Oct. 20th, Officially Named Bakersfield's "Ron Hornaday - Day"
Scott Lynch - RonHornaday.com PR
October 20th, 2002 - Ron Hornaday was scheduled to attend the 25th Annual "October Classic" at Mesa Marin Raceway in Bakersfield, Ca, but rain in Memphis, Tenn. prevented Hornaday from attending the event he helped make famous.

When it was first announced that Ron Hornaday would return to Mesa Marin Raceway, fans

started purchasing tickets to the event online, and planning the travel from far and wide. "We were sure hoping to see Ron today" stated Hornaday fans, who drove nearly 100 miles to attend the event. "The girls are just as disappointed as us grown ups !"

At the opening ceremony, Bakersfield's Mayor announced that October 20th is Officially "Ron Hornaday - Day" in Bakersfield, Ca.  "I was hoping to have Ron standing here as I made this announcement", commented Mayor Harvey L. Hall. "Ron has been and always will be a Champion here in Bakersfield."
Hornaday was to drive the #97 Late Model entry, which is the same car that Kevin Harvick drove to victory back in April of this year, but with the #29 on the side. "We are really disappointed that Ron was un-able to show up, we were really looking forward to seeing him. He will come out here again soon." commented Mesa Marin Public Relations Rep. Judy Salamacha.
"I was really looking forward to racing against Ron." stated MotorsportsWeb.com driver Kevin Wood. "Our race-shop is Hornaday's old shop, we have the same internet representation company working for us, so we were really looking forward to this event.  I just want Ron to know that not only the fans miss him, but drivers do too !"

Hornaday was set to run his Dr Pepper, Busch Series Chevrolet in Memphis Tennessee and then fly to California to run in the late model event at Mesa Marin Raceway.  Rain delayed the Busch Series event, canceling the trip to California for Hornaday. "I was really looking forward to going back there, it's a real disappointment" commented Hornaday, who had a 7th place finish in the Sam's Town 250, at Memphis Motorsports Park.

Special Note -

RonHornaday.com would like to send a special thanks to Judy and Heather of the Mesa Marin Raceway PR dept... your hospitality was tops !