NASCAR Touring & Weekly Notebook - Gilliland enjoys hot start

It’s a busy weekend for the Touring & Weekly divisions of the NASCAR Hometracks program with one series kicking off its season combined with positive news of a NASCAR Whelen All-American Series track in Virginia reopening after lying dormant for over a year.

It also looks as if the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West championship will go through the Bill McAnally Racing stables as that team is off to a great start.

Defending champion and third-generation driver, Todd Gilliland, started from the pole in all four races and has won three in a row highlighted by the doubleheader sweep last weekend at Irwindale (Calif.) Speedway.

For his efforts, Gilliland netted $10,000 for winning three of the first four races in the NAPA 500 Challenge and his teammate, Chris Eggleston, also pocketed $5,000 for being one of two drivers to finish in the top five in the first four races as part of the program. Will Rodgers was the only other driver to finish in the top five in all four events.

Gilliland leads Eggleston by 13 points in the battle for his second consecutive West crown (186-173) with the next race slated for May 13 at Spokane County Raceway.

It will be a homecoming for Nicole Behar who’s from Spokane and sits fourth in the standings, nine points behind third-place Rodgers.

Langley Speedway opens Saturday

After over a year of court battles and negotiations, Bill Mullis is now the sole owner of Langley Speedway property and equipment at the historic facility and he’ll reopen the track Saturday night with a full slate of racing.

Mullis had been leasing the property with the landowner and negotiated to buy the property outright and those negotiations took over a year to finalize and complete which allow the Virginia businessman and former racer the opportunity to resume operations.

Longtime track promoter Chuck Hall returns to lead daily operations at the track that first opened for auto racing in 1950. The track will feature 11 divisions competing throughout the season. Opening night will feature Late Models, Super Street, Super Truck, Legends and Bandoleros.

The Langley Modifieds, Grand Stock, Pro Six, UCAR and Enduros are slated to open their season next Saturday. Also listed on the schedule for 2017 will be the HRKC Wing Champ Karts.