By Lonnie Wheatley
TULSA, Okla. (April 25, 2011) – The Engine Pro ASCS Sprints on Dirt presented by ARP kicks off its 32nd year of competition on some familiar turf with Saturday night’s season opening event atop the semi-banked, 3/8-mile Crystal Motor Speedway clay oval in Crystal, MI.
The site of the first SOD event in 1980, Crystal Motor Speedway hosts the ASCS Sprints on Dirt for the 109th time this Saturday night.
Dustin Daggett has been an unstoppable force in recent years at Crystal Motor Speedway, which hosts the ASCS SOD forces three times over the course of each season.
Daggett, who moved to the top of the all-time SOD win charts with a dozen triumphs last year to extend his career total to 76, has topped ten of the last 12 series events contested at Crystal including the last eight in a row.
Daggett will by vying for a ninth consecutive Crystal triumph on Saturday night, as the last time someone else reached SOD victory lane at Crystal was May of 2008 when Tim Norman cracked the winner’s circle.
While Daggett topped the win charts again in 2010, it was St. Johns, MI, shoe Ryan Grubaugh racing to his first ASCS SOD championship on the strength of eleven top-fives and 14 top-tens. Grubaugh claimed the crown by a 143-point margin over Gregg Dalman, with Daggett, Ben Rutan and Dain Naida rounding out the top five in points.
Others among the top ten in last year’s ASCS SOD points included Gavin Hunyady, Robert Huisken, two-time series champion Brett Mann, Aaron Shaffer and Jim Lingar.
Saturday’s action at Crystal Motor Speedway is set to get under way at 7:30 p.m.
Crystal Motor Speedway is located in Crystal, MI, 5.5 miles north of SR 57 on Crystal Road, then east on Sidney. For more information, contact the track at 989-235-5200.
The Engine Pro ASCS Sprints on Dirt presented by ARP is in its 32nd season of competition. Twenty-seven races are on the calendar scheduled at 13 different tracks throughout Michigan, Ohio and Ontario.
The 2011 season marks the 20th year of sanctioning Sprint Car racing for the American Sprint Car Series, with approximately 200 nights of competition at tracks throughout the nation and into Canada. Anchored by the Lucas Oil Sprint Car Series presented by K&N Filters, ASCS also consists of ten different Regions throughout the nation.
Additional information regarding the American Sprint Car Series is available at www.ascsracing.com.