As always, I'm unofficial.  I'm just putting out the word about the coming race.

To be honest, I might be tempted to do a rain dance in Merced right now.  I know it's raining there as I type this, but enough rain to take out this race and not Chowchilla might not be a bad thing.  I don't say that to be negative, I'm just worried what car count will be like.

The Good...

The Northern All Stars Hobby Stocks have been quite the show at Mecrced Speedway this season.  We've seen over 50 competitors this year, and there were 16 cars last week.  This was one of the highlights of the week, and we had three different winners.  Chris Mayer won the Main Event in his first start of the year.  Kevin Joaquin won his heat race, and 2014 champion Raul Rodriquez Sr. won his heat race after a couple of late passes from third to first.

Joaquin is in the midst of a likely championship effort that may even extend to Chowchilla.  He's the only two time feature winner this year in ten races, and last week's second place finish was his fourth of the season and third in a row.  He leads rookie Jennifer order by 66 points, and nobody else is close.  Corder has finished third on more than one occasion, but last week was a disappointing tenth.

While Joaquin is having his good season, we keep wondering who is winning next.  Joining the two time winner Joaquin on the win list so far are Mayer, Joe Joe Willhoughby, Marc Key, Kristie Shearer, Shannon Nelson, Gary Hildebrand, Darren Miguel and Kodie Dean.

There is also the race for third that has 42 points separating George Silva from Austin Van Hoff, who is eighth.  Dexter Long is two points behind Silva, while Nelson is ten points behind.  25 points back is Shearer.  My guess is 10-14 cars, but a repeat of last week's car count or better is possible.  This may very well be the highlight of the Show.

The Bad...

The IMCA Sport Mod drivers have not been supporting weekly, and you never know who will show up.  We've had good racers there at times.  For instance, 2014 champion Rick Diaz and Jeremy Hoff each have two wins and 2014 State Champion Nick Spainhoward has won once.  Other winners are Gary Tucker and four time winner Fred Ryland.  Hoff won last week, but be beat a five car field.

You don't even need to talk about points.  Rookie Josh Hensley has this in hand with a perfect attendance.  To give you an idea about the point race, Ryland is second, but he's not there when Antioch races.  Fred could be there this week, but he may be considering the car count issue as he is trying to win the IMCA National Championship.  His wife Patti Ryland has begun supporting some of these other shows to help get car count and gain seat time, but their two cars won't make it ten if only five locals are waiting or them.  So, where does he go this week?  Does he come to support Merced?

We really don't think the car count will be as low as it was last week, but we can't say it will be big either.  The Chowchilla Fair could impact this as drivers try to do a two race weekend.  Hoff just moved into third in points, but he's probably not worried about that.  He may want to try for another win though.  Might Diaz, Nelson or Neill Barcellos come?  We hope so, but we don't know.

Mark Odgers may be back this week to try for a second consecutive runner up finish.  Two time champion Shawn Bryant has been a welcome addition in recent weeks and was second last week.  Dwayne Short had just moved into third in points and was threatening for second when he skipped the last two weeks.  D.C. Brown, Tucker and newcomer Roy Worthy are others we might see, not to mention second ranked State competitor Keith Brown Jr.  We'll guess at 8-12 cars, but this is a week when we really need this division to pop in car count.

The Ugly...

The Mini Stock division is disintegrating before our eyes.  One top driver is going pavement racing, another is in need of sponsorship to get his new car to the track.  That driver would be Dennis Copus, who wants to take over third in points.  Fifth ranked Joy Alger has skipped the last couple races.   It was hoped that dropping the class at Antioch would get a few racers to Merced, but other than Top 10 ranked Natalie Waldrop's visits, those cars remain parked.  Generally, Mini Stock drivers prefer to race close to home.

This left three drivers last week, including title contender Darren Miguel and point leader Chris Corder.  Corder's point lead is now four over Miguel after Miguel's fifth win.  Mike Congdon made it a three car field.  Corder has been bringing two cars, but his second car was a Hobby Stock last week.  His second Mini Stock is needed at Merced.  In fact, they need every car they can get.  We think there could be 6-8 cars in the field, with perhaps Congdon, Dan McCabe, Mike Germait or Brian Widdowson among them, but we'll just wait and see.

Then, there's the Dwarf Cars.  On June 11th, they have a $1000 to win $100 to start race for a 20 car field, and we've heard a few teams from Antioch, including Three Nuts Racing (David Teves, Adam Teves), Danny Wagner and Charlie Correia with teammate Mike Corsaro have marked that date on the calenders.  However, we've heard nothing from the Antioch racers about who will race this week.  

You know, the NCDCA got it's start as a club at Merced years ago, but we've heard of no attempt being made to contact them.  It's not unlikely that a few of them may show anyway as those guys like to race.  South Bay has supported Merced in the past, but they have a shoot out planned with the racers a Petaluma this week.

So, who is coming?  We've heard Mike Drake will be there.  We're thinking Chuck Weir or Thomas Leiby might be among the competitors.  We don't know who may be there, so our guess is 4-10 cars.  The thing is, with a little more planning and spreading the word, Dwarf Car drivers will support Merced Speedway, and they can put on a good show.

The Conclusion...

Hobby Stocks should do okay, and the Sport Mods are capable of a double digit car count, which is needed.  If these two divisions bring the cars they are capable of and we get at least a half dozen each from the other two classes, it should be okay.  I don't know that you can expect much more than that this week.