By Candice Martin
ANTIOCH, Calif. (March 28, 2024) – Rain put a damper on the festivities last week, but the facility will dry off and the action will heat up at Antioch Speedway this Saturday night, March 30. This is the first big event of the season. The track is kicking off fifth annual IMCA Central California Clash.
Featured divisions will include the Friesen Performance IMCA Modifieds, Friesen Performance IMCA Northern SportMods and IMCA Sunoco Stock Cars. Joining them this Saturday night and in all six rounds of the series will be the West Coast Hobby Stocks.
This is also the track’s annual Easter Extravaganza. During the intermission, there will be an Easter egg hunt in the infield along with kids bicycle and Easter basket giveaways. It’s all part of the family fun offered at the speedway.
Merced Speedway Promoter Doug Lockwood created the California Speedweek in 2020.
Drivers in all four IMCA divisions will be competing for increased purse money, including $1,000 to win for the Modifieds in their Fast Shafts All-Star Invitational qualifying event and $600 each to win the SportMods and Stock Cars. Furthermore, the top five finishers in all four divisions will receive special IMCA.TV sponsored series point funds.
This series started with six events and continued the following year with a grueling eight races in eight days marathon. Lockwood rethought the strategy in 2022 and rebranded it as the Central California Clash. After two successful tours, Doug felt a change with needed again.
It can be a challenge for any race track to book an event during the week and attract the fans. While the drivers might get time off from work to compete in every race, the fans can’t always get away from work as easily, and attendance suffers at the midweek venues.
Therefore, it was decided that each track would get a Saturday night show. With the addition of Marysville, they will now be competing at six tracks this year, including Bakersfield, Tulare, Petaluma and the finale at Merced.
Saturday kicks things off at the popular Contra Costa County racing venue. Gates will open at 4 p.m. with the first race starting at 6 p.m. Adult tickets are $20, senior and military are $15, kids ages 5-12 are $15 and kids four and under are free.
For further information, go to www.raceantiochspeedway.com or check out the Antioch Speedway by PROmotions Facebook page.
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