by David Siegel

Sacramento, CA — The brainchild of former California harness racing secretary Dave Goldschmidt is now going into its fourth year. The 2009 installment of the East-West Amateur Driving Challenge will take place on April 24 and 25 at Cal-Expo in Sacramento.

The California contingent was victorious in the first two Challenges, but in 2008, the best of the Billings drivers out-dueled their West Coast peers 142-133, with the outcome coming down to the final race of the two-day event.

Fifteen Billings drivers have competed in the event since 2006 and this year four more will be exposed to the great climate and one-mile oval.

Team East, comprised of seasoned Billings vets, will be treated to spring in The Golden State, and 3-4 races on each of two weekend nights. Local horsemen will be treated to significantly increased purses for the events and fans will be treated to seeing a variation to the professional drivers they see night in and night out at the track.

Dave Offenberg, Dave Drew, Tim Miller and Larry Farley will represent the Eastern delegation. Each of these drivers finished in the top ten of their regional Billings divisions in 2008. Sue Boyce, Chris Hernandez, Rick Bertrand, and David Siegel represent the left coasters. The teams include great diversities of backgrounds, home states, gender, age and occupations.

Jimmy Perez, California Harness Horseman’s Association Executive Director remarked, “The CHHA is happy to support the Challenge as it has the last three years. Amateur racing brings some needed diversity to our program out here and we appreciate the Billings group traveling such a long distance to support this unique series. We also are much appreciative of the added purse monies being contributed to this event.”

Dave Elliott, Cal-Expo’s General Manager agreed. “Amateur racing is at the historic heart of harness racing and we are happy to endorse it. In particular, the Amateur Club we have here has done an outstanding job since their re-birth four years ago and we fully support their efforts in this and similar special events.”

The Billings Brigade will be treated to local tours of the State Capitol and Sacramento as it was in the mid-1850s in “Old Town” among other non-race activities.

TrackMaster will be providing Racing Fans free programs for the two-day event on their Web site.

For information about the California Amateur Driving Club, the Challenge or Amateur Driving in general, please visit www.thecadc.com.