CALIFORNIA LIGHTNING SPRINTS FINISH FIRST HALF OF THE SEASON SATURDAY AT THE SANTA MARIA SPEEDWAY (Torrance, CA, July 23, 2024) The California Lightning Sprint Car Series will wrap up the first half of the 2024 campaign this Saturday night, July 27th, at the Santa Maria Speedway. In addition to being a full points-paying race for the CLS, it will be round one of the annual Civil War Series that matches the Southern California-based racing club against Northern California’s Bay Cities Racing Association. After Saturday’s show, the CLS will take a seven-week break before returning to action at the Bakersfield Speedway on September 13th. Saturday’s race will be the second and final time the CLS competes on the newly reopened track this year. At the club’s first appearance on July 6th, California Highway Patrol officer Jeff Dyer scored a runaway win in the 25-lap main event. However, the Yucca Valley-based racer will not be back this Saturday night. Two weeks ago, he suffered a broken right arm in a terrifying crash in the USAC/CRA Series at Perris Auto Speedway. The remainder of the top five finishers from July 6th are all expected to be on hand on Saturday. They include second-place finisher Zate Legend of Riverside, who just turned 13 years old last week, six-time CLS champion Bobby Michnowicz of Oak Hills, Palmdale’s Eric Greco, who currently holds down the second place position in the point standings, and Castaic’s Clay Byers, who is coming off a career-best CLS fifth-place finish three weeks ago. Michnowicz, the defending series champion, not only holds down the top spot in the point standings with a 114-marker cushion between himself and second-place Greco, but he also leads the series with four wins this season. Besides Michnowicz and Dyer, Lakeside’s Aiden Lange, Fillmore’s Connor Speir, AJ Bender of San Diego, and Greco have scored victories in 2024. Behind Michnowicz and Greco in the points, Camarillo’s Cody Nigh is currently third in the championship standings. He is followed by Legend, whose second-place finish at Santa Maria on July 6th was his best in CLS competition. Dyer is fifth. Currently, the best battle in the standings is fourth through eighth. The eighth-place driver, Speir, is only 49 points behind fourth-place, Legend. Sandwiched in between the two are Dyer, his teenage son Seth, and “Rockstar” Jon Robertson of Torrance. The spread from fifth place Dyer to eighth place Speir is a mere 19 points. Saturday’s race will be the first of three in the Civil War series in 2024. Originally, it was scheduled to be a four-race series, but the opener on BCRA’s turf at the Merced Speedway was rained out on April 13th. After Saturday, the two rival clubs will tangle at the Bakersfield Speedway on September 13th before returning to Merced for the finale on October 5th. Joining the CLS on Saturday at Santa Maria will be the NARC King of the West Sprint Cars, the SoCal Dwarf Cars, and hobby stocks. Spectator gates at the 60-year-old speed plant will open at 4:00 PM; qualifying will begin at 5:00, and the first race will be at 7:00.Adult tickets are $30.00. Seniors, military and students get a $2.00 discount. Kids 6-12 are $10.00, and children 5 and under are free. The track is located at 1900 Hutton Road in Nipomo. The track website is https://santamariaspeedway.net/. The CLS would like to thank the following companies for being partners in the 2024 season. Extreme Mufflers, RacingJunk.com and Hoosier Tire. California Lightning Sprint Car Series Points 1. Bobby Michnowicz, Oak Hills, CA … 1018 2. Eric Greco, Palmdale, CA … 904 3. Cody Nigh, Camarillo, CA … 893 4. Zate Legend, Riverside, CA … 819 5. Jeff Dyer, Yucca Valley, CA … 789 6. Seth Dyer, Yucca Valley, CA … 780 7. Jon Robertson, Torrance, CA … 775 8. Connor Speir, Fillmore, CA … 770 9. Broedy Graham, Bakersfield, CA … 470 10. Clay Byers, Bakersfield, CA … 424 2024 CLS Lap Leaders Michnowicz, Bobby … 92 Dyer, Jeff … 25 Speir, Connor … 20 Dyer, Seth … 17 Lange, Aiden … 16 Greco, Eric … 16 Bender, AJ … 15 Dyer, Seth … 9 Nigh, Cody … 4 Dennett, Greg … 1 2024 California Lightning Sprint Car Series Schedule March 1 Imperial Valley Raceway Mid-Winter Fair Aiden Lange March 2 Imperial Valley Raceway Mid-Winter Fair Connor Speir March 9 Bakersfield Speedway CLS Bobby Michnowicz April 13 Merced Speedway CSL vs BCRA Civil War #1 Rained Out April 20 Bakersfield Speedway CLS Bobby Michnowicz May 4 Ventura Raceway CLS AJ Bender May 18 Bakersfield Speedway CLS Bobby Michnowicz June 8 Ventura Raceway CLS Bobby Michnowicz June 15 Bakersfield Speedway CLS Eric Greco July 6 Santa Maria Speedway CLS Jeff Dyer July 27 Santa Maria Speedway CLS vs BCRA Civil War #2 September 13 Bakersfield Speedway CLS vs BCRA Civil War #3 September 14 Ventura Raceway CLS September 28 Ventura Raceway CLS October 5 Merced Speedway CLS vs BCRA Civil War #4 Albright Memorial October 26 Ventura Raceway CLS November 15 Placerville Speedway Hangtown 100 – No Points November 16 Placerville Speedway Hangtown 100 – No Points November 26 Bakersfield Speedway CLS To keep up with the CLS online, please visit the website at http://racecls.com/ and follow on the club’s Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/californialightningsprints. PAST CALIFORNIA LIGHTNING SPRINT CAR CHAMPIONS 1994 Tony Everhart, 1995 Gary Sexton, 1996 Rob Sczymczak, 1997 Jon Rahe, 1998 Chris Rahe, 1999 Brent Sexton, 2000 Greg Bragg, 2001 Greg Bragg, 2002 Greg Bragg, 2003 David Cardey, 2004 Keith Janca, 2005 Johnny Bates, 2006 Donny Gansen, 2007 Shane Rossen, 2008 Brent Sexton, 2009 Stuart Hielschier Sr., 2010 Jarrett Kramer, 2011 Tim Brown, 2012 Bobby Michnowicz, 2013 Stephen Limon, 2014 Bobby Michnowicz, 2015 Bobby Michnowicz, 2016 Bobby Michnowicz, 2017 Bobby Michnowicz, 2018 Jarrett Kramer, 2019 Jarrett Kramer, 2021 David Gasper, 2022 David Gasper, 2023 Bobby Michnowicz This press release was produced by Scott Daloisio Sports (909) 226-7768 mailto:sdaloisiosports@gmail.com