SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The NARC Fujitsu General 410 Sprint Cars continue a busy month this Saturday, May 21 with Petaluma Speedway’s Salute to First Responders.
The event honors first responders and their efforts to ensure the United States safety and peace of mind.
The race will mark the fifth of the 2022 NARC campaign and first visit to Petaluma of the year. The series will make one more trip to the adobe clay oval on July 9.
Also on the card for Saturday are modifieds, super stocks, and mini stocks.
After an off-season full of hard work to improve the historic racetrack that included reshaping the surface, facility improvements, and additional safety measures, promoter Rick Faeth is looking forward to welcoming NARC for the first time this year.
“The track had become very misshapen over time,” Faeth explained. “So, we’ve gotten it shaped now with five degrees of banking on the straightaways and twelve degrees in the turns, and the shape is holding up really well. We’ve got eight races in so far this year. The feedback we’ve gotten from all of our local drivers has been amazing. It’s like a different racetrack.
“We’re looking forward to having the NARC Fujitsu Sprint Car series. We’ve been a big supporter of them over the course of the last decade,” Faeth added. “It’s First Responders Night. The local police and fire departments are going to come out, and we’re going to have a 1936 antique fire truck there on display, and we’re looking forward to it.”
Championship Chase
It’s impossible to lose points when you win, so Dominic Scelzi maintained his NARC point lead and extended it with his weekend sweep of the NARC portion of the Peter Murphy Classic.
He now leads a new second place driver as a pair of top-fives during the Peter Murphy Classic propelled Mitchell Faccinto into the runner-up spot as the Tarlton Motorsports drivers continues to hunt his first title.
Shane Golobic fell to third in points after trouble in Hanford on Saturday. Completing the top-five behind him are full-time series drivers Bud Kaeding and Willie Croft.
Who to Watch
The numbers immediately point to Bud Kaeding as a strong favorite. In his last 16 series starts at the three-eighths mile oval, the 2017 NARC champion has collected three wins, posted a 3.8 average finish, and finished no worse than eighth.
It’s a home race for the native of nearby Benicia, Billy Aton. Wild Bill has always performed well with NARC at Petaluma, collecting four top-10s in six starts including his inaugural series podium back in July of 2019 when he finished runner-up after leading seven laps.
Joel Myers Jr. continues to hunt for his first series victory, and he’s taken well to the Petaluma gumbo in past appearances. Last year in just his second NARC start, the Vertullo Motorsports driver finished third at the three-eighths mile. oval. Then in July, Myers Jr. appeared to be heading for Petaluma victory lane until an incident with lapped traffic while leading ended that bid.
Another driver that the stats favor is Shane Golobic. In his seven most recent NARC starts at Petaluma, Golobic has tallied a pair of wins, not missed the top-five, and owns an average finish of 2.7 over that span.
Former Petaluma NARC winners Tim Kaeding, Willie Croft, and Colby Copeland should also be in the mix.
Other drivers expected to compete include Dominic Scelzi, Mitchell and Michael Faccinto, Logan Forler, Geoffrey Strole, Chase Johnson, and more.