From Dick Jordan
The 2010 USAC National racing calendar opens February 8-10 with three back-to-back National Sprint races at East Bay Raceway Park in Gibsonton, Fla. The “Bubba Army Sprint Nationals” events are part of the track’s 34th “Winternationals,” which also includes Feb. 11-13 Sprint races under the sanction of the All Star Circuit of Champions.
In an effort to generate maximum participation at what he considers his “home track,” an added bonus for pre-registered USAC car entrants at Tampa will be a free right rear Hoosier tire compliments of Bubba “The Love Sponge” for any appearing car entrants whose entries were filed prior to the entry deadline.
Defending USAC National Sprint Car Champion Levi Jones of Avon, Ind. is expected to lead a stellar contingent of USAC drivers and other top pilots from across the country into the races which kick off a 2010 series which includes 48 events in nine states.
Each night (Monday through Wednesday) contains a complete racing program capped by a 30-lap feature on the very competitive 1/3-mile dirt oval located in Gibsonton, a Tampa suburb.
The events mark USAC’s first Florida appearance since the Silver Crown cars raced at Homestead in 2007. The races are the first for the USAC Sprint cars in the Sunshine State since Dave Steele won on the pavement at Orlando’s Speed World in 2005 and the first on dirt since Rich Vogler’s victory at the Florida State Fairgrounds in 1987.
Other former USAC Sprint winners in Florida include Larry Dickson (two in 1970), and Bob Sweikert, Chuck Weyant and Pat O’Connor in USAC’s initial year, 1956. Sweikert’s win came in the first USAC Sprint race ever held, at Southland Speedway in West Palm Beach.