EDITOR’S NOTE

THE GOLDEN STATE SHOOTOUT – SACRAMENTO RACEWAY APRIL 24TH

This time last year during the first few quarantine weeks, I was trying to find a way to go drag racing. Everything was closed or at least heavily restricted and I was worried about the health of the diesel performance industry. You know that horsepower and nitrous fueled feeling you get driving home with your foot on the floor from a really great diesel event? I was afraid the lack of that feeling, the lack of that adrenaline rush (plus the general financial unknown that existed then), would really hurt the industry. I made the decision to find a way to get our event season back, somehow someway. I had no clue how until waking up one morning in April. Scrolling through Instagram I came across some guys who were having their own private race of sorts at an old shut down oval track. Several guys were racing around the track while a couple others were live streaming it with their phones. Lightbulb moment, that was it, that’s what we needed to do. So long story short, on Memorial Day Weekend 2020, at Wagler Motorsports Park we held a legit drag race while most of the country was still under stay at home orders. The event was called a Testing Session for multiple reasons but went just like any race would, except, it was closed to the public, invite only for the racers, and was live streamed to around 260k people watching from home. It was a blast. Just the thing we all needed after being cooped up for a couple months.

Fast forward to September 2020, the country had been for the most part open for several months. The idea then was to do several events in 2021. So we moved forward on that plan. Well, the first event is coming up very quickly. Dubbed the Golden State Shootout, it’s going down April 24th at Sacramento Raceway and unlike the 2020 Memorial Day event, this one is 100% open to the public. The event will have multiple classes of drag racing, a dyno competition, massive 350+ vehicle truck show plus a burnout/ donut area. Drag racing will consist of Diesel Drags via the Hole Shot Series (haven’t heard of it? Go to our website and search Hole Shot Series), plus a Gas vs Diesel Grudge race. The dyno competition will be part of the Northwest Dyno Circuit, you know, the same dyno used at Ultimate Callout Challenge in Indianapolis. Payouts will exist for racing and the dyno competition with special goodies for the winners of the other two events. Come check it out, but if you can’t, you can always watch the live feed on our Facebook page (@dieselworldmag).

We’ll be having 3-more like events this year. One in Lyons Indiana in early Summer, another in Texas late Summer/early Fall and the last on September 11th in Spokane Washington. And remember all these plus tons of other truck events will be live streamed on ours and our sister mag Streettruck’s Facebook pages.

So that’s gonna be my year. On top of everything else, we’ll have 16 events to live stream with four being hosted by us. All goes well, 2022 is going to be even bigger. I’ll see you out there.