A busy weekend
Two regional events of interest will take place this weekend.
The 11th annual Budweiser Oval Nationals will begin a three-day run at Perris Auto Speedway tonight.
And the Queen Mary and Long Beach Harbor will serve as the backdrop Sunday to the season finale of the American Motorcyclist's Association's Supermoto season.
The Oval Nationals will attract top sprint car drivers from across the nation and double as the finale of the USAC/CRA season.
Dave Darland is the defending champion. Cory Kruseman won the Oval Nationals in 2003 and 2004 and holds a 71-point lead on Damion Gardner in the USAC/CRA standings.
The lone local entrant is El Cajon's Tony Everhart.
The Supermoto field is led by former motocross champion and Indy 500 driver Jeff Ward, who is going for his third straight title in the motorcycle event that is part motocross, part road racing and part flat-track racing.
Doug Henry is second in the points standings.
Taking stock
Lakeside's Ron Overman won the season finale late-model sportsman race at Orange Show Speedway in Santa Barbara last Saturday. Ramona's John Manke was second and El Cajon's Brian Fitzgibbons fifth.
Manke finished second in the final standings with Overman third.
El Cajon's John Vreadeveld finished second in the final pony stock race, and Santee's Matthew Hicks was third in the Legend's finale.
Overman and Manke will be joined by Stephen Peace, Rick Chavez, Bob Wickey and Dee Cable in the Fall Classic this Saturday at the bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Miscellany
Buddy Rice, the 2004 Indianapolis 500 winner, has been named to replace A.J. Allmendinger (who is jumping to NASCAR) on the RuSport team for the Nov. 12 Champ Car World Series season finale at Mexico City.
XESD (1030-AM) will start carrying Spanish-language broadcasts of NASCAR races locally through an agreement with the Motor Racing Network and ESPN Deportes.
NASCAR penalized Robby Gordon yesterday for intentionally causing a caution at Atlanta that affected the race outcome for Jeff Burton. Gordon was docked 50 driver points, 50 owner points and fined $15,000 for throwing a piece of roll bar padding onto the track during Sunday's race, which caused the caution.
