It’s another busy weekend in racing, with the 2015 season now at full speed. Locally, the Bay Cities Racing Association (BCRA) midgets will visit Fernley 95A Speedway tonight for the first time in several years. It’s a double points race, so a full field is expected including sprint car and midget racing legend Jimmy Sills and local midget racer J.R. Williams of Carson City. Also on the card for tonight are points races for the Modified, Pro Stock and Street Stock divisions. Admission prices are $12 for adults 13 and older, $8 for kids 6-12 and seniors 63 plus, and free for kids 5 and under and military with ID. Spectator gates open at 3 p.m. and racing starts at 6 p.m. And if you find yourself in Reno during the day, be sure to stop by the Reno Tahoe Audi dealership on South Virginia Street to meet local racer Kyle Gimple and check out the Audi S3 he will be racing next weekend at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.
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At the end of Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup marathon at Bristol (the longest race in the track’s history), Matt Kenseth stood in the winner’s circle, breaking a 51-race winless streak and putting him into the provisional Chase field. It was Kenseth’s 32nd career win and fourth Bristol victory. Rain was the cause of most of the delays, and the green/white/checker finish stretched the 500 lap event to 511 laps. The race also honored broadcaster Steve Byrnes, who sadly lost his fight to cancer on Tuesday. He will be missed.
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This weekend is another short track show, as the series moves to the three-quarter mile oval at Richmond. New inspection rules will be in place for the race in order to deal with an increasing number of pre-race inspection failures.
Teams who fail inspection twice will receive a written warning, and a third failure will result in a 15 minute practice penalty at the following race. The rules apply to both pre-qualifying and pre-race inspections. Teams who exhibit a pattern of multiple failures over time can face more severe penalties. The Sprint Cup race will air on FOX at 4 p.m. today.
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The IndyCar Series race at Long Beach was a much drier and cleaner event than the previous weekend at New Orleans. In contrast to the NOLA race’s rain and six lengthy cautions, Long Beach saw warm, dry conditions and only one short caution for debris.
Target Chip Ganassi Racing driver and former series champion Scott Dixon salvaged a so-far dismal season by leapfrogging the Penske cars on a pit stop and driving away to the win. It was his first Long Beach victory, and he set a record race pace of 96.800 miles per hour for the 80 laps.
So far this season the IndyCar series has seen three different winners driving for three different teams.
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Dixon is looking to become the first multiple winner of 2015 this weekend by scoring his first win at Barber Motorsports Park in the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama. Andretti Autosport driver Ryan Hunter-Reay is the defending winner of the race, having won in 2013 and 2014, with Will Power of Penske Racing taking victories in 2011 and 2012. The next two races on the schedule are at Indianapolis with the Grand Prix of Indianapolis on the road course May 9 and the Indy 500 May 24.
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Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes continue their domination in Formula One, as Hamilton took both the pole and the race win last weekend in Bahrain. However, Ferrari is showing surprising strength, with Kimi Raikkonen splitting the two Mercedes to take second place over Nico Rosberg in the race. His teammate, Sebastian Vettel, also split the two Mercedes in qualifying. The series has a bye this weekend before heading for Barcelona, Spain for the season’s fifth race next Sunday.
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For you drag racing fans, the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing series visits Royal Purple Raceway in Houston this weekend. Check your local listings for airtimes.