PERRIS, Calif. – The AMSOIL USAC/CRA Sprint Cars and the PAS Senior Sprint Cars return to Perris Auto Speedway this Saturday for the 13th annual Glenn Howard Memorial.
The race honors Howard, a former driver, car owner, official, fabricator and entrepreneur who passed away in 2007.
Through his So Cal Performance company, which supplied drivers with equipment needed to compete, Howard’s impact was broad.
It was obvious that Howard had a lifelong love affair with the sport. In 1993, with the original CRA having issues, Howard and others founded another group named SCRA that fortunately kept traditional 410 sprint car racing alive in the west.
He was the original president of the new group and was instrumental when the current USAC/CRA was formed a little more than a decade later in 2004.
“Glenn was a great man, who did everything he could to help anyone and everyone when it came to sprint car racing,” Perris Auto Speedway promoter Don Kazarian said. “If anyone ever needed advice whether it was a driver, crew chief, race official or promoter, you could always go to Glenn and get his opinion on what one should do.
“That made him respected by everyone to this day,” he added. “The sport sorely misses him and all that he offered.”
All 12 editions of the Glenn Howard Memorial have taken place on the famous Perris Auto Speedway clay surface.
However, like nearly everything else, last year’s race was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
When last contested in 2019, Austin Williams won the race for the second time.
Recently, the Corona, Calif., driver won the last race in the USAC/CRA Series on Sept. 6 at Petaluma (Calif.) Speedway.
Williams will enter Saturday third in the USAC/CRA standings.
Damion Gardner leads all drivers with four Glenn Howard Memorial wins. The only other driver with more than one win in the event is Nic Faas, who currently has put his racing career on pause.
Another driver among the favorites for the win on Saturday is Brody Roa.
The veteran driver has already won two prestigious races at the track this year, the Salute To Indy and California Racer’s Hall of Fame Night.
Roa comes into Saturday second in the standings, 44 points behind Gardner, the seven-time series champion.
In addition to the USAC/CRA portion of the show, the PAS Senior Sprint Series will be contesting its next-to-last race of the season.
Tyler Hatzikian has a narrow six-point advantage in the series heading into Saturday’s race. Dale Gamer is third. Greg Badgwell and Richard McCormick follow.