Eddie Tafoya Jr. returns to racing in the USAC/CRA Sprint Car Series this Saturday night, June 19th, at Perris Auto Speedway. With this week’s reopening of the state of California, Saturday’s race will be the first time the 25-year-old track has been able to sell walk up tickets to fans in 15 months.
Saturday’s race will be the first for Tafoya and the USAC/CRA Series since the May 22nd Salute to Indy which was also contested at Perris. Things will be busier for the Chino Hills, California based #51T team in the next four weeks. Two weeks from Saturday on July 3rd, the racing will switch to the Santa Maria Raceway for the first of two 2021 appearances. Two weeks after that, the action will be back at Perris for the fourth time of the season.
At the May 22nd race, Tafoya qualified 10th fastest in the 26-car field. He placed fifth in his heat race and then easily outdistanced the competition in the 12-lap B Main. That placed the young driver in the 10th starting spot for the 30-lap Salute To Indy main event. In what turned out to be one of the wildest races in the track’s 25-year history, the 23-year-old stayed out of the chaos and crashing around him. Late in the race, he was all the way up to second. However, due to the multitude of yellow flags from the crashing, he ended up running out of fuel and finished 18th.
With the three races in the next four weeks, Tafoya should be able to climb in the point standings. He heads into Saturday’s seventh USAC/CRA race of 2021 in an uncharacteristic 25th place in the championship point standings. However, due to uncontrollable circumstances, he really only has two complete shows under his belt this year. One of those was the aforementioned Salute to Indy when bad luck knocked him out of the race. His best finish so far this season was an eighth at Perris in April.
For fans who would like to see Tafoya compete in person at Saturday’s race in Perris, spectator gates will open at 5:00 p.m. and the first race will take the green flag at 7:00. Tickets are available at the gate on Saturday or online 24-hours a day at www.tix.com. The track is located on the Lake Perris Fairgrounds at 18700 Lake Perris Drive in Perris (92571). The office phone number is 951 940-0134 and the website is www.perrisautospeedway.com.
Fans can get one of the team’s great looking new shirts (picture below) and meet the team in the pits after any of the upcoming USAC/CRA races. For those who cannot make it to the track, contact Eddie Tafoya Jr. on his Instagram or Facebook pages and he will get you all set up.
Eddie Tafoya PR
