Brandon Barnwell’s third consecutive Mid-City Motor World Late Models championship was the big story from the 2026 Redwood Acres Raceway season, which recently concluded.
The championship was the fifth overall for the veteran driver, who previously also won two sportsman titles in 2007 and 2008.
And he made it look easy.
Barnwell dominated from opening night until last month’s season finale Steve Taylor Memorial Fall Spectacular, winning four of the seven feature races and walking away with main event victories on every race night but one.
He also enjoyed second- and third-place finishes, placing among the leaders just about every time he took to the track.
Landen Green placed second in the season standings and enjoyed a very impressive second full year in late model competition.
Green scored a victory in the first segment of the Fall Spectacular race while scoring six top-five finishes.
Third-placed Dennis DelBiaggio was winless in 2026 but finished in the top five on six different occasions, including three second-place finishes.
Jerry Peterson finished fourth on the year, followed by Chad Grammer, who rounded out the top five in the division in just his second year racing late models.
The other divisions this year featured four first-time season champions.
In Legends, Ryan Molina was crowned raceway champ in unique fashion.
He did not post any wins in the division all season, and had just one top-five finish.
However, his pursuit of the championship was helped by Ryan Skidmore and Justin Johnson, who earned points while filling in for him.
Chris Lawrence finished second in the division, winning a main event on May 23 in addition to two top-five finishes, with Scott Taylor placing third, followed by veteran Mac Collado in fourth and Brandon White in fifth.
The bomber division featured the closest points race of the 2026 season.
Rookie driver Stephen Ghilarducci narrowly defeated 2025 champ T.J. Sorrels by just three points.
Ghilarducci won twice on the year, including in the season-ending main event, which proved to be the deciding factor in the race for the season championship.
Although runner-up Sorrels was winless, he did place in the top five in all four events this year.
Jimmy Sorrels narrowly edged out Jeff French for third in the final standings, securing four top-five finishes to French’s three, while Sorhna Li placed fifth in her first season in the bomber class.
In the mini stocks, consistency lifted Cole Peterson to the track championship.
Peterson started every event and placed second in each of the main events.
Second place went to Jarrett Mayo, who was close to perfect on the year and won all three starts he made, while T.J. Rollins placed third in the season points standings.
Rookie Tanner Hrynkiewicz earned his first main event win on September 26 on the way trio finishing fourth, while fifth place was taken by Garrett Wheeler.
The Dirt 4 Bangers had their first year of points racing in 2026 with T.J. Applewhite taking the inaugural track championship for the class.
Applewhite didn’t win any of the main events, but he was consistent from day one, finishing in the top five three times and starting all five feature events.
Christian Sanchez was second in the standings after taking the win on May 23 and finishing in the top five four times.
Matt Merrill placed third in points, with Jimmy Sorrels and Gene O’Dell rounding out the top five.
Full points and race results are available on RacinTheAcres.com.
