WATSONVILLE, N.C. — The NARC 410 Sprint Car Series will make its final visit of the season to Ocean Speedway on Saturday, Aug. 2, when the series takes part in the 65th running of the Johnny Key Classic.
The event honors a legendary driver who dominated California racing during the late 1940s and 1950s. It was 1952 where Key reportedly won an astounding 54 races in different classes of cars, and that included a 500-lap race at San Jose Speedway where he won by 18 laps.
Key won numerous other races in sprint cars and midgets during his career and won several championships. Key lost his life at just 30 years of age in a midget crash in 1954 in Ohio.
The Johnny Key Classic was first run in 1954, shortly after his passing, and was won by Danny Graves. It ran for decades under different lengths and formats, but it was run in San Jose until 1999.
After a hiatus, the event was brought back in 2007 at Ocean Speedway as a 360 sprint car event. In 2025, the event became a 410 sprint car event under NARC sanctioning.
Saturday’s race will be the fourth for NARC at Ocean Speedway and will pay $5,000 to the winner of the 30-lap main event.
Nick Rescino leads everyone with six Johnny Key Classic victories over the years. Howard Kaeding was a four-time winner while his legendary son Brent won it twice. Other past winners of the race in its various forms include Al Pombo, Clyde Palmer, Marshall Sargent and Mike Sargent, Burt Foland, Chuck Miller, Ronnie Day, Tommy Tarlton, and more recently the likes of Rico Abreu, Justin Sanders, Buddy Kofoid, Tanner Thorson, Shane Golobic and Dominic Scelzi.
Former NARC champion Bud Kaeding will be one driver fans will be keeping an eye on. While he didn’t win on either night at the Howard Kaeding Classic, Bud did lead laps in the main event on the first night before a treacherous cushion bit him and sent him off the track.
Kaeding knows Ocean Speedway well and will look at it as an opportunity to get back in the win column in NARC competition aboard the BK Motorsports No. 29. After mechanical issues in his heat race last Saturday at Santa Maria Speedway, Kaeding earned the Williams Roofing Hard Charger Award in the main event, moving up 10 positions.
Gauge Garcia won last year’s Johnny Key Classic, its last as a 360 event. Garcia is still hunting his first 410 victory with NARC, and it would be ironic if that first win came in the event he previously won in something different. He and the Keller Motorsports No. 2k have dealt with motor issues throughout the season but have still shown speed throughout.
D.J. Netto, another former NARC champion, has two wins on the season and took over the points lead Saturday at Santa Maria. The Hanford driver and the Netto Ag No. 88n turned in a fourth-place run in Watsonville the other weekend but suffered a mechanical problem and dropped out of the feature in Santa Maria.
Despite having the points lead, Netto is wanting to get back in the win column this weekend.
Also expected to compete is Tyler Thompson, who leads the NARC Rookie of the Year chase and had a podium finish at Ocean Speedway in May. Caeden Steele and Mariah Ede are expected to join, along with Sean Becker, Dominic Gordon, Kaleb Montgomery and John Clark. Former track champion Kurt Nelson is a frequent participant when NARC visits his home track as well.
