Vintage WRA cars take on Willow Springs

WILLOW SPRINGS, Calif - The Willow Springs Speedway, a quarter mile paved oval located in the mammoth Willow Springs International Raceway complex in Rosamond-California, will open its gates this Saturday night with a full card of racing action from its regular divisions plus special guest the WRA: Western Racing Association. Based out of San Dimas-California, the WRA is a non profit organization dedicated to the preservation of antique automobile race cars and the fellowship that comes with it.

The organization is often referred to as the moving museum because of their many track appearances, in the western states, featuring open wheel racers from the 1930’s to the 1950’s. Most of the membership is comprised of long time open wheel drivers from the hey dey of midget racing in our country. Like the preservation of the car bodies, the same care is taken with the powerplants.

A majority of the cars features the same Ford passenger car V8/60 flathead engine from 1937 to 1940. Also very popular with club members is the four cylinder Meyer-Drake Offenhauser engine that powered midget race cars from 1937 to 1962. You can even see Ford Model A and B conversion engines that used castor oil in the gas tanks before modern day alcohol was available.

The WRA is also community orientated especially in the area of visiting schools where they display their race cars and talk to the kids about the importance of saying no to drugs while supporting local school district’s Red Ribbon anti drug programs. WRA members are also extremely fan friendly and welcome fans to come to their pits where they’ll be only too happy to talk about the history of their cars. They also let youngsters sit inside of the cars to pose for pictures.

There will also be plenty of action this Saturday night from the Willow Springs Speedway’s regular divisions led by the Super Sportsmans. Chris Peedan continues to lead the points standings. The six time feature winner, from Palmdale-California, goes into Saturday night with 651 points. Rosamond-California’s Alex Anderson, with three feature wins, is 37 points behind him. Double feature winner John Penning holds down third with 591 points.

The I-4/I-6 Outlaw Modifieds will also see action this Saturday night with an expected continuation of the season long duel between Jeffrey Goddard and Ric Bronson. Goddard, with his five feature wins, has a 40 point lead over Bronson.

The very popular Legends will also be at Willow Springs Speedway Saturday night. At this point, with only two races left in the season, officials might as well go ahead and engrave Art Neville’s name on the championship trophy. The Acton-California driver has three feature wins this year along with a slew of top five finishes that has created a very huge lead in the points. However, Neville is expected to have his hands full with competition from youngsters Justin Hummel and Chad Schrug who won his first feature race back on October 7th.

The Bandeleros, small but very fast race cars, will bring both of their racing divisions to Willow Springs Saturday night with points races still too close to call. In the Bandelero Bandits division Tyler Fabozzi, who has been very consistent all year long, leads the standings with 393 points but that’s only 15 points ahead of Aaron Anderson. In the Bandeleros Young Guns group Andrew Anderson goes into Saturday night with 388 points but it’s only a 19 point lead over Ashley Ambriz.

The green flag falls on all of the racing divisions at 6 pm. The Willow Springs Speedway is located at 3500 75th Street West in Rosamond. For more information call 661 256 6666 or visit the website at www.willowspringsraceway.com.

From Dave Grayson