Tag: Roseville

Jessica Brunelli from Hayward, CA returned to the track where she won the 2009 Rookie of the Year award, All American Speedway in Roseville, to test her new Naake Motorsports No. 88 Chevrolet. Last year, the high school senior moved to Mooresville, N.C., to participate in NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity program but has now been given the opportunity to run some races in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West. Here is the information from Racers Drive.

Racers Drive announces that it will be fielding a stock car in the NASCAR K&N Pro series races at Las Vegas on June 11th and at Infineon Raceway as part of the Sprint Cup show the weekend of June 24 – 26.

The driver will be 18 year old Jessica Brunelli from Hayward, CA who is part of NASCAR’s prestigious Drive for Diversity (D4D) program. She is tremendously fast, very personable and currently running stock cars on tracks back east for Revolution Racing. For more information on Jessica go to her website, www.brunelliracing.com.

We will be teaming Jessica up with Naake Motorsports of Roseville, CA and the Stephanie Bellotti Foundation. The Stephanie Bellotti Foundation was formed by Stephanie’s parents after they tragically lost their daughter in an automobile accident. Their organization now provides funding for Teen Driving Clinics to give young drivers the competence and confidence necessary to keep them and their vehicle safe and under control in an emergency situation. The response from fans, sponsors and NASCAR to the foundation’s proactive approach to the development of safe driving skills has been outstanding.

The marriage between Jessica Brunelli, one of NASCAR’s rising young stars, Naake Motorsports, an established and successful K&N team, and the Stephanie Bellotti Foundation will ensure that any organization involved will enjoy the exposure and goodwill generated by the attention and press that this effort will attract.

Brunelli has been competing since she was 7 years old – racing go-karts, quads, Modifieds and Late Models. She is in her second year driving for Revolution Racing in the D4D program and competes in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series. In 2010, she registered six top-five and 10 top-10 finishes in 19 races in that series.

In 2009, she competed in the Modified division at All American Speedway in Roseville – where she finished third in points and had 10 top-five and 13 top-10 finishes. She also raced in two Late Model events at the Roseville track, notching a top-10 finish.

Brunelli has also been involved in several driver development programs, including the Lyn St. James Women in the Winner’s Circle Academy.

Naake Motorsports is headed by Mike Naake, a veteran driver, car builder and shock specialist on the West Coast. Naake’s No. 88 Chevrolet finished fifth in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West race at Roseville in April.

We are actively seeking additional marketing partners to help fund this operation.

To learn how you can become a sponsor and marketing partner with the Racers Drive team, contact Mike Cesario at mike@racersdrive.com or 408-220-3167.

Racers Drive, is a Los Gatos, CA based motorsports marketing management organization which acts as a matchmaker and motor sports advocate for drivers, race teams and marketing partners alike.

-Racers Drive Press Release

The USAC Western Classic Racing Series comes to All American Speedway this Saturday May 14th, for a pavement sprint car race honoring Larry Burton. These are the fastest cars to race at Roseville each year. NCMA Sprints, USAC Ford Focus Midgets, Legends and local Quarter Midget racers will also be in action. The Whitney High School color guard & marching band will performing as well along with a live band in the midway.

Larry Burton, known as the “Roseville Rocket”, passed away in 2007 at the age of 73. According to Bobby Gerould of HammerDownUSA, “Burton was one of the best racers to ever turn a wheel in Northern California and Nevada.” He won a Gold Cup and five track championships at West Capital Raceway in West Sacramento and one in Roseville in 1955. Later he became a race promoter in Roseville and Carson City.

The USAC Western Classic Racing Series is a new series this year combining 8 races on pavement and 8 races on dirt. This race is also part of the USAC Western Sprint Car Series, which consists of 14 races on pavement in California, Utah and Idaho. Last year’s Series Champion, Tony Hunt from Lincoln has to be one of the favorites to win Saturday night in Roseville. He is currently the points leader in the Western Sprint Car series and 2nd in the Western Classic series. Tony, who is one of the best in the country on pavement, gets to race on dirt again for 8 races this year. It should be interesting to see how quickly he rises to the top throughout the year.

Pit gates open at 1 p.m. with fan gates opening at 4:00pm. Qualifying is scheduled for 4:30 with racing to begin at 6:00pm!

Ticket prices:
Adult $15
Student/Military/Senior $12
Juniors 7-15 $10
6 and under Free
Ticket information is available at (916) 864-8722.

For more info please visit the Larry Burton Classic facebook page.

All American Speedway
800 All America City Blvd
Roseville, CA

By Ashley Schindler of The NASCAR Corner

I’ve recently had the privilege to meet a wonderful woman named Terri Cass, who is the owner of Team Cass Racing. For you who follow the K&N Pro Series West, you know who she is and what her team is about, but for those who don’t here’s a great opportunity to catch up on an awesome team! So sit back, relax, and enjoy an interview with Terri Cass.

How did Team Cass Racing start?

“Jim and I came from Sprint cars at Ascot years ago. We stopped racing due to the kids and our growing family. When my youngest son was in ninth grade Auto Shop, he came home and asked to build a drag. I told him if we would build anything, it would be a stock car, end of discussion. So we built a Super Stock and started racing weekly at Irwindale Speedway. We spent two years in Super Stock. Our first driver was Kenny White, then Johnny White. We then went into Late Models with Johnny as our driver. With him, we broke the track record in qualifying. Then we moved to Super Lates for one year, and from there we moved to Camping World, which is now the K&N Pro Series. In this series, we have had three drivers: Chris Johnson (whom I adore), Auggie Vidovich (who won the July 4th race at Irwindale in 2010) and now we have Jason Fensler. No more driver changes for us, we have found the equation that works.”

How long have you owned the team?

“We have been in stock cars for eight to ten years now with plenty of ups and downs.”

How does it feel to be a woman in the world of NASCAR?

“Men look at me like I don’t know anything, then we start talking about the cars and blow their minds with knowledge.”

Does the K&N Pro Series West do a lot of travelling?

“Yes, we travel the western United States, so we go to Iowa, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Montana and Northern and Southern California.”

Do you feel a small team has more of an advantage because you only have to work on two cars?

“We have two cars and each track requires different setups, so one car is always being worked on.”

Does religion play an important role to you?

“Religion does! I listen to my Christian music on my iPod before each race for meditation and pray my rump off; first for the safety of the drivers and then for a good finish.”

How does it feel to have won last week?

“Winning? Awesome! The best feeling ever that we as a team have accomplished a goal together and have had fun doing it. Jason raced one heck of a race, and we are very pleased with him over all. His personality, driving ability, fan interaction (which is very important) and his willingness to do what we ask of him with the media (which he is not used to, but he does). When Jason went three wide on the track in Roseville, I thought I was going to have a heart attack! He did great, and put on a show for the fans!“

Terri is a very appreciative woman, and would like to say a special thanks to her team with all of their hard work, Rene’a Bracken for all of the media exposure, Roger Bracken for being the best crew chief ever, their sponsors (Pick N Pull, MtFX Graphics and Simple Green), all of the fans for their support and most importantly, the military. “I have two sons, both serving our country (one in the Navy helping in Japan) and the other in the Army, fresh home from Afghanistan. I would like to thank our troops and their families as I know the sacrifices made for freedom and safety. My nephew is in the National Guard and my daughter’s boyfriend is in the Air Force.”

Thank you, Terri, for taking the time out Friday morning to answer these questions for me. I know I appreciate it and the readers appreciate it! If you want to learn more about Team Cass Racing, friend them on click here or check out their website www.teamcassracing.com.

All photos are courtesy of Team Cass Racing.

To follow Jason Fensler’s progress please visit his driver page at www.racing-reference.info.

Our thanks to Ashley Schindler who generously allowed us to reprint her excellent article and interview here on NorCal Car Culture. Hopefully there will be more to follow.

Ashley Schindler is a student and serious NASCAR fan from New York, studying journalism and public relations. She hopes to someday be a PR representative for a NASCAR team or a race reporter. She has a great website called The NASCAR Corner where she shares her interesting take on the world of racing. Ashley known as nascarchick_3 on Twitter, has over 650 followers. Her tweets are sometimes informative but always entertaining. I think she is well on her way to becoming an established NASCAR journalist.