History of the Winter Showdown – Rain & No Power in 2019

As we approach the 8th running of the ‘Winter Showdown’ at Kern County Raceway on March 25th, we look back at the previous seven races dating back to February 2015. In 2019, rain plagued race week, in fact the race was almost cancelled due to the seven day forecast with rain predicted all seven days, including race day. The decision was made to move forward with the race when teams from Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Washington and Colorado were already on the raceway grounds early Monday morning of race week. On race day blue skies prevailed. The 36 car field was set for the afternoon start time, until a power pole fell over two miles from the track and all power was lost at Kern County Raceway. Other than the elevator stopping with an event sponsor inside, the PA, scoring system and caution lights not working, a plan was put in place to make the race happen – and we raced until darkness fell on lap 172. The call was made that if the power was not restored in exactly one hour, then leader Ty Majeski would be declared the winner of the 2019 Winter Showdown. When the timer went off after one hour Majeski and his team from Wisconsin were declared the winners. Eight minutes after the trophy was handed to the 91 team, the lights came back on. The official top five was Majeski, Derek Thorn, Preston Peltier, Willie Allen and Ryan Reed in the Richie Wauters #5.