This excellent feature was contributed by
Marty Kobata.
He gathered, scanned, and described a bunch of California Supermodified info from the 70s.
Volumes 1 and 2: - Pictures from the 1972 Golden State Classic. This was the second year
of the series and Nick Rescino emerged with the series championship. "I attended the series opener at Roseville's 1/4 mile All American Speedway. Notable for me
for my one opportunity to see Ollie Silva race. Unfortunately I don't remember a lot about the
race, except that almost no one could pass!! The track has very tight turns, and there's only one
groove. If you got out of the groove, you basically got freight-trained. So everyone stayed on the
bottom and played follow the leader. Silva won the A-main from the outside front row, Dennis Hicks
won the B from the pole, Jack Conley won the C from the pole, and Boll Deschamps took the trophy
dash, again, from the pole."
Volumes 3 and 4: - Pictures from the 1973 Golden State Classic. This was the third year of
the series and Howard Kaeding won the series championship. "I again attended the Roseville race, and AGAIN there was no passing!!! All the winners came
out of the first or second row. Dave Bowling won the A-main from the pole. Dick Whalen won the B
from the second row, Steve Chambers won the C from the outside front row, Larry Cordiero won the
Consy from the second row. Howard Kaeding won the Trophy Dash. I think the officials finally got
tired of the no-passing races, this was the last Classic race at Roseville."
Volumes 5, 6 and 7: - Pictures from the 1974 Golden West Classic. "The series changes it's name to the Golden West Classic due to the race at T-Car Speedway in
Nevada. I attended the October 26 race at Stockton, another tight ¼ mile track. There was a
little more passing on this day. Nick Ringo won the A-main, Todd Gibson the B, George Robertson
the C, Earle Stanton the C, and Gary Patterson won the Trophy Dash."
Volumes 8 and 9: - Pictures from the 1975 Golden West Classic. "I finally saw a great race on the ½ mile pavement at Altamont Speedway. (The same Altamont
Speedway made infamous by the Rolling Stones). Todd Gibson won the A-main in his "Flinstone Flyer"
rear engine car, with Roy Smith second in his wedge and fast qualifier Nick Rescino coming from
the back of the pack to take third. Rendy Boldrini won the B, Ed Evans (in a car sponsored by
Nevada's infamous Mustang Ranch Brothel) won the C, Dave Ricketts won the Consy, and Wendell
Chambers won the "Australian Pursuit Trophy Dash". In the Dash, if you got passed you were
eliminated from the race."
Volume 10: - Nick Rescino - The transformation of a paved track super to dirt. "When San Jose Speedway closed in1977, Nick Rescino started making the 90 mile trip to Sacramento to run
at West Capitol Raceway on the 1/4 mile dirt track. Needless to say, his pavement super wasn't exactly
well-suited to the heavy, tacky clay oval. So he started slowly transforming the car into a dirt-track car.
The photos here depict the transformation."
Volume 11: - 1974 Johnny Key Memorial 150 race. "Some photos from the 1974 Johnny Key Memorial 150, the biggest race annually at San Jose. This was a race
only for the locals, to qualify for this race, you had to have at least 5 previous appearances at the weekly
shows and finish among the top 5 non-qualifiers in the previous 5 weeks to get into the show. The lineup was
straight-up season points. The San Jose track was a fast, high banked 1/3 mile track that featured lots of
passing. At one 150 lap race I attended (I think) in 1975, it was reported that Howard Kaeding and Nick
Rescino passed each other 78 times!!!"
