PETALUMA, Calif. — After a well-earned break following a very busy month of June, the NARC 410 sprint car series kicks off another busy stretch of racing on Saturday night.
The series will visit Petaluma Speedway for the second annual Dave Lindt Memorial.
The event honors Lindt, who was Petaluma Speedway’s winningest driver ever, scoring 48 feature victories and earning five track championships along the way as he dominated weekly action at the track in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Lindt was known for his blue No. 52 sprint car, matching his high school colors and his football jersey number. Saturday’s NARC main event will pay $5,200 to win in his memory.
Saturday’s show marks the first of four consecutive weeks of racing for NARC, the stretch nicknamed by some as the “cooler weather tour” as it is all at tracks along the Pacific coast, which should feature more comfortable weather conditions for racers and fans while the California interior bakes in summer heat.
Former NARC champion Sean Becker won the inaugural Dave Lindt Memorial last July after a late race battle with young Oakley driver Dylan Bloomfield. It was the last time the “Shark” visited victory lane in NARC competition.
WHO TO WATCH
After an eventful trip last month to the Pacific Northwest, there is a tie at the top of the NARC point standings, with reigning “King of the West” Justin Sanders and former series champion D.J. Netto neck and neck at 1,890 points apiece.
Both drivers have multiple NARC victories on the season, Sanders with four and Netto with two, and both had their share of bad luck this year, including Netto getting upside down on consecutive nights during the Fastest Five Days in Motorsports.
After their respective roller coaster rides, they are both at the top as NARC begins its summer swing.
Sanders has had momentum on his side of late, picking up two NARC wins last month including a $10,000 preliminary night win at the Super Dirt Cup at Skagit Speedway before taking fifth in the Saturday finale against a tough field of racers. Sanders finished second to Becker at last year’s Dave Lindt Memorial.
Things are tight in general toward the top of the point standings, with just 20 points separating the top five.
Former NARC champion Bud Kaeding, though winless, is quietly having a solid season and is only 11 points out of the lead. Just three points behind Kaeding is Tyler Thompson, who is leading the NARC Rookie of the Year chase and has shown some flashes as well, picking up multiple fast qualifier awards, twice earning the hard charger nod, and challenging for a win at Ocean Speedway in May.
Becker is only 20 points behind the leaders and at times has shown himself as a threat to win this season, most notably at Antioch Speedway in May when he led laps in the main event before a crash knocked him out of contention.
Having last won at last year’s Dave Lindt Memorial, Becker looks to get back in the win column this Saturday with a second straight Lindt triumph.
Dominic Gorden got his second career NARC victory on May 31st at the Dave Bradway Jr Memorial at Placerville Speedway. Gorden currently sits sixth in the standings and hopes to get a second 410 victory for the season Saturday in Petaluma.
