LINCOLN, Calif. – Iowa was once named the racingest state, an honor that did not include an explanation as to its qualifications.

In terms of importance to the population or having five nights a week covered by tracks regularly racing on those nights, there is no doubt that Iowa has plenty of reasons to claim the title.

But where is the racingest city in the country? How about Stockton, Calif.?

To select Stockton for the honor starts with an easy task: count the number of race tracks in the city that race with some degree of regularity. Three is the answer. This is not three tracks at one facility such as Kaukauna, Wis., with their half mile, quarter mile, and figure-8 paved tracks all located in front of one grandstand. Stockton has three completely separate race tracks to immediately take the lead in the racingest city main event.

There are really four tracks as Little 99 is part of the fairgrounds property, but running flat karts and motorcycles leaves it short of qualifying.

The smallest of the Stockton ovals is the seventh-mile Delta Speedway on the San Joaquin County fairgrounds. One of four micro sprint tracks in the state, Delta is considered the best of the quartet with excellent lighting and aluminum stands, giving the track the most modern appearance of the group.

Bob and Tiffanie Panella took over the promotional duties a few years ago at Delta and have dramatically improved the car count during their tenure. Four divisions of micro sprints are fielded weekly with Super 600cc engines powering the top division. Non-wing versions of Super 600s regularly field the largest car count.

For the younger drivers the track has Restricted 600s and for the younger still there are junior sprints. This year saw the first race delayed until mid-June, but Delta was able to race 11 times, better than many tracks did in California.

About four minutes walk southeast of Delta Speedway is another fairgrounds track, Stockton Dirt Track. Built in 2013 by former racer Tony Noceti, the three-eighths-mile oval made it among the largest weekly racing tracks in the state.

Prior to Noceti’s creation, the huge grandstands were used for racing on a mile oval with motorcycles and four legged horsepower providing the action. However, the racing on the current three-eighths-mile oval brought life back to the facility, although 2020 was a very trying year for the Noceti at the fairgrounds.

Between February and November, every attempt to race at Stockton Dirt Track met with resistance from various people. The two-day November event was the season ending action, nearly nine months after the last race run at the track.

The Stockton Dirt Track has it largest schedule for the upcoming season, with their continued strong presence as a sprint car track continuing with six special events. The track was able to increase the number of events by delving deep into modified and stock car shows as adding additional sprint car nights is difficult with the number of Northern California tracks that rely on open-wheel racing as their bread and butter.

By far the oldest Stockton track is Stockton 99 Speedway, a high-banked paved quarter-mile that was brought back to life by Noceti in 2009. The oval had closed a couple years earlier as it was destined to be a housing development. After the project was first delayed then dropped, the two year break in racing on the quarter mile was ended when Noceti bought the facility.

Sitting idle for two years led to the expected workload to get the track ready, including fixing a couple of ditches that were cut crossing the paved surface as a deterrent to uninvited racing. Re-opening in 2009, the number of planned events for 2021 combined with Noceti’s other track and Delta Speedway’s schedule, leads to schedules totaling 50 races.

That means Stockton, Calif., has three regularly racing and distinctly separate tracks and 50 nights of racing available (hopefully) in 2021 for fans.

That would certainly seem to qualify Stockton as the country’s racingest city.