Special events on schedule at Champion Motor Speedway

Champion Motor Speedway will open its season April 18 with Super Late Models, Late Model Sportsman, Street Stocks, Legends, Modified Hornets, Junior Hornets, Queen Beez, Bandoleros and will feature the Allstar Race Truck Series.

The Sunday afternoon appearance is the first of three for the visiting truck series and several other special race events.

"The Desert Rose will be a four-race series this year featuring cars from Carson City, Roseville, Stockton, Ukiah, Lakeport and Shasta - all from California," said Les Kynett, general manager/promoter.

"These (races) will be 100 laps of green flag racing, yellow laps will not count."

Kynett said the idea for the drivers is to enter all four races. Should a driver have a bad race, they can "throw out" the points from that one race and take the average of their best three.

"This way if they have a bad night, it won't be held against them," he said. "Then the overall points winner will be named Sept. 11 and receive 1,000 silver dollars."

Kynett said the cars from all the race tracks mentioned are compatible in regards to rules and the races should attract more than 30 cars for each event.

"These races will pay $1,800 per race to the winner. I've talked with some local drivers and they're real excited about it. And we're putting more sponsor dollars into it."

CarQuest is the title sponsor of the Desert Rose 100s. Dates for the Desert Rose 100 series are: April 25, May 15, June 26 and Sept. 11.

Also on tap are four sprint car shows which will feature the California Sprint Car Association as well as several local drivers. Model Dairy and Good Humor Ice Cream are lead sponsors of that series.

"The sprint cars will also race 100-lap features," Kynett said. "It is unprecedented for sprint cars to run that many. They usually run a 40-lap main event."

Kynett said local driver Amy Barnes has a new race car. The second car will be driven by a driver yet to be named.

The dates for the sprint cars races are May 29, July 3, Aug. 28 and Sept. 18.

"We've added some extreme competitions and I think the fans will really enjoy this," Kynett said. "We want to make this track the best of the best of the best."

For information, visit www.champion-speedway.com or call 888-9777.

Contact Rhonda Costa-Landers at rcosta-landers@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1223.