Alyssa Smith and Highlands Tim LaBrake.

Fans who cannot attend the California Speed Week races in person can watch all the action live on pay per view on the Flo Racing site. Full details are available at the following link https://www.floracing.com/.

To keep up with all the latest Perris Auto Speedway news, photos, gossip and receive special offers, please use the following links:

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Perris Auto Speedway is conveniently located on the SoCal Fair and Event Center (home of October’s Southern California Fair), approximately one-hour east of Los Angeles and one-hour North of San Diego. To get to the track, take the 215 freeway, on the Ramona Expressway and go three miles east to the fairgrounds. For directions on MapQuest, the address to enter is: 18700 Lake Perris Drive and the zip code is 92571.

Perris Auto Speedway wants to thank its corporate partners for the 2019 season. Ahern Equipment Rentals, All Coast Construction, Battery Systems, Budweiser, Bud’s Tire Pro, Chris’ Hauling, City of Perris, Communication Innovations, Daytona Boat & RV Storage, Ed Moore Bullet Proof Driveshaft, Flowdynamics, HD Industries, Hoosier Tires, Inland Rigging, Living Water’s Hospice, LKQ Pick Your Part, Luke’s Transmission, Moose Racing, Pepsi-Cola, Pole Position, PrintItNow.com, Rainbow Bolt & Supply, Rugged Radios, Shaver Specialties, Square H, Sunoco Race Fuels, Trench Shoring, Upland Rock, Varner Construction and Vista Paint.

Video and DVD productions of all racing sprint cars events at Perris Auto Speedway are available from Loudpedal Productions. For more information on these productions you can contact them by calling (805) 844-3854, E-mailing mailto:trtruex@gmail.com or you can visit the website LoudPedal Productions.

DVD’s of all the PASSCAR/IMCA racing and Nights of Destruction at The PAS are available from Fourvideos. For more information call (714) 225-9500.

racesatthepas@aol.com is the only authorized Internet address to issue official media news released from The Perris Auto Speedway or Oval Entertainment.