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CALIFORNIA LIGHTNING SPRINT CARS SERIES RELEASES 21 RACE SCHEDULE FOR 2023

2022-12-31 14:39

(Torrance, CA, December 24, 2022) California Lightning Sprint Car Series President Jon Robertson has released a 21-race schedule for the club's 29th season of racing. The campaign will commence with a pair of races at the Imperial Valley Raceway on March 10th & 11th and will conclude with the annual "Hangtown 100" at the Placerville Speedway on November 16th, 17th, and 18th.

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The season, which will last a little over eight months, will see the series compete on seven different tracks. Eight of those tracks are in California and one is in Arizona. The series will have co-home tracks in 2023 with the Ventura Raceway and the Bakersfield Speedway hosting six races each. As mentioned above. the club will attack Placerville's famous red clay three times and after several years away, the CLS will return to the Imperial Valley Raceway for two nights. Another track with two races on the schedule will be Arizona's 1/3 mile Mohave Valley Raceway. The CLS will make single appearances at the Merced and Ocean Speedways. The appearance at Ocean, which is in Watsonville, California, will be the first ever for the club at the iconic track.

As always, the CLS will combine with Northern California's BCRA for the popular "Civil War Series." For 2023 the CWS will be a four-race affair with two races on CLS tracks and two others in BCRA territory. Bakersfield will host the two CLS races in the mini-series on June 3rd and September 9th. The pair of races in BCRA country will be August 19th at the Johnny Key Classic at Ocean Speedway and October 7th at the annual Wayne Albright Memorial at racy Merced Speedway.

"Greg (BCRA President Greg Dennett) was able to talk to the promoters from Ocean at the Promoter's Workshop and he got them to lean with us," second year CLS President Jon Robertson said. "We will be a part of one of their prime shows, the Johnny Key Classic. That is not a first-base hit, it is a home run! It is a good facility. I had been there back in the SCRA Sprint Car Series days. I would like to race there more but let's crawl before we fly. It is also a special deal for us to be part of the Wayne Albright Memorial once again at Merced. Everybody loves racing there."

In addition to the BCRA, the CLS is joining forces with the POWRi Southwest Lightning Sprint Cars for the first "Best of the West Series." Comprised of six races, the first two for the joint effort will be the season-opening March doubleheader at Imperial. Mohave Valley will host rounds on April 1st and October 14th. Sandwiched in between will be two more series races at Bakersfield on May 20th and Ventura's beachside 1/5 mile oval on July 22nd. The "Best of the West Series" will have a $3,000.00 point fund that will pay the top 10 drivers after the final race.

"We have two separate mini-series going on in addition to our regular full-season series," Robertson stated. "We are going with BCRA for our annual "Civil War Series." That is four races. Talking with Brent Sexton (POWRi Southwest Lightning Sprint Car Series President), we put together a really good "Best of the West" six-race series, too. Each club has put up $1,500.00 and we will pay the top 10 in points.

"The series' with BCRA and SWLS are good deals as it helps keep everybody's car count up," Robertson continued. "Many of the guys in the SWLS will get to race some new tracks and we will be heading (back) to Imperial. We have not been there in several years. That is a neat place. They have redone the track configuration and the surface. All of those are going to be good shows. All of our stand-alone shows are real good as well."

The busiest week of the campaign will be in mid-November when the CLS teams and drivers will race four times in five nights. On Tuesday the 14th, the CLS and the USAC National Midgets will be at the Bakersfield Speedway. After one night off, the CLS and National Midgets will head north to Placerville for three straight nights of action at the "Hangtown 100."

Seventeen of the 21 CLS races will be contested with wings on. The only exceptions are the "Albright Memorial" and the three nights of the "Hangtown 100."

"People can call the phone number or email the contact information provided in this press release," Robertson said regarding companies wanting to be a marketing partner with the CLS. "After the New Year, we will continue to work on our contingency awards. We had $13,000.00 or $14,000.00 in contingencies this year. We will start working on that stuff after the first of the year and I hope to get most of those people back.

Earlier this month the CLS welcomed RacingJunk as its newest sponsor. To learn more about RacingJunk, please visit the company website at https://www.racingjunk.com/

A month before the launch of the longtime club's racing season, the CLS banquet will take place at Frantone's Pizza & Spaghetti Villa in Cerritos on February 4th. Tickets for the banquet which features presentations, raffles, and great food are $40.00. To order or for more information call (310) 367-9050 or email mailto:jon.robertson@sbcglobal.net ?subject=jon.robertson@sbcglobal.net.

The following companies were marketing partners with the CLS in 2022. They offered up more than $13,000.00 in contingencies that were awarded on top of the regular racing purses and they were paid out throughout the year. Yoshimura R&D, Hoosier Tires West, T-Shirts By Timeless, Extreme Mufflers, Saldana Racing Products, Rod End Supply, Speed Mart, Cold Fire West, West Evens Motorsports, RC Fuel Injection, Jake Swanson Shock Technology, Advanced Racing Suspensions, CSI Shocks, Eibach Springs, Triple X Race Components, King Racing Products, Hyper Racing Products, Rebel Gears, Vahlco Wheels, Wilwood Disk Brakes, Fuel Safe Systems, MPI, Circle Track Performance, E-Z UP, Hepfner Racing, Smith Titanium, and Hoosier Speed.

To keep up with the CLS online, please visit the website at http://racecls.com/ or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/californialightningsprints

2023 California Lightning Sprint Car Series Schedule

March 10 Imperial Raceway CLS/SWLS "Best of the West" Round #1

March 11 Imperial Raceway CLS/SWLS "Best of the West" Round #2

March 18 Bakersfield Speedway CLS With USAC Western Midgets

April 1 Mohave Valley Raceway CLS/SWLS "Best of the West" Round #3 With USAC/CRA Sprint Cars

April 8 Bakersfield Speedway CLS With USAC 360 Sprint Cars

May 13 Ventura Raceway CLS With USAC 360 Sprint Cars

May 20 Bakersfield Speedway CLS/SWLS "Best of the West" Round #4

June 3 Bakersfield Speedway CLS/BCRA "Civil War Series Round" #1 With USAC 360 Sprint Cars

June 17 Ventura Raceway CLS With USAC 360 Sprint Cars Wagsdash

July 8 Ventura Raceway CLS

July 22 Ventura Raceway CLS/SWLS "Best of the West" Round #5

August 19 Ocean Speedway CLS/BCRA "Civil War Series" Round #2, Johnny Key Classic

September 9 Bakersfield Speedway CLS/BCRA "Civil War Series" Round #3

September 23 Ventura Raceway CLS

October 7 Merced Speedway CLS/BCRA "Civil War Series" Round #4, Wayne Albright Memorial Non Wing

October 14 Mohave Valley Speedway CLS/SWLS "Best of the West" Round #4 With USAC/CRA Sprint Cars

October 28 Ventura Raceway CLS

November 14 Bakersfield Speedway CLS With USAC National Midgets

November 16 Placerville Speedway "Hangtown 100" No Points Non Wing

November 17 Placerville Speedway "Hangtown 100" No Points Non Wing

November 18 Placerville Speedway "Hangtown 100" No Points Non Wing

PAST CALIFORNIA LIGHTNING SPRINT CAR CHAMPIONS

1994 Tony Everhart

1995 Gary Sexton

1996 Rob Sczymczak

1997 Jon Rahe

1998 Chris Rahe

1999 Brent Sexton

2000 Greg Bragg

2001 Greg Bragg

2002 Greg Bragg

2003 David Cardey

2004 Keith Janca

2005 Johnny Bates

2006 Donny Gansen

2007 Shane Rossen

2008 Brent Sexton

2009 Stuart Hielschier Sr.

2010 Jarrett Kramer

2011 Tim Brown

2012 Bobby Michnowicz

2013 Stephen Limon

2014 Bobby Michnowicz

2015 Bobby Michnowicz

2016 Bobby Michnowicz

2017 Bobby Michnowicz

2018 Jarrett Kramer

2019 Jarrett Kramer

2021 David Gasper

2022 David Gasper

This press release was produced by Scott Daloisio Sports (909) 226-7768 mailto:sdaloisiosports@gmail.com