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Ocean Speedway: Investment firm helps bring more sprint car racing to speedway
Posted: Thursday, Apr 2nd, 2009
BY: TONY KARIS
Ocean Speedway will have more sprint car racing this season, thanks to a Scotts Valley investment firm.
GLR Investments is sponsoring a 12-race 360 winged sprint car series, up from 10 races last year. The series, which gets under way Friday night, includes the Johnny Key Memorial, one of the oldest memorial races in the country.
Chris Luck, the “L” in GLR, has a passion for racing, especially on short tracks, and does what he can to keep it alive.
“I was raised in short-track racing,” he said. “To me, it’s about doing what’s right — supporting our local short track. This is where it all begins, whether a driver gets a break to Indy or NASCAR.”
GLR was the principal reason the World of Outlaws returned to the speedway last fall. GLR is involved with the World of Outlaws sprint car driven by Fresno’s Jason Meyers that finished second on the Outlaw tour last year.
“We’re serious about our racing and have taken many positive steps to win the title,” Luck said. “We started our own engine building business with Charlie Garrett heading the program, and added a marketing company to the mix.”
Last year, with Luck’s help, Meyers and Steve Kent put their heads together to form KPC Design. They made some changes to sprint car chassis design that have proven successful, and, of course, nobody’s talking.
Two-time track champion Brent Kaeding headlines the veterans who will be returning for Friday night’s series opener. Others include Bud Kaeding, Brent’s son; Tommy Tarlton; 2007 Johnny Key Memorial winner Jason Statler; “Cowboy” Craig Smith; and both Day brothers from Salinas, Ronnie and Keith.
The young guns challenging the veterans include Evan Suggs; Rookie of the Year winner Matt Sargent; Justin Sanders, the series’ youngest competitor; San Jose’s Ricky Wright; and Morgan Hill’s Wes Gutierrez, a rookie from the Micro Midget ranks.
In the wingless sprint car series, champion Ryan Bernal and fellow top competitors Mark Chaves and Howard Fergerson Jr. will have rookies challenging them, too. Salinas’ Carter Train and Morgan Hill’s Devon Ostheimer have graduated from Micro Midgets and San Jose’s Tommy Liberte is moving from modifieds to the open-wheel sprinters.
The Micro Midgets and the American Stocks will also race Friday night.
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(Published in 4/2/09 edition)
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A big thank you to GLR Investments for its support of Ocean Speedway and Jason Meyers. I hope the speed plant has a great year. Also hoping Ryan Bernal is successful in the traditional sprint car series. 
"Ralphie, Senor, muchas gracias por una mas cerveza" -
Scott Daloisio @ the PAS
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