LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – It was a change for once that the drivers had the upper hand on Mother Nature, but it happened last weekend at the Lakeport and Ukiah speedways.

Mother Nature only took a little chunk of time out of the racing practice that happened at Ukiah Speedway last weekend, with the drivers only losing an hour of practice time but that is only part of the story.

The racing practice action started the weekend off at Lakeport Speedway where there were a lot of excited drivers and fans on hand to take to the track and try out their new cars for the year.

Everyone was really excited about the new adventure that the two speedways have embarked on for the 2013 racing season.

Practice also was packed at Ukiah Speedway with cars from every division on hand to try out the track for the first time for the 2013 Lakeport Ukiah Challenge Series events.

The Ukiah Flat Track racing season also kicked off this weekend with the first race of the season for the riders.

There were bikes in all nine divisions on hand to put on a very exciting show for the fans that was there. Looking back in the crowd there were young and old all sitting on the edge of their seat watching the very intense action on the track, as the riders went side by side in very exciting racing in all divisions.

In the PeeWee division it was Clancy Williamson out of Ukiah that took the win followed by Jesse Debaca and Joey.

In the 65/125 it was Branden Weller lighting the track on fire during the race followed in a close second by Ava Williamson of Ukiah who put on a very strong showing.

It was the first time for local circle track racer Forrest Kuecker to take to a flat track race and he ended up scoring third place in the Open Dtx Division with the win in the division going to Chris Baker of Petaluma who was running handle bar to handle bar with Kevin Keeran.

Making the tow up to Ukiah Flat track from Rodeo Michael Mannion was the rider that had the best showing for the weekend taking the win in the 230 Premier Division followed by Brian Pecore and Armando Miranda of Cloverdale. Michael Mannion did not stop there he went on to place second in the Vet Mini Division and went on to win the 150 Production Division besting Tony Monteleore of Petaluma and David Larkin.

Some of the most exciting riding came in the vintage division where it saw the Vintage LightWeight main event go to Steve Beretta of Santa Rosa followed on the #49 bike of Logan Orsisin of Eureka.

The Vintage open division saw the #925h of Gary Durbin take the win, with Jimmy Clarke taking second followed by Tim Niles of Lakeport.

Now the largest race to watch of the night posted 15 bikes on the track at one time testing the scoring staff for this very action packed race that saw the leaders weaving in and out of the lapped traffic making his way to the checker.

At the checkers it was Chris Baker of Petaluma, followed by Ted Tannagni and Jimmy Clarke.

The racing action continues this weekend at Ukiah Speedway for the opening night of the 2013 Lakeport Ukiah Challenge series with the gates opening at 3:30 p.m. and the racing action starting off at 5 p.m.

Racing on the opening nights events will be the Bombers, Jammers, Volvo Rent Mini Stocks, Extreme Asphalt Outlaws and the Legend Cars.

For complete event details for this weekend events visit www.ukiahspeedway.com and make sure to like them on Facebook.