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Return to Santa Maria Speedway & a first-time ever event at Ventura Raceway mark final additions to the King of the West 410 Sprint Car Series slate in 2014

By Gary Thomas

Aptos, CA – January 8, 2014…The King of the West 410 Sprint Car Series has announced an update to its 2014 schedule of events, with the previously TBD weekend in September being filled by an exciting two nights of action down the beautiful California coast. The final copy of the KWS schedule showcases 18 events at 12 different facilities throughout the Golden State of California.

On Friday September 12 the series will return to the luxurious confines of the Santa Maria Speedway for the second straight season. The King of the West 410’s routinely play host to a packed house of fans whenever the series invades the one-third mile clay oval, which was built by the late Doug Fort in 1964.

Fort helped mold Santa Maria Speedway into one of the top dirt tracks in the country as the owner/promoter until his passing in 1999. The unique one-third mile clay oval has been named "Best Short Track Operation West of the Mississippi" on two separate occasions and is nestled in a semi amphitheater of natural terrain, sheltered by dense eucalyptus trees at the top and to the back of the bleacher area.

The following night will see history take place when the King of the West 410 Sprint Car Series heads to the Ventura Raceway on Saturday September 13, for what will be the first ever Winged Sprint Car event at the track. The facility has been a favorite stop among Wingless Sprint Car & Midget fans/teams over the years and features one of the most picturesque settings you’ll find at any dirt track.

A past column by racing journalist Norm Bogan said of Ventura Raceway: “If you could pick a scenic location for a racing facility, the Fairgrounds at Ventura, California would be near the top of the list. As you sit in the grandstands, you can look to your right and watch surfers riding the waves of the Pacific. To your left, is a background of mountains, covered with many Spanish style, white stucco and red tile homes, interspersed with tall palm trees, while in the foreground, the Coastal Amtrak trains sweep by and blow their whistles. In front of you is one of the best maintained racing facilities in the country.”

A Winged Sprint Car event at the Ventura bullring had been talked about behind the scenes for quite some time and it will finally become a reality in 2014. Make plans now for a great weekend of KWS 410 racing that will be capped with a historical event at the “Best Little Dirt Track in America.”

“This is going to be a really fun weekend for fans and teams alike,” commented Brent Kaeding, who captured Rookie of the Year honors at the Santa Maria Speedway in 1978. “It’s always a great trip heading down to Santa Maria and the fans really do an amazing job of packing that place when we come to town. Then on Saturday at Ventura it’s going to be an exciting night with KWS bringing the first ever Winged Sprint Car show to the track. You’re definitely not going to want to miss it, so be sure and put it on your calendar now. We have a lot of great events on tap this season and the September weekend at Santa Maria & Ventura is going to be as highly anticipated as any on the slate.”

The upcoming 2014 season will mark the fourth campaign held under the King of the West Sprints banner and the 29th overall year since the Golden State 410 Series came into existence back in 1986. It will also be the first full season contested with the direction & leadership of John Prentice and Brent Kaeding, who took over helm of the KWS Series this past September. The King of the West 410 Sprint Car Series is the latest generation of what began in 1960 as the Northern Auto Racing Club – the West Coast’s premier traveling Sprint Car series. Since its inception it has evolved over the years, but the series and its drivers continue to be internationally recognized and its champions have been regarded as some of the best in the sport.

Jeff Kristensen

Awesome!! Make sure there is a cushion up near the wall and slick up the bottom to neutralize the advantage of one groove over another. That prep will yield good winged racing at Ventura. 8-9 second laps possible?

Cheers!

Running against CRA at Perris, Glenn Howard Classic, to bad would like to have seen wings at Ventura .

I wonder if a winged 360 could be competitive against 410s on the tight confines of Ventura?  I suppose it would depend on the track conditions.

Will definitely make the drive from Riverside up there to check it out.

Going to be a busy couple of weeks for a lot of these KWS teams. I'm pretty sure most of them will be racing two nights at the gold cup then the next weekend at SMS then Ventura. I think it will be one hell of a show at Ventura though.

We need more sprint car racing at our home track.

I've been to placerville and ventura they are the same size...Move the perris race to the next night. the wing guys might take off the wings and race at perris.money is the same color everywhere...............

Placerville is a high banked 1/4 mile and Ventura is a 1/5 mile.

Support your local (SPRINT CARS)

Thank You Jim Naylor and all those involved in making this happen.

It seems like the sprint car promoters are working harder and hopefully the fans/racers will support them for their efforts

I am also grateful that promoters are working to bring some winged sprint car racing to SoCal.  Its about time!  WoO & KWS down south...bring it on!

However, it didn't do me any good to know that there is a winged sprint car show coming to Ventura Raceway on September 13th, when I have had that date circled for the Glenn Howard Memorial at PAS for several weeks now.

Admittedly, I am starting to sound like a broken record, but what the hell?

I live in Riverside and would GLADLY make the trip up north to Ventura to watch the KWS inagural appearance on the 1/5-mile clay oval.  In fact, reading this PR got me really excited about this race...that is until I saw Greg's reply about the overlap and checked my calendar.

I get that piggy-backing a show at Ventura the night after a SMS show makes sense for the teams from a travel expense perspective.  My gripe is that there was only one (1) sprint car race scheduled in SoCal on this date until this announcement, and it had been on a schedule that was released well before the holidays...even before Thanksgiving!  Now, 6 weeks later, this race is advertised on top of it.  How does this happen?  Why are we fans forced, once again, to make a choice between two good races in SoCal?

I'm still fuming about having to make a choice on March 15th between WoO at Tulare and the first CRA appearance at PAS, 10 minutes from my house.  That's just a personal problem, I completely understand.  The two tracks are separated by a couple hundred miles, so there really isn't any competition for the fan's dollars to concern the promoters.  But that doesn't make my decision as a fan of both series any easier.

I'm sorry jdfast, but I don't think the promoters are working hard enough to get along just yet.  Its physically impossible for the fans to support both of these races.  I would have loved to share my money with both venues...on separate nights!

Dammit...now I've got 2 weekends with big time decision dilemmas and the season hasn't even started yet.  Who knows, maybe if enough of us bitch about it on message boards something will be done about it.....hahahahahahahahaha!

Doug Bushey

Passionate Fan / Announcer / Media & Public Relations 
Agent 

Doug there is actually four dates that bump heads. The two that you mentioned and then on 4/12 we have the KWS at Tulare ant the WoO/ CRA at the PAS and then on 6/14 we have KWS at Hanford and the CRA at the PAS. I know there is a couple hundred miles difference but I consider them both So Cal area. And our only chances to catch the KWS down this direction. Wish I as a fan had the chance to support both series fully.

We need more sprint car racing at our home track.

Good thing is there's 4 dates I won't have be treated like a prisoner at the Perris stockade. I can go North to Hanford and Tulare and not be subjected to search and seizure by men hired by the fair board to create jobs. I prefer wing shows and am looking forward to the 2 nite WoO shows at Tulare. Unlike the WoO show at Perris, these are terrific shows as many of the NorCal big dogs run, kind of a preview of Trophy Cup. Will also hit Santa Maria and Ventura KoW shows. How Jimmy's going to cram 22 wings on that bull ring will be interesting. Like someone said, hope for a large berm as them boys love to crowd the fence.

Speaking of fence, Jimmy might want to reinforce it or be well prepared to make quick repairs.

Placerville is smaller than a 1/4, fact.

Cheers!

Seriously, after "that sanctioning body" scheduling on top of everyone months after the fact... I would think youd be used to that sort of craziness!

Im joking, kind of... seems like we have this gripe every year. 

I was just laying down my 2014 Schedule and this is the fifth or sixth show ive sworn about having to choose... we need more Saturdays!

Although, I choose to make it a positive thing. I'm positive whichever track you show up to will have a badass race September 13!

We may think that but the website calls it a 1/4 mile high banked.

Support your local (SPRINT CARS)

Nice to see Ventura with a USAC CRA and KWS shows for 2014. I will be attend the KWS show on Friday at SM and USAC CRA on Saturday at Perris.  My only concern would be KWS car counts as in the past at SM car count wasn't great.  SCS 

"I'm sorry jdfast, but I don't think the promoters are working hard enough to get along just yet.  Its physically impossible for the fans to support both of these races. "

Not sure where u infered from what I wrote, that the promoters are even trying to work together.  If it is in their own self interest, they work together.  Nothing against the PAS or DON K, they kinda control the scheduling for races in So CAL, they seem to have all the best dates, and in the past, it seemed like to me they had a hand in Victorville loosing a date around the 4th of July one season.  Running a winged race at Ventura does not seem like a conflict to me, but a decision for some fans to make.

I still stand by remarks, Jim is working harder to bring back the fans and racers.  The track surface is better, the racers/fans seemed happier last season, they are bringing in both CRA and KWS.  More options for fans, plus the speedway races were awesome last year  

Although there are a couple of handfull (probably less than 100) of fans who would like to attend both races, lets be honest, the CRA PAS crowd for the most part have little or no interest in both KWS and Ventura raceway.  How many PAS fans came to for a VRA or USAC midget show at  Ventura last year on a off weekend.

 I'm not alwasy the biggest fan of PAS, first thing the traffic is HORRIBLE anymore going, the prices are high, parking is high, etc.  And the last couple of races I have goine including 2 nights of the ovals, the races have been single file parades, but that can happen at ALL tracks.

For you Doug, it would be a hard choice to choose.  Driving that far, when you live close to PAS would be hard for me to make, and most times (just not when I go) the races are good/great at the pas for CRA.

With that all said, there will be only be the First winged 410 race at Ventura ever.   I was at the first midget and 410 sprint car race at the Ventura and  was at the first SCRA at PAS, they are all special.  How many CRA races have you seen at the PAS, and how many are there this year?  With that in mind, it seems Ventura's winged race with  Santa Maria's race the night before, should be appetizing for the fans on the fence on which races to attend.

I also believe the other promoters in CA are working harder.  Don K has done good with 40 laps holiday races, bringing CRA to the WOO race (I'm afraid with the KWS the same night at Tulare (with WOO at handord Friday) car and fan count could be low at both Tulare and PAS, this is plain stupid by Tulare and KWS IMHO and I am a big fan supporter of Tulare and KWS, and not really for WOO.

I haven't checked the schedule, but I wonder how many races CRA and USAC upnorth conflict with KWS and Civil War races.  With so many series, tracks, local and regional series, its almost impossible for track promoters not to have conflicts.  On the plus side USAC has done a pretty good job not having conflicts within their own series in the state.

Sprint car racing in CA is far from perfect, but for me it is on the upswing with different options.  Maybe car counts are a little low for KWS and CRA, but the racing is still top notch.  The CRA format REALLY SUCKS though when they do not have enough cars for 4 heats and a semi but thats another thread.  Inverting cars in heats and mains, means better racing.  Hell the best races of the years, billet cup and trophy cup have full inverts.  Starting fast cars upfront like USAC does, keeps from going to more races    Inverting 8 in the past for SCRA was great racing.

For me living in Ventura county, I have a wide array of dirt track racing within 3 hours of my house, from the PAS all the way upto hanford, with WOO,KWS, midgets, VRA, SRL (stock cars), CRA, WC 360, speedway bike, supercross, Cup) to keep me busy all year.

The only thing that could be better, is a Civil War Race (premier Winged 360 series in CA) racing at least at Tulare, and hopefully at the Santa Maria, Ventura and even PAS.  But from what I was expecting, 2014 is shaping up pretty good.

Curious to see Buzzard's race schedule for the year.  We seem to cross paths a few times of the year   Guessing his schedule is about double to mine  

For me, with the new track surface and attitude, I think I will go to Ventura more often and Tulare has more races schedule.  I like the racyness of the smaller tracks at these two tracks too.  Really would love to hit some of the northern tracks too for KWS, Civil War and CRA, but time and $ plays a bigger role than my desire.

Anyone have a countdown to the first sprint race?  I'm getting cabin fever for a race  

  go watch whatever race will be best for you ! try to get the most value for the dollars you spend ! tell all your friends how great sprint car racing is ! wing or no wing , what ever promoters and race directors do is their business and they all do what they feel necessary to do the best they can and right now that might be as simple as surviving  . there are only so many saturdays in a year , its impossible to not have overlaps . for me nothing is more important than supporting my local track , and local racing heros !!!

Drama , Controversy , Rivalry 

+ 1 bentaxle  wished I could say it as concise as u did