King of the West Sprint Car Series open house deemed success at 63rd annual Rio Vista Bass Festival
By Gary Thomas
Rio Vista, CA – October 14, 2010…With upwards of 12,000 people on hand over three-days in the small town of Rio Vista this past weekend the King of the West Sprint Car Series held its open house/grand opening in conjunction with the 63rd annual Rio Vista Bass Derby and Festival.
Having just recently moved into the new business office, King of the West officials spent the week prior getting things ready and cleaned up for the grand opening, where a number of people came by and were educated on the sport of sprint car racing.
“We thought the open house went pretty well and would like to thank everyone who stopped by and checked out our building during the weekend,” said KWS Operations Manager George Hague. “It was nice to see some familiar faces, as well as some new ones that asked a lot of questions about sprint car racing and we were able to, in a way, fill them in on what we are all about.”
A large car show featuring 200 classic cars lined the streets during the Bass Festival on Saturday and the King of the West Sprint Car Series featured its own “racing themed” display in front of the office, including a winged sprint car, quarter midget, go kart and a pair of soap box derby cars. The go kart and quarter midget will also be part of a go kart facility owned by KWS Managing Director Dan Simpson, which will be located on Front Street in Rio Vista.
The DES Inc. Racing team also took part in the annual Rio Vista Soap Box Derby races on Saturday held down Main Street and proceeded to tie for first in one class, because of a time situation and scored a runner up in the other.
Although not a sanctioned race the King of the West Sprint Cars will be gearing up to support this weekend’s Cotton Classic at the Giant Chevrolet Kings Speedway in Hanford on Saturday night. There will be a KWS Show Car in attendance at the event, as well as various giveaways handed out during the night, including t-shirts, hats and a day in a sprint car at the On Track Motivational Center in Rio Vista.
The Cotton Classic will pay $5,000-to-win/$500-to-start the feature and will showcase a number of top sprint car competitors including 13-time King of California Brent Kaeding of Campbell, 2010 King of California Kyle Larson of Elk Grove, two-time King of California Jonathan Allard of Chico, ’02 King of California Tim Kaeding of San Jose, five-time & current California Sprint Car Civil War Series champion Andy Forsberg of Auburn, two-time Civil War champ Sean Becker of Oroville, defending Ocean Sprints titlist Tommy Tarlton of Easton, '04 King of California Jason Statler of Grass Valley and many more.
Teams will be allowed to run either Hoosier or Goodyear tires at the Cotton Classic. Hoosier tire rules will be according to the 2010 Golden State Challenge rulebook and allowed Goodyear tires will include the 100, 200 and 300.
The front gate will open at 5:30pm on Saturday October 16 with racing scheduled to start around 6:30. General admission bleacher tickets will cost $17 and Reserved Grandstand tickets $20. For advance tickets and more info contact 559-584-7223.
The Giant Chevrolet Kings Speedway is a lightning fast 3/8 mile clay oval and is located on the Kings County Fairgrounds in Hanford, California.
Follow the King of the West Sprint Cars on Twitter at http://twitter.com/kws410s and the future home on the web at http://www.kingofthewestsprintcarseries.com
- Gary Thomas on Oct 14, 2010
- Article Date: 10/14/2010