1996 Fairground Raceway
Santa Maria, California

July 13, 1996 - Santa Maria Speedway

From: Gary Roberts

What a great opening night. Big crowd, and lot of exciting racing. I didn't see as much as I would like because I spent the night as pit crew for Phil Collins. The track held out well, although got a bit bumpy towards the end.

This is the first of what will be a weekly event at Santa Maria Speedway with meetings going on until the end of October. From the customer feedback I heard, everyone and more will be back next week.

Scratch Main:
1. Gary Hicks
2. Andy Northrup
3. Bobby Hedden
4. Phil Collins

Handicap Main:
1. Eddie Castro
2. Andy Northrup
3. Rick Pearce
4. John Aden
5. Bobby Hedden
6. Jake Zemke
7. Phil Collins
8. Randy DiFrancesco

Support Main:
1. Paul Binnquist
2. Matt King
3. Josh May
4. Bill Lyons
5. Bryan Thompson
6. Terry McCurdy

Phil Collins did an outstanding job organizing the building of the track, which started 5 days ago! He also fitted in the recruitment of advertisers and 3 press conferences. He was working 16 hour days all week which showed at the end of the evening. He won all but one of his qualifying heats. In both the scratch and handicap mains he was up to second place before exhaustion took over. The scratch semifinal he didn't win was won by Gary Hicks after Phil and Gary changed places several times, probably the most exciting race of the evening. Phil maintains that he has retired from racing and is adamant that these one off races will not become a regular thing. He has been holding training schools at Auburn and some of his students were among the new names last night. He is hoping to develop more local talent as the season progresses. Also competing, but not qualifying for either main was Jim Estes. Jim, who had a great season last year, especially at the now-closed Glen Helen, made a less than spectacular comeback.