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FIVE
PERRIS AUTO SPEEDWAY REGULARS IN KOKOMO
SMACKDOWN
By Scott
Daloisio
(Perris, CA, August 26, 2020)
Race starved Perris Auto Speedway fans
will have reasons to cheer when the USAC
National Sprint Car Series visits
Indiana’s Kokomo Speedway for the “9th
Annual Smackdown” this Thursday, Friday,
and Saturday, August 27th through the
29th. To be exact, the five reasons are
PAS USAC/CRA regulars Damion Gardner,
Austin Williams, Jake Swanson, Charles
Davis, and Eddie Tafoya Jr. who will all
be in action in the Hoosier state’s
biggest traditional sprint car event.
Still closed
due to state and county regulations due to
the COVID crisis, So Cal fans have yet to
see a USAC/CRA Series race at The PAS this
season. The track and series officials
still have hopes that there will be some
racing in So Cal before winter sets in.
Until that time, the next best thing will
be to see their heroes lock horns with the
top stars in the Midwest this week. All
three of the races will be available to
fans via pay per view on the Flo Racing
website.
For Gardner,
who has won the USAC/CRA title the last
seven seasons in a row, racing at Kokomo
is a return to the Midwest where he
campaigned from 2006 through 2012. Regular
fans watching may have a hard time
recognizing the driver known as “The
Demon” as he will not be in the familiar
Alexander silver #4. Instead, he will be
wheeling the Baldwin Racing #5. A certain
National Sprint Car Hall of Famer when his
career is over, Gardner has eight USAC/CRA
titles (in addition to the last seven in a
row, he also won in 2005 before heading to
the Midwest) and three wins in the
prestigious Budweiser Oval Nationals. In
addition, on the all-time CRA, SCRA, and
USAC/CRA victory list dating back to 1946,
the slender driver is ranked fourth with
96-wins. With fuel still left in his tank,
he is only nine wins behind all-time
leader Dean Thompson’s total of 105.
The “Big Game
Hunter,” Austin Williams, who now makes
his home in Corona, California, will be
making a rare assault on the Midwest in
the famous Moose Racing #92. The son of
National Sprint Car Hall of Famer Rip
Williams began racing in USAC in 2009 when
he claimed the CRA Rookie of the Year
award. After spending his entire career
driving for Jack and Sharon Jory,
Williams, 29, moved into the Tom and Lauri
Sertich Moose car when Jory decided to
step away from racing at the end of 2018.
In his first year in the Moose car, he
scored main event wins at Calistoga and
The PAS. He also placed second in the
USAC/CRA championship standings, only
71-points behind champion Gardner.
Veteran Jake
Swanson and his race car driving wife
Jessica spent last week moving from
Anaheim, California to Indiana to pursue
their racing careers. Last season, the Cal
State Northridge marketing graduate
finished fourth in the USAC/CRA Standings
driving for Arizona’s Justin Grau. The
2012 USAC/CRA Rookie of the Year and 2017
USAC West Coast Sprint Car Series champion
has most recently tackled the Silver Crown
Series. In his initial race at
Pennsylvania’s Sellinsgrove Speedway, he
surprised everyone when he qualified
fourth and ran much of the race in the top
six. Late in the race, while in fourth, a
flat tire sent him to the pits for a new
hunk of rubber and a 17th place finish.
Last Sunday in his first appearance at the
Hoosier Hundred at the Indiana State
Fairgrounds, he started eighth and
immediately began to move forward. As laps
wound down, he was closing on the two
leaders when his car started running out
of fuel and began to sputter. He gently
nursed it home for a hard-earned sixth
place-finish.
With no racing
in the Copper State in 2019, longtime
Buckeye, Arizona racing star “Chargin’”
Charles Davis Jr. has gotten his racing
fix in Indiana. A machinist by trade, the
veteran racer first made his mark in
sprint car racing when he won the 1993
California Racing Association (CRA) Rookie
of the Year award. Since that time the now
52-year-old has racked up five Arizona
Sprint Car titles between the ASCA
(Arizona Sprint Car Association), ASCS
Canyon Region Non-Wing (American Sprint
Car Series) and USAC Southwest Series.
After four races in the 2019 USAC
Southwest Series, Davis is second in
points, only four-markers out of the lead.
In addition, he is seventh in points after
two races in the USAC/CRA Series.
Like the four
previously mentioned drivers, Chino Hills,
California racer Eddie Tafoya Jr. has had
to look east for his dose of racing in
2020. Last month he journeyed to Indiana
and contested all rounds of Indiana Sprint
Week. In his first time on all the tracks,
the 23-year-old gave a very favorable
account of himself. Highlights of that
journey were a transfer from his heat race
into the main event at the Lawrenceburg
Speedway and qualifying sixth fastest in
his group at the Terre Haute Action Track.
Tafoya’s first full year in sprint cars
was in 2018 and he won the Perris Auto
Speedway Young Guns championship. Last
year, he was crowned Rookie of the Year in
both the USAC/CRA and USAC Southwest
Series.
Fans who
cannot make it to Indiana for the
Smackdown can catch all three nights of
the action on Flo Racing. For information
on how to subscribe, please click on 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:
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Perris-Auto-Speedway/113876798686480?ref=hl
Twitter:
Perris Auto Speedway on Twitter.
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/perrisautospeedway/
Website:
http://perrisautospeedway.com/
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. |
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