When Tracy’s Ryan Philpott takes to the track at Altamont Motorsports Park seeking his second NASCAR Whelan All-American Series Western Late Model win in as many tries, he and the rest of the racing faithful will see at least two familiar faces they missed last week.

With neither Madera Speedway nor All-American Speedway in Roseville hosting Late Model races, many of their regular competitors are expected to race tonight at Altamont — including Tracy High senior Justin Philpott and his father, two-time Stockton 99 points champion David.

Their No. 05 and No. 50 Chevrolets will join Ryan’s No. 52, and according to Altamont General Manager Jeff Macey, they might be joined by Benny Moon of Sacramento, an Altamont regular in 2006 who took the checkered flag at Roseville last weekend, as well as others: enough to bring the car count for the 50-lap main event to a season-high of 20 or more, “if the weather holds,” Macey said.

Altamont is the lone track running WLMs this weekend and next, and it will host a NASCAR Grand National West race April 28. The American Limited Stock Cars, Formula-4s, and Grand American Modifieds also take to the track tonight.

Tomorrow, a planned drifting event was replaced with Auto-X (pronounced “auto-cross”) after Alameda County’s decision to allow drifting at the track was appealed. In drifting, a car attempts to go into a barely-controlled slide around a road course with points awarded on a combination of line taken and showmanship with no timing, whereas in Auto-X cars race against a clock. Macey said the two are very similar.

The county will host a hearing on drifting later this month, Macey said.