By Lonnie Wheatley
TULSA, Okla. (November 7, 2010) – The American Sprint Car Series Lone Star Region puts the wraps on the 2010 season with this weekend’s Fourth Annual November Sprint Shootout at Cowtown Speedway in Kennedale, TX, on Friday and Saturday.
Friday’s card atop the high-banked, ¼-mile Cowtown clay oval offers up $2,000 to win, with Saturday’s series season finale worth $3,000 to the winner. Both nights will be conducted as single, one-night shows.
And, looking to finish off his first Sprint Car championship is 22-year-old Eric Baldaccini of Keller, TX.
The 2008 Brodix Rookie of the Year with the ASCS National series, Baldaccini has climbed to the top rung of the ASCS Lone Star ladder after posting top-ten Regional rankings in three previous years dating back to 2006.
Baldaccini enters this weekend with a 102-point advantage on the strength of ten top-ten feature runs in 13 events, including a June 11 feature win at Boyd Raceway.
Godley’s Claud Estes is Baldaccini’s closest challenger in second, with Flower Mound’s Justin Melton another 104 points back in third. Estes topped the most recent ASCS Lone Star event at Cowtown on July 17, while Melton picked off his Lone Star win one night earlier (July 16) at Crandall’s RPM Speedway.
Mesquite’s Martin Edwards, the 2010 Devil’s Bowl Speedway champion, enters the weekend ranked fourth, just a dozen points behind Melton, with Brandon Corn of Gause, TX, rounding out the current top five.
The balance of the current top ten in ASCS Lone Star points includes John Ricketts (Burleson, TX), Preston Peebles II (Lubbock, TX), Kolt Walker (Graham, TX), Brian McClelland (Tulsa, OK) and Scott Reneau (Trinidad, TX). Kevin Ramey, the inaugural ASCS Lone Star champion in 2009, is just five points outside of the top ten despite missing several events.
Kolt Walker, who topped the series most recent event at Kilgore’s Lone Star Speedway on September 11, ranks as the only driver to post multiple ASCS Lone Star wins in 2010. Walker has two wins with eleven drivers posting single scores including Baldaccini, Estes, Melton, B. McClelland, Gary Wright, Wayne Johnson, Ray Allen Kulhanek, Sean McClelland, Kenneth Walker, Jason Johnson and Matt Covington.
This weekend’s Fourth Annual November Sprint Shootout also includes the ASCS2 EcoTech Chevy Midgets along with all three classes of ASCS2 Micro Sprint Cars including Outlaws, Non-Wing and Restricted “A” Class.
Friday night’s action gets under way at 7:00 p.m., with Saturday’s card going green at 6:30 p.m.
Cowtown Speedway, “The Fastest Lil’ Dirt Track in Texas”, is located in Kennedale, TX, just east of Fort Worth off I-20 Exit 442-A, then 1.7 miles southeast on Mansfield Highway, then 1.4 miles southwest on New Hope Road. For more information, contact the track at 817-478-9952.
The ASCS Lone Star Region has completed 13 nights of competition thus far in 2010 at eight different tracks.
Past ASCS Regional Feature Winners at Cowtown Speedway:
7/17/10 – Claud Estes (Lone Star/Sooner)
6/12/10 – Brian McClelland (Lone Star)
10/10/09 – Tony Bruce, Jr. (Gulf South/Lone Star/Sooner)
8/29/09 – Travis Rilat (Lone Star)
6/27/09 – Kevin Ramey (Lone Star)
4/4/09 – Kevin Ramey (Lone Star)
10/11/08 – Brian Brown (National vs. Sooner)
10/10/08 – Gavin Punch (National vs. Sooner)
8/23/08 – Kolt Walker (Gulf South)
7/26/08 – Brad Welborn (Sooner)
5/17/08 – Gary Taylor (Sooner)
4/5/08 – Travis Rilat (Sooner)
9/15/07 – Nick Smith (Sooner)
7/7/07 – Brian McClelland (Sooner)
4/14/07 – Kevin Ramey (Sooner)
9/23/06 – Travis Rilat (Sooner)
6/10/06 – Sam Hafertepe, Jr. (Sooner)
4/8/06 – Sam Hafertepe, Jr. (Sooner)
9/24/05 – Travis Rilat (Sooner)
6/25/05 – Jason Martin (National vs. Sooner)
4/9/05 – Sean McClelland (Sooner)
9/25/04 – Andy Shouse (Sooner)
5/29/04 – Kevin Ramey (Sooner)
Current points:
ASCS Lone Star Region Points (Top 10): 1. 4-Eric Baldaccini 1,660, 2. 74e-Claud Estes 1,558, 3. 11-Justin Melton 1,454, 4. 45x-Martin Edwards 1,442, 5. 30-Brandon Corn 1,405, 6. 76-John Ricketts 1,377, 7. 0c-Preston Peebles II 1,333, 8. 45k-Kolt Walker 1,302, 9. 25-Brian McClelland 1,205, 10. 1r-Scott Reneau 1,122.
Additional information regarding the American Sprint Car Series is available at www.ascsracing.com.