Top Dog Nationals at Petaluma Speedway

After a one-week break, Petaluma Speedway is gearing up for some big shows in August. It starts this week with the annual Top Dog Nationals event for the IMCA Modifieds. The drivers will be competing for a bigger purse this year. Also in action will be the PitStopUSA.com Winged 360 Sprint Cars, Lumberjacks Restaurant Super Stocks and Santa Rosa Auto Body 600 Micros.

People may not have realized what was going on when Hall of Fame Promoter John P. Soares brought the Dirt Modified class to California in 1987. Soares had been back to Iowa and witnessed IMCA Modified racing in person. He knew that this was something that would work at Petaluma Speedway. He was right about that, and the Modified division has grown beyond Petaluma Speedway to become a featured division at tracks up and down the West Coast. In the 1990s, Soares began promoting some of the biggest races for the class in the state, which he called the Top Dog Nationals.

Promoter Rick Faeth has revived this race, and the increased purse money should attract a few big names to the speedway Saturday night. Last season, it was Troy Foulger coming to town and leaving with the first-place prize. This year, the local stars will be eyeing the big prize money as this will also be a championship point race. A look at the standings finds Mitch Machado at the top of the list by five points ahead of reigning champion Oreste Gonella and seven in front of Justin Yeager. Interestingly enough, Machado is the only driver in the Top 10 in the standings with a feature win. The other wins have gone to Foulger and two-time Petaluma champion Nick DeCarlo. It’s possible that DeCarlo will be here for this race.

Gonella is in a bit of a drought. He won the championship last season on consistency, but he hasn’t won a Main Event since 2017. Earlier this year, he made a trip to Antioch Speedway and picked up a win there, but he’d love to break through for a victory with the big money on the line. Another driver to watch this weekend is multi-time champion Michael Paul Jr. Paul has had a bit of bad luck with only one Top 5 finish so far, and yet he’s within 10 points of the lead. Some of the drivers to watch for this week include Tim Yeager, Ray Trimble, Terry Kaiser and Anthony Slaney.

The PitStopUSA.com Winged 360 Sprint Car season is six races old, and John Clark continues to lead the way. Clark is still looking for his first win of the season, but he earned his second runner-up finish last week and has a third-place finish as well. He’s being pursued by Joel Myers Jr. and Colby Johnson. Johnson continues to gather momentum, and he is coming off his second-straight feature win last time out. It’s been a wide-open battle with four winners in six races. Chase Johnson has a pair of victories, while Brent Bjork and past champion Bradley Terell are also winners. Reigning champion Jake Haulot is still in the hunt, and he’ll be out to get a win this week. Others to watch include Nathan Schank, Angelo Cornet and Roberto Kirby.

It seems like you can’t stop reigning champion Mitch Machado in the Lumberjacks Restaurant Super Stock class. Machado chased Matt While for most of the race last time out, but he eventually made the pass and brought it home to his seventh win of the season. Going back to last season, he now has nine straight point-earning feature wins in a row. The battle in the standings seems to be between Steve Studebaker and While for second. While has a second and three third-place finishes in his last five starts. Studebaker has four second-place finishes, but for the second straight race, he struggled back in fifth. While seems to have the momentum on his side.

Gary Adams is another driver hoping to break through for a feature win. Adams finished third last time out after a good battle with past champion Shawn McCoy. McCoy has finished as high as second this year, and could be in line for a win this week. Others to watch include Austin Ohlinger, Manny Avila, Tim O’Hara, Sean Cook and Paul Hanley.

Nick Robfogel and Justin Adiego are having a good battle at the front of the pack in the Santa Rosa Auto Body 600 Micros division. Robfogel has picked up a pair of wins this season while Kyle Grissom and Koen Shaw also have wins. Last time out, however, Robfogel and third-ranked Grissom both failed to make it to the checkered flag. This gave Adiego a big opportunity as he picked up his first win of the season. Adiego has been very consistent this year and is making a serious challenge. He’ll be going for his second straight win this week, and other drivers to watch include Rob Brown, Sam Borland, Cody Gray, Carroll Mendenhall and Brian Slubik.