Sharing My Notes: Northern Auto Racing Club (NARC) 2023 Season
3rd entry to the series where, uhh, I watch sprint cars
I’ve done reviews now of the All Star Circuit of Champions 2023 Season and also that of the Upper Midwestern regional 410 sprint car series the IRA. If you knew nothing f sprint car racing and someone told you about the “Northern Auto Racing Club” you would absolutely not assume North was in relation to “Northern California.” But it does. That’s where these guys are all from. Also Oregon. And Washington sometimes.
Unlike the IRA, there are highlight packages on YouTube for almost all the events. Also this is a fun one in that you can see as I progress through the season losing hope that watching the NARC series is much fun. If you’re gonna look at stuff here for entertainment value, stick to Antioch (PHENOMENAL) and Night 1 of the Super Dirt Cup. Pick one of the interesting sounding Corey Day races where I say he does Corey Day things and watch the highlights of that. There. You’re good. Am I done watching sprint car racing? Oh no. Never. It’s time to go with weekly racing, and with the options available on Dirtvision and Flo, why not find what I really enjoy? I’m starting that series not with an obvious pick like Williams Grove or Knoxville or Port Royal. No no. I’m picking a track I enjoyed the hell out of watching this year in this series: I’m picking Jacksonville.
Keller aka Kings (4/8/2023): NARC had two rainouts to start the year and so this is the debut for the year. Within moments I am reminded that this is by far the best regional series in terms of talent showing up weekly: Corey Day, Dom Scelzi, Shane Golobic in the Silva 57, Tanner Holmes Tim Kaeding, Ryan Bernal, Justin Sanders and more are all here. Why did I even watch IRA before this? Absurd. Corey Day is the best teenage racer in America and it isn't close. He does stuff in the early going to get to second and I laugh. With about ten to go, Day gets to the lead and Sanders just watches this kid blister everything. Day laps up to 6th place. Jesus Christ.
Tulare/Thunderbowl (4/14/2023): I wish these weren't on at 2am EST. Cars are airborne in the low line in 1. This place is like the epitome of California Dirt Racing in my mind. Also this is ugly to watch with 4 stoppages in the first 5 laps including a red flag multi car wreck where Tanner Holmes piles into a guys cage. It has taken half an hour for 9 15 seconds laps. Eventually things calm down, Eliason runs the cushion, Corey Day Does Corey Day Things to overtake Trey Starks for the lead and win, and Justin Sanders spins while leading on lap one and comes all the way back to finish 5th.
Tulare/Thunderbowl (4/15/2023): It doesn't matter where Day starts. He is the show. He throws a slider on Dom Scelzi for second and Scelzi winds up over the rear left and flips. Just a racing deal. NARC does double file restarts and I hate it. Huuuge sliders everywhere. Guaranteed time regardless of the number of laps left too, it seems. This is why I don't watch NARC, huh? Every feature takes a goddamn hour. Camera work is shitty too. Justin Cox holds off Day and some other people finish somewhere. My kingdom for an IRA feature!
Antioch (4/29/2023): what the fuck is this music as they line up, “this is the greatest show” lmaoooooo who listens to this?
Joey Ancona starts up front and takes the early lead. This track is a bullring and I'm into it. Like a paperclip with high banked turns. A lot of relevant action is missed by the team recording this but what is caught is good for a change. Corey Day, man. He and Scelzi are going for it here and the crowd is into it and I am into it and the first caution isn't until 4 to go because someone kicked up a tire from the infield curb. Single file restarts now I guess? Scelzi wins redeeming what happened the week prior. He too is like “this track rox guyz”.
Silver Dollar (5/6/2023): quarter mile looking flat bullring with the back stretch being higher than the front stretch a la Devils Bowl. Choppy track in 2 with a lot of wheelies and guys biking it. Corey Day is out in front all day long with Justin Sanders briefly challenging before a caution comes out. Dom Scelzi is the guy to watch in this one as he cuts through the field to 3rd.
Keller aka Kings (5/12/23): First of a two night event: looks like they changed their name a bunch. It's a ⅜ mile oval about a half hour from Tulare and honestly it looks really fast. McFadden was on suspension at the time and shows up along with Kofoid. Apparently McFadden ran one other NARC race before this and won it, and he started on pole, so he's looking to keep a perfect record in the series. Day moves his way to second and takes chase with 22 to go. McFadden and Aton make contact as Aton turns in on McFadden and that removes the 2 second gap. Chase Johnson and Cole Macedo wreck on the restart and Johnson jumps out to start wailing on Macedo (who is in his car). Day takes the lead running the high side after the restart and Joel Myers Jr is here also? Sure. Dom finished 3rd again behind McFadden.
Keller aka Kings (5/13/2023): Night 2 has a easier to determine feature on the App and so I'm not fast forwarding past anything. Dom and Golobic on Row 1, McFadden and Kofoid start 3 & 4, Day in 8th. During a red flag for a randos flip, Buddy Kofoid retires with engine issues (lololol Husets a month later). Golobic tries his best to hang with Scelzi and challenge him, but he practically has nothing to really take over the lead and win without luck he doesn't have. Day does Day things and winds up second as Golobic fades to 5th. Good for Dom. I liked his dad too. Hell yeah with this interview.
Petaluma (5/20/2023): “Fastest ⅜ mile in Northern California” sayeth the logo. Sprint cars on the ground if you look it up on Google Maps. Dirt here is black and called “Petaluma adobe” and gets really sticky. Scelzi on pole, Myers Jr starts 4th. Track locks down instantly. Dom wins again, this might have been the worst race of the year without a life threatening crash. Everyone agrees and expected it though I guess Petaluma almost ceased to exist so it's a thing that it isn't dead.
Placerville (6/3/2023): This place is packed. Day starts 9th; Copeland is on pole with Justin Sanders outside. If not tonight for Sanders, when? Well, Copeland takes the lead and during a caution period Sanders has to leap out of his car when the car nearly catches fire. Not much passing here even when they hit traffic. Copeland wins and Faccinto is second.
Southern Oregon (6/15/2023): I know nothing about this place. It has a nice catch fence on the front stretch! ¼ mile I'm sure. I think this is Tanner Holmes home track and he's near the front; only 17 starters. Day starts up front: he laps up to 9th. Holmes and Cox race for #2 and that's the show. Lapped traffic is tough enough to pass that Cox throws a desperate slider on the last lap to get past Day but fails. Not a bad or fantastic track. Just not memorable.
Douglas County (6/16/2023): Another place I've never heard of but hey it's like Oregon Sprint Week I guess? 4 Fastest Days is the tag line. Good size looking crowd. Another 17 car field. Field is all at the bottom for the first half and then moves up top if they have horsepower. Corey Day domination again; Justin Sanders is second and Chase Johnson gets to third passing a fading Cole Macedo.
Willamette (6/17/2023): Really nice catch fence! Crowd must be deep. Macedo and Holmes are the front row. Will someone else win? Well, here's Day running the high line and he's in 3rd already 5 laps in. He gets past Dom Scelzi, then is unable to pass Macedo as the track is too slick and there's just not enough time.
Grays Harbor (6/18/2023): This is another feature where the length shown by Flo is almost an hour. Oh God. Macedo and Scelzi (both not being the guys most cares about from those families in this sport) are up front. Day started in like 14th or something but who cares, he's obviously better than everyone here. Halfway through he's already up in 3rd. With 10 to go we get trading sliders and Trey Starks! He is here and now racing for second with Scelzi and Tanner Holmes is doing a thing too. Scelzi’s car dies for caution 315 for the night, then another car has a tire go down and we have about 10 cars left. That leads to an open red flag for fuel, which, whatever. Delays the inevitable. Another caution for a Bud Kaeding spin and they just call it. Corey Day wins under yellow because let's go home. Why bother with the open red? What the hell is that? “theres no tread on the tires” I guess and they didn't want to call it in the open red. Rock and a hard place I suppose.
Skagit Super Dirt Cup Prelim Night 1 (6/22/2023): Three nights of action and seeding is Chili Bowlesque. Big money means big names, and big action. In Heat 1 (Yes I’m watching all of it) has Chase Johnson being wrecked about 2-3 times in the same final lap. As such, he wound up in the B-Main and got passed on the last lap when in the transfer position. This is actually a pretty great race for the A-Main. Corey Day works his way to the lead with 12 to go after Tanner Holmes bounces off the cushion on the exit of 4, but behind him there’s Logan Forler, Zeb Wise, and Shane Golobic with plenty of action amongst these 5 throughout the race. No caution in this race. Day wins, Golobic 2nd, Wise 3rd.
Skagit Super Dirt Cup Prelim Night 2 (6/23/2023): Points are grabbed across two nights, so it’s basically the same list of cars and drivers as the night before. Not a complaint, you have Reutzel and Wise and other non-West Coast talents showing up so I’m fine with it. Attard loses the lead in Heat 3 because he doesn’t know restarts are on the backstretch; that’s interesting. Massive flip for Aton in the B-Feature when three cars try to occupy the space of one. Golobic has a pretty big wreck himself in the A; Corey Day gets into first on lap 6; you know what the deal is from here. A caution ruins a good race between Zeb Wise and Trey Starks.
Skagit Super Dirt Cup Finale (6/24/2023): 62K to win finale! Everything is doing Features only tonight, so even the broadcast’s first event is a B-Main for the Focus Midgets. B-Main of 410s has one dude’s top wing fail because he kept pulling huge wheelie; decent race for the transfer spot at times but then it felt like the track got locked down. A-Main time with Scelzi and Sanders on the front row: regardless, you know that Zeb Wise and Corey Day will be playing into the race for the win, particularly the latter. Colby Thornhill runs into a nearly stopped Trey Starks in Turn 1 for a particularly gnarly wreck. Sanders winds up holding off both Wise and Day (2nd/3rd respectively) and led all 40 laps en route to winning the biggest race of his career.
Petaluma (7/8/2023): Back to Petaluma where the racing was ass last time and we don’t have a full 24 car feature this time either. Scelzi jumps out to the early lead and Dylan Bloomfield keeps pushing high, leading to ACTUAL PASSING~! Track is super choppy and guys keep bouncing all over the place, leading to a couple of early cautions. There’s a caution with 10 to go where one guy is in the wall and then winds up coming down into the groove and clips Scelzi, ending his night while Chase Johnson (who passed him a couple laps prior) now is set to battle with Justin Sanders. This isn’t the worst race I’ve ever seen in spite of the negatives; guys are making moves, it’s just different. Johnson takes off on the restart and manages his first win of the year; Sanders second, Day third.
Ocean (7/15/2023): OK, this is weird - race isn’t archives on Flo but is on YouTube via Cali Dirt Videos. Why this is, I can’t say, but I’m sure there’s some sort of rationale. Huge wreck at the start and I see Justin Cox go over and the whole back third of the field is piled up. Chase Johnson’s front wing is gone too. Tim Kaeding is on pole for this BTW. Shane Golobic gets past him first and then, yes, you guessed it, there’s our boy Corey Day working his way to 2nd. Dylan Bloomfield does a backflip for another caution, and that gives Justin Sanders a chance to work his way into contention. Another caution leads to a shootout and Corey Day comes from like half a straight behind Golobic to throw a slider; fails miserably, and makes contact with Golobic, screwing up Day’s rear end. Golobic hangs on to beat Sanders and takes a dub.
Keller aka Kings (10/13/2023): Shoot forwards 3 months and we’ve got an event with dual 20 lap features. Why? Because. That’s why. Austin McCarl has shown up because he had nothing better to do. Corey Day flips wildly at the start of Feature #1 by himself; Bud Kaeding had biked it first in the same spot, but Day is caught out the very next lap and winds up in the catch fence.Justyn Cox takes the lead from Dom Scelzi and then Scelzi drops off the pace and out of the race. Justin Sanders takes the lead with 3 to go and Cox is able to stay in second.
Feature #2 has Gauge Garcia and DJ Netto up front to start. Garcia has only had one 410 start before this and he manages to lead the first half of the feature by a huge margin. Garcia makes a little mistake and Netto manages to get past him and we get a wild wheel stand from Netto seconds later. Contact with Garcia and Netto! Bloomfield is now involved in the run for the lead! A couple of cautions ruin things a bit, and Cole Macedo gives Netto a run for his money but falls short. Garcia takes the third spot.
Kern County (10/28/2023): Next to last race! Looks like Buddy Kofoid is here in a Roth car, and we have Day and Cole Macedo starting up front. Day takes the lead early from Macedo and watching him it’s so obvious how good he is. I know I say that a lot, but just watch his overtake here and tell me it isn’t incredible to watch a kid with this much talent. He dominates this race, leading from that point forwards. Kofoid finishes 2nd, Chase Johnson 3rd. Not a lot to discuss about this race, honestly. Seemed fine. Johnson says he won’t be making the trip to Stockton with the 24. Huh. Well.
Stockton (11/4/2023): Final event of the year and I spoiled the result looking up something about the prior race. Argh. Well, Netto is on pole with Kofoid outside, and Kofoid goes to 1st on the backstretch on lap 1. Stockton has empty space forever and brush outside the boundaries of the track, which is sorta hilarious to me but also not the worst thing if you’re a driver looking to not die. Small field too of like 17-18 cars. Ryan Timms is also here! As is Ashton Torgerson, who runs into mechanical issues. This race is all Kofoid, as Day’s car breaks down and he finishes last but still takes home the title.