ASCS Lone Star Region Tries Again Friday at Texarkana

2010 ascs American Sprint Car Series

By Lonnie Wheatley

TULSA, Okla. (May 17, 2010) – After a soggy Texas weekend, the American Sprint Car Series Lone Star Region tries to get back into action this Friday night with the lone series stop of 2010 at Texarkana 67 Speedway, just a few miles across the Texas-Arkansas border.

While Friday’s card marks the first time for the ASCS Lone Star Region atop Texarkana 67 Speedway, the ¼-mile clay oval has been an annual stop over the last decade of ASCS competition.

Hailing from just a few miles down the road in Hooks, TX, Gary Wright topped the first three ASCS events at Texarkana 67 Speedway in the first three years of the new millennium. Since that time, Benton, AR, ace Tim Crawley has topped three events at 67, including back-to-back wins in 2004 and 2005 and then last year’s Speedweek stop.

While Wright and Crawley have both topped three feature events at Texarkana, Jason Johnson posted back-to-back wins in 2006 and 2007 with one-time winners at Texarkana including Gary Taylor (2008) and Shane Stewart (2003).

Since getting the opening pair of events into the record books, including an event in conjunction with Lucas Oil National Series at Kilgore’s Lone Star Speedway won by Matt Covington on April 9 and then a Wayne Johnson triumph at Waco’s Heart O’ Texas Speedway on April 16, the ASCS Lone Star Region has been rained out three consecutive times including twice this past weekend.

Reigning ASCS Lone Star champ Kevin Ramey of Fort Worth is out to the early points lead with a 25-point advantage over Lubbock’s Preston Peebles II, with Bean Elliott (Alvin), Justin Spoerl (Mesquite) and Kolt Walker (Graham) rounding out the current top five.

The balance of the current top ten in Lone Star points includes Claud Estes (Godley), Justin Melton (Flower Mound), Brandon Corn (Gause), Eric Baldaccini (Keller) and John Ricketts (Burleson).

Friday’s racing action at Texarkana 67 Speedway goes green at 7:30 p.m.

The semi-banked, ¼-mile Texarkana 67 Speedway clay oval is located east of Texarkana on I-30 to Exit 7, then 0.5 miles southeast on State Road 108, then 2.6 miles northeast on U.S. 67. For more information, contact the track at 903-293-6147.

The 2010 slate of ASCS Lone Star Region competition consists of 17 nights of action at seven different tracks throughout North Texas and one to the north of the Red River in southwest Oklahoma.

In its 19th year of sanctioning Sprint Car racing, the American Sprint Car Series brings the best of Sprint Car racing to approximately 100 different tracks throughout 30 states and Canada. Anchored by the Lucas Oil Sprint Car Series presented by K&N Filters, ASCS also consists of eleven different Regions throughout the nation.

Past ASCS Feature Winners at Texarkana 67 Speedway:
6/5/09 – Tim Crawley (Speedweek)
7/11/08 – Gary Taylor (Speedweek)
4/27/07 – Jason Johnson (National)
5/12/06 – Jason Johnson (Gulf South vs. Mid-South)
6/10/05 – Tim Crawley (Speedweek)
4/30/04 – Tim Crawley (National)
5/2/03 – Shane Stewart (National)
4/12/02 – Gary Wright (National)
5/19/01 – Gary Wright (National)
7/22/00 – Gary Wright (Speedweek)

Additional information regarding the American Sprint Car Series is available at www.ascsracing.com.