Story and Imagery by Stephen Justice

Mike Brundage pocketed a cool grand with his win in Super Pro.

With Northern California nestled below a protective dome of high pressure, Sacramento Raceway Park’s immensely popular New Year’s Day Drags kicked off the track’s 2012 season under a beautiful blue sky. A shirt sleeved crowd of fans were treated to plenty of thrilling and tightly contested racing as close to 200 sportsman competitors showed up to duke it out in Super Pro, Pro ET, Sportsman, Street, and Motorcycle classes.

It was also race number one at Sacramento Raceway for those racers participating in the Summit E.T. Racing Series. Indexes for the classes are 7.00-11.99 for Super Pro; 10.00-13.99 for Pro; 12.00-19.99 for Sportsman; and, 7.50-15.99 for Super Pro Motorcycle. Last year, Steve Parrish of Richmond represented Sacramento Raceway (and Division 7) at the national finals held at the Auto Club Raceway in Pomona.

For the New Year’s Day Drags, a purse of $4,000 was up for grabs. Therefore, it was no surprise that some of the competitors looked a little edgy by the time it got around to the final rounds. Of the five classes contested, red lights settled two final rounds, and another was decided by the break-out rule.