Stockton 99 Speedway opens with John Medina Memorial
STOCKTON — Tony Noceti was all smiles as the blaring race car engines revved when the drivers entered the track at Stockton 99 Speedway.
After months of waiting for the “go ahead” from San Joaquin County Official, and preparing a safe return, Noceti was officially able to open the racing season at the track with numerous, despite the rising coronavirus case total in the county.
“Folks want to race. We are running a day race, trying to work with the COVID situation. We don’t feel it is as effective out in the fresh air and in the sun,” Noceti said. “Folks want to get out and race. We have been shut down about 3 ? months so far and now they want to get back into it. Its summer time.”
Stockton 99 Speedway hosted the John Medina Memorial, in honor of the late John Medina who frequently competed at the track. With the front doors closed to the public in accordance to county guidelines, around 100 spectators, mostly family and pit crews of drivers, distanced themselves throughout the speedway grandstands.
“Usually the stands are anywhere from half to three-quarters full, and not a lot of people mingling so it’s weird with less people,” Don Medina, John’s brother, said. “But there are a lot of cars that showed up today. Obviously these guys were ready to get back to racing because there is a great turnout today.”
Medina, 54, said he wasn’t “concerned” about the potential threat of COVID19 at the event because he believed the Noceti did his best to make the experience safe for everyone on the grounds.
Noceti implemented numerous health precautions to make races at Stockton 99 Speedway as safe as possible this season. Upon entering the grounds every person received a temperature check, and if results came back too high they were immediately sent home. Noceti said there weren’t any such cases of that on Saturday.
Each person also filled out a COVID-19 form informing them of potential risks. And sanitizer stations were placed throughout the pits. One precaution that wasn’t taken was mandatory masks for drivers, families or other spectators.
Noceti said visitors could make that conscientious decision for themselves. And even without masks, most drivers kept distance from the rest of the crowd.
“I think you basically just have to stay safe and everybody kind of stay to themselves and just try to get through this day, keep pushing forward and hope that things get better,” 55year-old Stockton driver Larry Tenkersley said.
Like Tenkersley, most drivers were itching to get back into their cars and on to the track and planned to cooperate with every health protocol Noceti set in order to race again.
“We are all family here, so we are all here to have fun,” 28-year-old Stockton driver Barret Sugden said. You can only stay cooped up for so long. We are keeping the 6 feet rule as best as we can. We are all here pretty much to have fun, do things that we like to do and try to not let this COVID thing screw us all up. We cant just stop doing what you love because of something. You go to Walmart or Target there isn’t people wearing facemasks. There is people keeping 6 feet, so why punish us. I respect Gov. Gavin Newsom on what he says, but its good that Tony worked his (expletive) off to get us to be able to race again with restrictions, which is fine.”
Noceti said he doesn’t expect fans to be allowed to pack the track grandstands on July 4 when Stockton 99 Speedway hosts Ron Strmiska Firecracker. But as long as he is told the track is open for business, Noceti plans to speed forward with more races.
“We hope we keep this thing going through the rest of the year,” Noceti said.