The first-ever IMCA Sport Compact race at Perris Auto Speedway was held March 19, and Menifee driver Ken McWilliams won both his heat race and the main event.
“It was a good race and a good track,” McWilliams said.
The 40-year-old McWilliams noted that Perris had a Sport Compact class in the past. The four-cylinder Hornet division was renamed the Sport Compact division in 2006. McWilliams began his Perris Auto Speedway driving career in the Hornet class. The International Motor Contest Association did not sanction the Sport Compact class which had been the Hornet class, so the 2022 season is the first Sport Compact class at Perris with IMCA recognition.
Perris also has a Mini Stocks division, and McWilliams has driven his 2002 Chevrolet Cavalier in that. In late 2020, he purchased the Cavalier and also drives it in the Sport Compact classes at Barona Speedway and Ventura Raceway. McWilliams actually debuted the car at Cocopah Speedway in Arizona and finished third. His first win in the Cavalier was in the Mohave Speedway (Arizona) season opener in February 2021.
The March 19 heat race was six laps. McWilliams took the original green flag on the outside of the first row and led for the entire race. “I just hammered it down and drove it in deep,” he said.
That gave him the initial lead, and he held on for the remaining 5-1/2 laps. “The car wasn’t running that great after a couple of laps,” McWilliams said.
McWilliams’ crew consisted of Antoine LeBlanc, Amber McWilliams, Jose Sandoval and Tony Santos.
McWilliams and his crew sought to identify the problem. “We tried to fix it for the main event,” he said.
They were unable to figure out the cause. “We’re still working on it,” McWilliams said.
No setup changes were made on the Cavalier between the heat race and the main event. “There’s not really much you can change on those cars,” McWilliams said.
Perris Auto Speedway is a half-mile dirt oval, and the track surface may change between the late afternoon and the nighttime. The Cavalier had few problems with the track surface during the heat race. “It was good. It was a little more wet for my liking,” McWilliams said.
McWilliams noted that for the heat race he depressed the gas pedal slower than he normally does.
The main event tends to be contested in cooler weather than the heat races, which impacts the track. “It changed a little bit. It dried up a little bit but not too much. It was actually a pretty good track through the whole night,” McWilliams said.
The winner of the heat race picks the numbered ball to determine how many of the top heat race finishers are inverted to begin the main event. The inversion pill McWilliams picked gave him a start on the outside of the second row to begin the 20-lap feature.
Murrieta driver Edward Finger, whose car number is 83, had the initial lead. “I followed the 83 car,” McWilliams said.
During the second lap of the main event McWilliams passed Finger on the outside. Finger would take second place. “He was pretty quick,” McWilliams said.
The race had no yellow flag cautions. “It was a pretty clean race. I just kept trying to take different lines to see if I could stay on the gas longer,” McWilliams said.
McWilliams first encountered lapped traffic about the eighth lap. “There was a new guy in a brand new car. He was just kind of learning the car,” McWilliams said.
Passing the lapped cars wasn’t a difficulty for McWilliams, and he maintained the lead for the final laps. “I was just trying to be smooth and hit my marks,” he said.
This year McWilliams is sponsored by CrossFit Murrieta, Jose’s Tractor and One Shot Printing.
McWilliams has lived in Menifee since he was in fifth grade at Menifee Elementary School. He was born in Torrance and lived in Long Beach before his family became Riverside County residents, moving initially to Corona and then to Menifee. He graduated from Paloma Valley High School in 1999. Perris Auto Speedway opened in 1996 when McWilliams was 14. He watched races at the track before making his driving debut in the Hornet class.
He has also raced in the Street Stocks division and in the Figure 8, Trailer Figure 8 and Demo Cross classes at Perris Auto Speedway. McWilliams was the Trailer Figure 8 season champion at Perris in both 2016 and 2017. The first-ever Mini Stocks race at Perris Auto Speedway was in July 2018; McWilliams won both the six-lap heat race and the 15-lap main event with a 2005 Toyota Corolla. Last year McWilliams finished fifth in the Figure 8 season standings and sixth in the Trailer Figure 8 standings.
The Perris, Barona and Ventura tracks are collaborating for a state IMCA Sport Compact season championship this year. “I’m trying to go for state,” McWilliams said.
Joe Naiman can be reached by email at jnaiman@reedermedia.com.
