Napa’s Krider Racing picked up another win at Infineon Raceway on Nov. 8 during the National Auto Sport Association United States Touring Car Championship. The race was held in the rain on a challenging wet track.

Rob Krider quickly and delicately drove the No. 38 Jimmy Vasser Dealerships Nissan Sentra SE-R through terrible track conditions in a hard-fought battle to win in the sludge.

“In order to do well in the rain you have to be part daredevil and part weatherman,” said Krider. “We arrived at the track on Friday and I was looking at the sky thinking, ‘We are going to need some rain tires.’ We made a last-minute phone call to B & G tires in Napa and they got a set of tires mounted and balanced for us Friday night. When the rain hit the track hard on Saturday I knew right then we had made the correct call.”

When the green flag dropped, Krider found himself in second place, looking through his windshield wipers for the first 10 minutes of the race.

The rain played havoc on many drivers as they slid off the track and crashed.

Krider stayed patient and slowly worked his way up to try to contend for first place.

Finally, his lucky break came when slower lapped traffic allowed him to pass three cars at once coming out of Infineon’s famed Turn 6 — known as “The Carousel.”

That pass put him in first place. “Once I had the lead I knew I had everything to lose and the guy behind me had everything to gain,” said Krider.

“The Mazda RX-7 who was chasing me was absolutely going for it, while I was just trying to maintain my lead and not crash in the rain.”

The last 10 minutes of the race was a game of cat and mouse, with Krider carefully maintaining control on the slippery track while the second-place car attempted to pass. The Mazda couldn’t keep up with the nimble Nissan, and at the conclusion of the race Krider Racing earned checkered flag.

But it wasn’t just gutsy driving and rain tires that gave Krider Racing the win, it was a collaboration of many Napa businesses that made sure Napa’s road racing team came in first.

Napa Valley Muffler and Third Street Auto Repair helped get the car together for the event, while TEM Machine Shop along with Jim Wolf Technologies gave the engine the extra power needed to keep up with the competition.

Napa’s Performance in Frame Tuning allowed Krider Racing to tune the motor on an engine dyno to maximize power.

Rob Krider talked about Napa’s influence on the race team.

“I think it is a pretty cool thing that a bunch of car guys from Napa can put a race car together and go out and beat up teams from all over the West Coast. Napa is not just the wine country anymore, now we are the wine and horsepower country!”