ANTIOCH, Calif. — The closing stretch of the 2025 NARC King of the West sprint car season continues this Saturday with the tour’s second visit of the year to Antioch Speedway for the Open Wheel Octoberfest.
Things have tightened up in the point standings with just three races remaining. Former series champion D.J. Netto continues to lead in pursuit of his second NARC championship but is now holding on by a thread.
Falling back to finish ninth in last Saturday’s event at Thunderbowl Raceway, combined with Sean Becker rising late to finish second, resulted in Netto’s lead over Becker shrinking to just seven points.
Saturday’s race ironically comes at the same track where the two battled for the lead in May’s Contra Costa County Clash. Becker had taken the lead, but hard racing resulted in contact between the two and Becker crashed out, and Netto went on to win his second race of the season.
That was also Netto’s last victory this season. Becker is winless but has been competitive all season. With the two in a close points battle with just a few races remaining, so much is on the line Saturday.
Bud Kaeding, a winner in the Johnny Key Classic in August, continues to lurk in third place in the standings, sitting a mere 21 points out of the lead. A bad night for Netto and/or Becker could potentially put Kaeding in the thick of things as well.
Tim Kaeding and the Williams Motorsports No. 0 team are expected to run the remaining NARC races this season. One of the most exciting drivers to come out of California, the future Hall of Famer has one NARC win to his credit this season, coming in July at Petaluma Speedway.
Kaeding struggled in qualifying last Saturday at Thunderbowl Raceway, but turned in a strong main event run, coming from 12th to finish fifth. Kaeding and the Zero Heroes will look to get back in the win column on Saturday.
Mariah Ede, in her first-year racing 410 sprint cars, is now leading the NARC Rookie of the Year chase and is expected to race on Saturday.
Joining her also is Fremont’s Shane Golobic, who was the hard charger at Thunderbowl, and who won a BCRA midget race at Antioch in May and will look to pick up a sprint car win there on Saturday.
Also expected to compete are reigning NARC champion Justin Sanders, Gauge Garcia, Kaleb Montgomery, Dominic Gorden, Dylan Bloomfield and Max Mittry. Washington’s Jesse Schlotfeldt will continue his fall swing of races in California and Oklahoma’s Cannon McIntosh is expected to again pilot a Roth Motorsports entry.
