After a great 2007 season of racing within the California Lightning Sprints, the crowning of a Championship to Shane Rosson, a banner year seeing new and exciting club sponsors, bringing in record dollars and record payouts, we are on the brink of the season opener for a wonderful new year of racing in the CLS ahead of us all.

Last year saw a record year for car registrations within the club, with some new and exciting teams bringing their style and speed infused within the club, injecting a faster and better equiped form of racing to all of the tracks and fans that the cars performed at.

With the 1200 cc motor and the throw-out rule being adopted into the 2007 rule books last year, we were witness to some of the greatest racing that this club has every shared in.

Well, it all came down to the very last race of the season, without even fully understanding it because of the rainout at Barona, that our Champ was finally crowned. As it should be!

After a great banquet and some new rule changes, we enter into a new round of “Chasing the CLS Crown” for the 2008 Season Championship. If you are anything at all like me, or any other racer I know of, this has already become your primary obssession.

With NASCAR getting started as we speak (way to go Dale Jr.), and me working on all my “Honey-do’s” as early as possible (do you think my neighbors hate me for starting my snow blower up at 8:00 AM on sunday morning ?), just so I can make it to my ‘fully equiped” easy chair for the “Nascar-thirty” starting times. I feel the need…the need for Speed…Channel!

Thank goodness that I still get my Sprint Car & Midget Magazine delivered to my door, as I tend to use this as reading material in my “oval office”, especially when I’m working very early in the AM, just to satisfy my “FIX”!

You know what I mean, as we race freaks tend to rise before any crows are flying, conjure up a 5 gallon vat of blacker-than-black cowboy coffee, swallow a quart of it before we ever even taste it, and then…run off to our “oval office” to do some paperwork! At this time of the year, even the non-stop fishing shows that start at 4:00 AM, won’t pique my interest very long, as I find myself grabbing for the remote,non-stop channel surfing, looking for anything that has a motor, goes fast, and has someone stupid enough to push it to the limits.

Hell, I watched BOG RACING racing from the everglades the other day. Geez…what a friggin mess that was! Ya see, between all the competitors combined, I believe there was only one full set of teeth, and only three different families. They seem to do a little too much in-breeding down there, and the gene-pool seems very shallow at the deep end!

“But golleeyy, Nina jean M. sure opened up a can of whup-ass on her 3rd uncle on her mama’s side”. “They pull to the track together, amongst other things we can’t discuss here”!

Oh well…back to point! This year at the “Rules Change Meeting” we elected some new faces, changed a couple of rules, and straightened out a couple of things. No more throw-out races! So, don’t plan on taking that long-awaited trip down to the Everglades to visit your second cousin,you know…the one who races swamp-boats, while the season is on-N-crackin! That’s how we roll this year and…it is what it is!

On February 2nd some of the Lightnings went out to Opening Day Testing at the Perris Auto Speedway. This is such a great place to be on this day, as everyone is very excited to back in the saddle again. Word has it that Shane Rosson was, once again, the fast man on the track, with a new car & motor, and is getting set to defend his 2007 CLS Championship.

Brent Sexton, Stuart Hielscher & Stuey Jr., Derek Hyde, Bill Johnson, Guy Maresch,Twink Kramer, Chris Dickey, The Gansen Gang (360 sprint), David Bezio (410 sprint), Good Ole Mel (Circle Track Auto) and the new driver of the old Christian Stover car (don’t know your name yet) were all seen mingling around the in-field, along with many others!

Heard that a great time was had by all, especially seeing that the weather held up nicely. This year “The PAS” will be the home track, center of attention, for the California Lightning Sprints, along with other tracks such as Ventura Raceway, Victorville, Santa Maria & Bakersfield.

Check out the 2008 schedule on this site, as it is really going to be a terrific year of racing at some real nice tracks that fill their grandstands to the limits with loud raucous, knowledgable fans.

Brent Sexton (CLS President) has done another great
job of securing these locations for the club to display our insane brand of MAYHEM. It appears that the reputation of the mighty California Lightning Sprints has grown again. That’s what I’m talking about!

The first race of the 2008 season will be held at the famed 1/2 mile Perris Auto Speedway on March 8th. This year the boys will be on the same show as the 410 Sprints when at The PAS, and will be performing their madness in front of the sold out stadium, with NATIONAL exposure to be a certainty. Rumor has it that there could possibly be some regional sports programming in the mix when the boys are at The PAS. Wouldn’t that be awesome?

Well, with some of our boys leaving the CLS ranks to enter their next phase of racing, I’d like to wish David Bezio, The Gansen Gang and Christian Stover Racing all the success in the world at your next level of racing. It was great racing with you all! We’ll be watching out for you guys, and please drop me an E-mail occassionally to keep me informed on things.

I want to wish everyone another great season of racing in the CLS, welcome to all the new-comers email me on pit-chatter with your email info please–so I can get it right), and lets “Chase the Crown” again.

As they say in NASCAR…maybe they really don’t…
Gentlemen…Start Your CHECKBOOKS!

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!
Charlie Johnson - Team #99
Lug-Nut-Twister and Teller-of-Tall-Tales

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 1st, 2008 at 7:02 pm and is filed under News & Tales. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.