A brief and unofficial preview for Saturday night...

Just a week before Antioch Speedway's big two day Summer Nationals event (June 26-27), Antioch Speedway has a six division show that offers something or everybody.  Do you want Late Models?  They have them this Saturday night.  You want Sprint Cars?  They have Winged and Wingless Sprint Cars. Also on the card this week will be IMCA Sport Modifieds, Hobby Stocks and Dwarf Cars.

Last week, Richard Papenhausen of Chico made a move on Morgan Hill's Jeff Decker for the lead and brought it home to his fourth Late Model feature win of the season.  Papenhausen now has four wins and his heat win would help give him a four point lead over Decker in a close championship battle.  This has been a nip and tuck battle as Decker has mostly seconds and one win to his credit and is hanging right in there.

David Newquist of Chico's fourth place finish kept him four points ahead of Danny Malfatti of Hayward in a close battle for third.  Meanwhile, Antioch's Chester Kniss enjoyed a season best third place finish last week and has moved into fifth in the standings, 21 points ahead of Rob Norris in another good battle.  This will be a final tuneup race for these drivers before June 27th's big money event.

The Winged 360 Sprint Cars have a good battle of their own.  Antioch's Shawn Arriaga became the fourth different winner in four races last time, and now he leads Cotati's Jake Haulot by 12 points and Art McCarthy of San Jose by 14 in the title chase.  All three have one win this year, while McCarthy also has two seconds.

Antioch's Chris Magoon will be out to try and get a victory in the growing class.  The defending champion is 24 points out of third.  The division is slowly beginning to grow as the track has made a commitment to build this division.  Antioch's Dan Gonderman is fifth in points and has had nothing but bad luck so far.  He'll be trying to turn it around and is expected to be there this week along with Gilroy's Chase Wood, Antioch's Ricky Brophy and Ryan Timmons, also of Antioch.

Wingless Spec Sprints were an ugly affair last time as four of the 12 competitors ended up on their lids.  Point leader Kyle Bakkie's flip ended that race early, but the three time winner leads Antioch's Rick Panfili by 30 points in the championship battle.  Just 30 points behind Panfili in third is rookie Marcus Smith of Tracy, who also flipped last time out.

Alan Miranda's Top 3 hopes improved after he finished second to Concord's Jimmy Perry III last time.  Miranda is just 14 points behind Smith.  Roy Fisher of Antioch is a two time winner and will either race his Wingless or Winged Sprint Car this week.  Antioch's Jeremy Newberry took a nasty tumble last time, but the NFL Alumni is anticipated for this event along with Gilroy's Chase Wood Jr. and James East of San Jose.

The IMCA Sport Modified division has only had two winners since March.  The wins all belong to Ryland Racing.  Brentwood's Fred Ryland has four wins, while his wife Patti has one.  Not surprisingly, F. Ryland holds a 26 point lead over Pittsburg's Keith Brown Jr.  Brown has managed to get some Top 3 success, but his luck nose dives any time the third generation racer gets close to the win.  In fact, Brown is only ten points ahead of Al Johnson of Antioch in the battle for second.

If Brown is the driver who may have the best shot at beating Ryland, Concord's Paul Mulder has also had some success with Top 3 feature finishes this year and should not be counted out.  Mulder is just five points ahead of Al Sotomayor of Watsonville, six ahead of P. Ryland and 13 in front of Chuck Golden.  Like Sotomayor, Golden has finished second in the Main Event this year.  Antioch's Ron Brown has two second place finishes and is anticipated for the coming race.  Can anybody beat F. Ryland?  We'll find out Saturday.

Kimo Oreta of Vacaville is already a four time winner and runaway point leader in Hobby Stocks.  The battle is for second, and Castro Valley's Danny Jones used his fourth second place finish of the season last week to maintain an 11 point lead over Bay Point's Michael Cooper.  Cooper won his first heat race and is nine points ahead of Concord's Jordan Swank in the race for third as any of these three drivers has a legitimate shot at second in points.

Antioch's Frank Furtado is fifth in points, but Concord's Robert Niven has been running strong lately.  Niven's latest Top 5 finish has moved him to within 32 points of Furtado for fifth.  Other drivers we're watching for this week include last week's winner Chris Sorensen of Antioch, Jessica Jones of Castro Valley, Concord's Cameron Swank and Natale Perry of Antioch.

The battle in Dwarf Cars continues to be between the father-son Teves team of Concord and Bay Point's Danny Wagner.  Both David and his son Adam Teves each has two wins, while Wagner has three.  A look at the points finds D. Teves leading Wagner by six points and Adam by 26.  At this point, David seems to have the fastest car, but Wagner and A. Teves were second and third last week.

Mike Corsaro of Tracy is still in the hunt, 40 points out of the lead, but he had to race without teammate Charlie Correia last week.  The 77 year old Correia is home mending after a flip at Merced last Thursday.  Other drivers we anticipate include Pleasanton's Kevin Miraglio, Brian Gray of Rancho Cordobva, Thomas Leiby of Copperopolis and Miranda Chappa of Martniez.  Chappa impressed last week with her first heat race win.

Antioch Speedway Top 5 At A Glance

DIRTCar Late Models

Richard Papenhausen 368
Jeff Decker        364
Dave Newquist        288
Danny Malfatti        284
Chester Kniss        238

IMCA Sport Mod

Fred Ryland        244
Keith Brown Jr.       218
Al Johnson        208
Paul Mulder        185
Al Sotomayor        180

Antioch Winged 360 Sprint

Shawn Arriaga        196
Jake Haulot        184
Art McCarthy        182
Chris Magoon        168
Dan Gonderman        104

Wingless Spec Sprints

Kyle Bakkie        390
Rick Panfili        360
Marcus Smith        330
Alan Miranda        316
Roy Fisher        290

Dwarf Cars

David Teves        448
Danny Wagner        442
Adam Teves        422
Mike Corsaro        408
Kevin Miraglio        334

Hobby Stocks

Kimo Oreta        578
Dan Jones        411
Michael Cooper        400
Jordan Swank        391
Frank Furtado        362