From Pete Walton
Atlanta, GA – The United Sprint Car Series presented by Goodyear returns to historic Dixie Speedway in Woodstock this Saturday, July 17th with the 15th annual “Dixie Sprint Car Nationals” event. The event is loaded with action-packed racing featuring a full “Smorgasbord of Speed” including a full program of winged outlaw style sprint car racing plus racing in all of Dixie Speedway’s weekly racing divisions including Super Late Models. There should be something for everyone who likes to see fast cars go round and round.
Saturday night’s USCS winged Outlaw sprint car race will award USCS Southern Thunder presented by Goodyear Championship points. The race will additionally award USCS “Outlaw Thunder” Tour National Championship points. The USCS Southern Thunder Tour presented by Goodyear regional series includes races scheduled in North and South Carolina plus Northern Georgia and East Tennessee. All of those events will award points toward the series’ 14th National Championship.
This event will bring a number of drivers seeking the United Sprint Car Series “Outlaw Thunder” National Championship roaring into the fast 3/8-mile clay oval. The USCS drivers also race on paved ovals. The USCS is the only winged outlaw sprint series in the World that races on both dirt and paved surfaces.
The Dixie Speedway event is expected to bring top winged outlaw sprint car drivers from at least six states to the track from as far away as Florida and West Tennessee. The exotic fire breathing, alcohol burning, 700 horsepower open-wheeled USCS sprint cars weight just 1,300 pounds. They are pound for pound the World’s most powerful short track race cars. The cars will literally fly around the track surface at speeds approaching 130 M.P.H. It is not uncommon to see the USCS sprint cars popping “wheelies” or doing wheel stands because of the brute force of their engines and their huge 18-inch wide Goodyear Eagle rear race tires. Those tires are almost twice as wide as the Goodyear Eagles that NASCAR Sprint Cup cars use.
Saturday night’s Outlaw sprint car action will feature a full program of racing that includes test and tune hot laps. The evening’s very first sprint car race will be the Goodyear Speed Dash that will showcase the top six cars from the previous event in an edge-of-your-seat six-lap shootout. Next up will be the qualifying heat races that determine the starting positions for the 30-lap “Dixie Sprint Car Nationals” USCS Championship finale. In between the sprint car racing elements, six other racing divisions will keep the action rolling non-stop on Saturday night’s racing card.
USCS sprint car entries include: Eight-time and defending USCS National Champion, Terry Gray from Bartlett, Tennessee, who was ranked in the top ten drivers in the Nation, by the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame pollsters at the end of the 2009 season heads the entry list for the event. Gray, who is also among the top twenty-five drivers in the Nation in feature wins over the past five years with over eighty-five feature wins. Gray has won twice in 2010 UCSC competition and is a four time Dixie Sprint Car Nationals Champion. Terry Gray also currently leads the USCS National and USCS Southern Thunder regional point standings.
Other notable entries include: The 1998 USCS Rookie of the Year and 2004 USCS/AOAS Southern Thunder regional series Champion Johnny Bridges from Cherryville, North Carolina is entered. Bridges who is always a threat to win, will bring his rare (to sprint car racing) Roush-Yates Ford powered car to Dixie Speedway.
For the ladies: Seventeen-year old female sprint car hot-shoe and current USCS rookie point’s leader, Morgan Turpen from Bartlett, Tennessee leads a strong contingent of talented young drivers into Dixie Speedway. Turpen has been very impressive thus far in 2010. She is currently in the runner-up spot in the National standings behind her team-mate and defending Champion Terry Gray. Turpen finished third in last weekend’s USCS main event at Lonesome Pine Raceway in virgina and has a number of top five finishs on the season.
Additionally expected are the 2009 Dixie Speedway Sprint Car Nationals feature winner Matt Linder from Hoschton, Georgia and USCS sprint car veterans, Brian Thomas from Pendergrass, Georgia, David Thorman from Greenville, South Carolina and veteran sprint car racer Ray Bugg from Iuka, Mississippi.
In addition to Turpen, expected young guns entries include, the 2009 USCS National Rookie of the year driver, 18 year-old, Justin Carver from Drummonds, Tennessee and current USCS Mid-South Thunder Rookie points leader, Jerod Roller from Olive Branch, Mississippi. Also entered are the 2008 USCS Southern Thunder Rookie of the Year, Jake McLain from Indian Trail, North Carolina and nineteen year-old New York transplant Nick Bashford from China Grove, North Carolina. Bashford’s #24 will also utilize a Roush-Yates Ford power plant.
Additional young drivers include 15 year-old Rookie of the Year candidate, Eric Riggins, Jr. from Charlotte, North Carolina and 2009 USCS Southern Thunder Rookie of the Year Brandon Rekow from Mooresville, North Carolina and Andy McElhannon from Nesbit, Mississippi.
To give the event some International flavor, former road-racer and European stock car star, twenty-three year-old Adam Jackson from Birmingham, England who presently resides in Timmonsville, South Carolina is entered. Jackson was named as the 2008 USCS Asphalt Thunder Tour rookie of the Year.
Other expected out of state entries include: 2000 USCS Rookie of the Year, Michael Miller from Ocean Springs, Mississippi, two-time East Bay track Champion, Sport Allen from Seffner, Florida. The entry list also includes Allen’s team-mate A.J. Maddox from Tampa, Florida. From North Carolina additional entries are C.J. Miller from Mooresville, North Carolina and Brandon McLain from Indian Trail, North Carolina.
Grandstand Adult admission is $15 with children 8 and under FREE. Children 9-17 yr. are $11. Trackside/Tailgate parking is also available for $20 adult and $11 Children. Dixie Speedway is located at 150 Dixie Drive, Woodstock, GA, 30189. The race track phone number is: (770) 926-5315. The track’s website is www.dixiespeedway.com For USCS info visit the USCS web site at www.uscsracing.com or call 770-460-7223 or 770-865-6097.