By Lonnie Wheatley
TULSA, Okla. (October 3, 2011) – Brad Loyet put the finishing touches on his third POWRi Midget championship this past Saturday night in Belleville, IL.
Now, the 23-year-old from Sunset Hills, MO, can add his first Sprint Car title to the mix when the Speedway Motors ASCS Warrior Region finishes off the 2011 season this Friday night at Valley Speedway in Grain Valley, MO.
Holding a 91-point lead on the strength of three wins, nine top-fives and 13 top-tens in his Rookie campaign among the ASCS Warrior ranks, Loyet can secure the series title by simply taking a green flag in heat or feature action on Friday night.
While Loyet is virtually out of the reach of four-time Warrior champion Randy Martin of California, MO, Martin is just 40 points ahead of Nixa’s Kyle Bellm in the battle for runner-up honors with Sedalia’s Jonathan Cornell another 34 points back in fourth.
Farmington’s Mark Shirshekan rounds out the current top five, with the rest of the Warrior top ten including Cody Baker (Lone Jack, MO), Josh Stephens (Buckner, MO), Austin Alumbaugh (Higginsville, MO), Tyler Blank (California, MO) and Miranda Arnold (Sedalia, MO).
With Loyet atop the win charts at three with triumphs at La Monte’s LA Raceway, Cameron’s U.S. 36 Raceway and Eldon’s Lake Ozark Speedway, Brian Brown, Danny Lasoski and Jack Dover rank as the only other drivers to post multiple Warrior wins with two each. Lasoski topped Loyet and Brown in the August 19 feature at Valley Speedway.
Other drivers picking off Speedway Motors ASCS Warrior wins this year include Martin, Bellm, Shirshekan, Wayne Johnson, Brian McClelland, Jason Johnson and Tim Crawley.
Friday’s action at Valley Speedway fires off at 7:00 p.m.
The semi-banked, 1/3-mile Valley Speedway clay oval is located in Grain Valley, MO, just east of Kansas City off of I-70 Exit 24, then 0.9 miles south on Main Street, then 0.4 miles east on Old US 40. For more information, contact the track at 816-349-9283.
The inaugural season of Speedway Motors Warrior Region action under the ASCS banner currently consists of 17 nights of competition at eight different tracks throughout Missouri and into Kansas.
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.