When the traveling Civil War Series for sprint cars returns to Calistoga Speedway this Saturday night, three drivers will be locked in a tight championship fight — including one who hopes to be the youngest champion in the series history.

Oroville driver Sean Becker — a former Golden State Challenge Series titleholder — held on to his slim point lead in the Civil War standings by winning last week at Placerville Speedway, but needed a borrowed engine to do it.

Chasing him to the finish line was 16-year-old Kyle Larson, who sits right behind him in the points battle and finished third, and four-time Civil War titleholder Andy Forsberg, who is gunning for his fifth championship after finishing sixth at Placerville.

Larson sits only eight points behind, and Forsberg is only one good race away from joining the fight, as Becker has seen a commanding 34-point lead dwindle away while each of the frontrunners has been victimized by Lady Luck in recent weeks.

Two weeks ago at Petaluma Speedway, Becker’s title hopes were seriously battered when he lost two engines in one night.

“We only had a couple of motors and to lose both of them in one night is hard to believe,” said Becker. “It would be easy to throw your hands up after something like that, but we found another motor and everybody pitched in,” he added.

“Everybody on this team wants to win that championship,” said Becker, who confirmed the team will have its own engines in time for running on the Calistoga Speedway half-mile, the biggest track that the series runs on and where horsepower is critical.

But pressing him for the title is Larson, who has won a pair of Civil War races this year — including Petaluma, where Forsberg also fell out with rare engine troubles, handing sure victory to Larson.

“With three laps to go, I was leading with a clean race track in front of me and the engine just didn’t respond on a restart,” said Forsberg. “Becker and I have both had problems so we basically stayed even in the points, but that let Larson close up on both of us.”

“When he passed me in Petaluma he just ran away and left me,” said Larson.

“I just got lucky,” he admitted in picking up the win.

But he’s not complaining.

“I’d be the youngest champion in the Civil War series,” added Larson, a Sacramento-area driver who accumulated 10 championships and 129 wins in high-powered go-karts before moving up to sprint cars.

He is already the series’ youngest-ever race winner at the age of 15, claiming a feature in Placerville last year.

In all, more than 40 of the top Civil War Series teams are expected at Calistoga, including many regulars from Petaluma Speedway. Among them is Pinegrove’s Alissa Geving, a third-generation racer who sits on top of Petaluma Speedway’s championship points standing, and local racers Mike Benson of Calistoga and Jeff Paraday of Pope Valley.

Racing begins with qualifying at 6:30 p.m., followed by heat races, a semi-main event and a 20-lap main event for the 24 fastest cars of the night.

Calistoga Speedway will complete its season with a new event, the Vermeil Classic, which will feature traditional, “non-wing” sprint cars and midgets for the first time in 25 years over Labor Day weekend, Aug. 30-31.

Tickets for the event will be available at Calistoga Speedway this weekend.