SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The Northern Auto Racing Club has rolled out the King of the West 410 Sprint Car Series schedule for next year, featuring 20 races at 10 different dirt tracks throughout California.
The series, which will feature Fujitsu General as the title sponsor, is backloaded to the second half of the year in hopes of escaping the COVID-19 pandemic, which has crippled grassroots racing operations in the Golden State.
Only a handful racing events are scheduled during the first six months of the year.
The newly-configured Stockton Dirt Track is slated to hold the Salute to LeRoy Van Conett season opener on March 20. The track will also host the Tribute to Gary Patterson series finale on Nov. 6.
The centerpiece of the King of the West slate will be the Fastest Five Days in Motorsports.
The five-race blitz kicks off at Placerville Speedway on Wednesday, Aug. 25 and continues on to Merced Speedway, Ocean Speedway in Watsonville, the Stockton Dirt Track and Petaluma Speedway on consecutive nights.
“We are anxious to get back to business,” said series general manager Jim Allen. “We only had four events in 2020 and everybody is hoping for a return to normalcy in the very near future. We feel we have a solid racing schedule on tap which will prompt race fans to get re-engaged with dirt track racing as we recover from this pandemic.”
The month of May will feature the lucrative $11,000-to-win Peter Murphy Classic at Tulare Thunderbowl Raceway on May 15.
A week later, the traveling series will invade Petaluma for the first of three races at the Salute to First Responders, which will pay tribute to all of the local heroes that have battled wildfires in the wine country.
June will feature the first of a trio of two-race weekends, with a short track doubleheader at a pair of action-packed quarter mile ovals.
Ocean Speedway will host the 33rd Annual Pombo-Sargent Classic on June 11, followed by the 30th Dave Bradway Jr. Race at Placerville Speedway on June 12.
This marks a venue change for the Bradway event, which had a solid foundation at Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico throughout its existence. Chico is not on the NARC-KWS schedule next season.
Ocean Speedway will be showcasing the ever popular Howard Kaeding Classic on July 17.
Santa Maria Raceway features a pair of spots on the new calendar. The first Winged Madness event will take place on July 24 and will include a fan-favorite wheelie contest.
The Sept. 25th winged madness edition will also dish up a pit crew competition.
Calistoga Speedway will finally be back in action after being sidelined by fairgrounds lease negotiations and the coronavirus for what will be the past two years.
The last event held at the facility took place in September of 2019, but on Sept. 4-5, the historic half-mile oval is scheduled to host the Louie Vermeil Classic, featuring both the winged King of the West 410’s and the USAC-CRA non-winged sprint cars.
There is a possibility that the track will try to schedule additional events later in the year.
October promises to be a lucrative month, headlined by the $30,000 Morrie Williams Legends Tribute, which features a pair of twin-20 main events.
The first main will be lined up straight-up by qualifying times and the second completely inverted based on the finish of the first.
The month will also include the $21,000-to-win Tom Tarlton Classic on Oct. 29, which is expected to draw some of the best driving talent from around the country.
The Dirt Track at Kern County Raceway Park will host its only event on the schedule on Saturday, Oct. 30.
Hanford, Calif., driver DJ Netto is the reigning NARC King of the West Fujitsu Sprint Car Series champion, taking the most recent crown in 2019.
A champion was not crowned in 2020 due to the overall lack of events.
2021 NARC King of the West Fujitsu Sprint Car Series Schedule
March 20 – Stockton Dirt Track – Stockton, Calif.
May 15 – Tulare Thunderbowl Raceway – Tulare, Calif.
May 22 – Petaluma Speedway – Petaluma, Calif.
June 11 – Ocean Speedway – Watsonville, Calif.
June 12 – Placerville Speedway – Placerville, Calif. (with SCCT)
July 10 – Petaluma Speedway – Petaluma, Calif.
July 17 – Ocean Speedway – Watsonville, Calif.
July 24 – Santa Maria Raceway – Santa Maria, Calif.
Aug. 25 – Placerville Speedway – Placerville, Calif.
Aug. 26 – Merced Raceway – Merced, Calif.
Aug. 27 – Ocean Speedway – Watsonville, Calif.
Aug. 28 – Stockton Dirt Track – Stockton, Calif.
Aug. 29 – Petaluma Speedway – Petaluma, Calif.
Sept. 4 – Calistoga Speedway – Calistoga, Calif. (with USAC-CRA)
Sept. 5 – Calistoga Speedway – Calistoga, Calif. (with USAC-CRA)
Sept. 25 – Santa Maria Raceway – Santa Maria, Calif.
Oct. 9 – Keller Auto Speedway – Hanford, Calif.
Oct. 29 – Keller Auto Speedway – Hanford, Calif.
Oct. 30 – The Dirt Track at Kern County – Bakersfield, Calif.
Nov. 6 – Stockton Dirt Track – Stockton, Calif. (with SCCT)