SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The NARC-King of the West Fujitsu Sprint Cars enter the final quarter of the season this weekend with a trip to Hanford‘s Keller Auto Speedway on Saturday.
The west coast‘s premier 410 winged sprint car series will see a heavy slate of Hanford as the season winds down. After Saturday‘s event, the following two races will also take place on the Kings County three-eighths-mile on Oct. 9 and Oct. 29.
Joining NARC will be the Kings of Thunder Bandit Non-Wing Sprint Cars, IMCA Stock Cars and West Coast Sports Compacts.
The central valley speedway promises to offer some of the best racing of the year. While most California tracks are notorious for heavy, hooked up conditions, Hanford tends to slick off leading to a big curb up top and a technical bottom groove creating plenty of slide job opportunities and side by side action.
Atop the standings with five races remaining is Dominic Scelzi. The Fresno, Calif., native carries a ton of momentum into Hanford with his current streak of eight podium finishes. A win for Scelzi would check off a trio of milestones for the 24-year-old. If he claims the checkered flag, it will mark the most consecutive series podiums since four-time series champion Kyle Hirst notched nine in 2018, Scelzi‘s 30th career podium with NARC, and his 15th career series victory.
Fortunately for Scelzi, he enters the weekend as the most recent series winner at Keller Auto Speedway and has already earned three trophies in Hanford in 2021.
Hanford‘s own Mitchell Faccinto has experienced plenty of success at his home track. Faccinto‘s first two series victories came at Keller Auto Speedway in the 2017 and 2018 Cotton Classic. In his last eight series appearances at the 3/8th mile, he owns podiums in half of them including the pair of wins, and he boasts a stout 4.9 average finish over that span.
Tim Kaeding should be in contention for his third series victory of the year. The two-time titlist was the only driver to finish inside the top-five in all three feature events completed at Keller Auto Speedway last year.
Still seeking his first series victory is Iowa‘s Austin McCarl. He‘s returned to California aboard the Country Builders Construction No. 88, and Hanford might present his best opportunity for a win. In 2020‘s Morrie Williams Tribute Race, McCarl finished a respectable eighth and fifth in the twin Fujitsu features. Earlier this year, the former Knoxville track champion scored a pair of top-fives in Kings of Thunder 360 action at Hanford including a runner-up result.
Many more from California‘s crop of gassers will be competing on Saturday. Expect D.J. Netto, Bud Kaeding, Sean Becker, Billy Aton, Sean Watts and more to be in attendance.