East-West amateur driving challenge
set for March
Friday,
February 23, 2007 - by David Siegel
Sacramento Harness Association
(SHA) has set the dates for the second annual East-West
Invitational Driving Challenge. It will be hosted at the
Cal-Expo oval on Friday and Saturday, March 30 and 31.
SHA has invited “Team East” which will be comprised of five
of the nation’s top ten C.K.G. Billings Drivers. “Team West”
is made up of five California-based drivers invited by SHA
to compete.
Michelle Ruvola (44-Illinois), Joe Faraldo (61-New York),
Peter Gerry (61-New Jersey), Gene Miller (63-Michigan) and
Todd Whitney (44-Maine) round out the geographically and
age-diversified East team. This team, loaded with
experience, will take on the relatively inexperienced
upstarts from the Golden State – David Siegel (48), Benny
Alvarez (34), Jim Foley (20), Alan Kirschenbaum (45) and
James Guagliardo (27). In 2006, the home field advantage
prevailed over experience with the West Team nudging out the
East Team for top honors.
The winners will be determined by a point system. The six
race series will feature a random driver draw and a variety
of classes.
California amateur racing, which was reborn in 2005 during
the California State Fair, has enjoyed much interest from
the wagering public, and have averaged equal or higher
handles than similarly slotted non-amateur events.
“We are so thrilled by the ‘Challenge’ coming next month,”
commented California Amateur Driving Club (CADC) president
David Siegel. We have a solid amateur program in place, with
a revised format for our upcoming spring series starting in
April. We have a wonderful mix of owners, trainers,
assistant trainers and grooms racing here in our amateur
events and this event is a great kick-off to our spring
events. We are also so very lucky to have horsemen who
clearly understand both the short-term and long-term
benefits of a solid amateur program. Ours is already paying
some dividends to the backstretch.”
Siegel went on to say, “the highlight of our program is now
the annual East-West Challenge. The public will get to see
and wager on six very interesting races with a great new
twist. Our guests get to experience driving on a new track
in a different neck of the woods. Our professional drivers
get to watch and be excited or amused, whatever the case
might be as we try to upset these Billings pilots, but most
of all, five of us get to drive in an awesome event.”
Sacramento Harness Association General Manager and USTA
director Chris Schick commented, “We really think this is an
exciting concept and expect it to be very competitive once
again in 2007 and provide for great viewing and wagering.”
C.K.G. Billings president and 2007 participant, Peter Gerry,
commented, “We appreciate the California Club’s efforts and
the SHA’s cooperation with this great program. After hearing
about what a great time our 2006 representatives had, too
many of our members wanted to come represent the East this
year. What a nice problem to have!”
To help promote the event, TrackMaster, provider of harness
racing information to the wagering public and USTA partner,
will be offering free handicapping products for the race
days of the Challenge.
More information is available at the CADC web site at
www.thecadc.com
