Catchfence

The Napa and Sonoma Valleys grow more than just grapes. They also grow race car drivers.

Napa’s Brad Lloyd and Sonoma’s Paul Pedroncelli, Jr. will be racing in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West race, the Thunder Valley Casino Resort 200, on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. at Infineon Raceway.

The race is part of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Toyota Save Mart 350 race weekend in the Sonoma Valley.

The K&N Pro Series is the top developmental series for NASCAR. It’s where drivers hone their skills before trying to move up to Nationwide or Sprint Cup.

Lloyd has a lot of experience at the track. He has raced go-karts, Formula V, and Southwest Tour cars there. He said he has raced about 1,000 laps at the track just in his Southwest Tour car alone. “I’m hoping to use that to my advantage this weekend,” Lloyd said.

He also said his disadvantage will be not having had much seat time in the K&N car, since this will be the first K&N Pro Series race he will compete in this year.

“It is just a matter of getting used to the car very quickly,” Lloyd said. “We need to get the setup right for qualifying to make the race.”

Rockingham Speedway owner Andy Hillenburg has tested Lloyd in a NASCAR Camping World Series truck at the Speedway.

Hillenburg is set to race Lloyd in the truck race in Phoenix in October, as well as racing him in the ARCA Series — but before he can do that, he needs corporate sponsorship backing.

Lloyd also said it’s very exciting to be racing at Infineon Raceway, and that all his friends, family, and sponsors will come out to see him race.

“It’s very important for us to get a good finish,” he added.

- Napa Valley Register