From Erika Palmai Wagner
PENNDAL, Penn (February 13, 2017) – With the first race of the season only seventy-six days away, officials and members of the Mid-Atlantic Sprint Series gathered at the Penndel Fire Hall in Penndel, PA for a pre-season meeting to go over rules and policies that will be enforced and followed during the 2017 season.
“After today’s meeting, with everyone’s thoughts and concerns being heard, we tied up a few loose ends concerning handicapping, a points structure and visitor policy, as well as other issues mentioned during the meeting,” Regional Director Eddie Wagner commented. “Our final rule book will be updated and released by the end of this week, in time for everyone to review them and prepare for our season opener at Bridgeport on April 30th”.
Handicapping for the heat races will be determined by a pill draw for a starting position at the beginning of every night. Only MASS members will be included in this pill draw, with “visitors” having to start in the back their assigned heat race. Features will be inverted or re-drawn, depending on a pill which will be pulled by the winner of the first heat race. Pills will be determined by the number of heats, so if there are three heat races, pills that can be possibly drawn are two REDRAW pills, and pills marked 1-9. “Visitors” who qualify into the feature can be included in feature handicapping, but they will not be able to start any better than fifth place. Non-members will also not be eligible for contingency prizes given out throughout the night, and will only be subjected to receive the advertised purse.
“Regarding the points policy, it was voted that we follow the IMCA National Points, with it being our primary points standings for the season,” Wagner said. “The IMCA points standing is universal amongst all Racesaver divisions nation-wide, and in order to not to put ourselves in a situation we had last season with having two separate points champions, I think this will make it easier, and worthwhile as IMCA has lots of positive benefits including a cash points fund and a chance to become a National Champion”. With the IMCA benefits, the Mid-Atlantic Sprint Series also will be adding multiple year end bonuses for teams who are members with the series, including cash collected from the weekly 50/50 drivers fund, and contingencies provided by marketing partners including a brand new DMI 305 XR3 Bulldog rear, a custom helmet paint job to the points champion courtesy of JLD Graphics, and brand new Engler Tool & Machine injection to name a few.
The IMCA points schedule begins on January 1st, and ends on September 25th. All races scheduled during the points season will be points races, including co-sanctioned races with PASS, but not including the Blue Collar Classics at Port Royal on April 22nd and October 7th, and three races on MASS’ schedule on October 14th (Grandview), October 26th (Georgetown) and November 4th (Bridgeport).
“For those year end races, we are planning something big for the final three shows that will make it appealing for teams to come out and race. Grandview, Georgetown and Bridgeport have graciously included us in their season finale races that are prestigious and popular to the fans, so we want to make sure that we represent ourselves well while showing our appreciation to the promoters who welcomed us aboard this season,” MASS General Manager Jeff Geiges stated.
Finally, at the end of the meeting, Geiges revealed that Engler Tool & Machine came on board as the series title sponsor.
“We a very proud and excited to announce this, and we want to thank and welcome Engler to the MASS family,” Geiges said.
Engler Tool & Machine is supplying a brand new injection to raffled off, which is valued roughly at $3800 and six $100 certificates, which will be handed out on three of the scheduled sponsored Engler Tool & Machine race nights.
Other contingency sponsors who have joined the Mid-Atlantic Sprint Series in 2017 are DMI, Mach 1 Chassis, JLD Graphics, Thayer Performance Engines and Parts, Bitner Automotive, Bruce’s Auto Body, Todd’s Performance, Geiswite Creations, ERK Steering, Competition Suspension Inc., Kelly Racing Fuels and Tanner Brothers Dairy Farm and Store.
“I have been racing with the 305 Sprint Cars ever since they started back in 2010, and I have to say, the amount of time and effort that MASS is putting into making this series work, and everything that they are giving back to the drivers makes racing exciting again,” Stefanie Palmai Carberry stated post meeting. “This fresh new start is just what we needed, and I can only hope that in return, new teams will start coming to race with us, and hopefully, we can back to the high car counts that we had a few years ago”.
For more recent news and information on the Mid-Atlantic Sprint Series, log onto our Facebook page, or check out our website www.masprintseries.com. Any questions or concerns can be directed to our email, midatlanticseries@gmail.com