By Lonnie Wheatley
TULSA, Okla. (June 13, 2011) – With a pair of Missouri throttle jockeys deadlocked atop the Speedway Motors ASCS Warrior point charts, a pair of events are on tap for the Warrior forces this weekend.
After mixing it up with the Speedway Motors ASCS Midwest Region in Friday night’s Bud Shootout at U.S. 36 Raceway near Cameron, MO, the ASCS Warriors move on to “The Diamond of Dirt Tracks”, the Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, MO, on Saturday night.
With the initial pair of 2011 Warrior events in the books, leading the way into the weekend are 23-year-old Brad Loyet of Sunset Hills, MO, and 20-year-old Mark Shirshekan of Farmington, MO.
After Shirshekan ran second and Loyet third to Danny Lasoski in the April 9 season opener at La Monte’s LA Raceway, the duo flip-flopped podium positions behind Randy Martin at California’s Double X Raceway on May 29.
As a result, Loyet and Shirshekan enter this weekend knotted up at 277 points, with four-time Warrior champ Martin, a native of California, MO, just 21 points back in third. Tyler Blank, also from California, MO, is just one more point back in fourth, with Nixa’s Kyle Bellm rounding out the current top five.
The balance of the current top ten includes Austin Alumbaugh (Higginsville), Jonathan Cornell (Sedalia), Josh Stephens (Buckner), Evan Martin (Lohman) and Rafe Essary (Stilwell, OK).
Nebraska’s Jack Dover topped last year’s June event pitting Warriors versus ASCS Midwest Region at U.S. 36 Raceway, while the only previous attempt at a Regional event at Lucas Oil Speedway fell victim to Mother Nature.
Dover leads the Midwest forces into Friday’s tilt at U.S. 36 with a three-point edge over Oklahoma City native Wayne Johnson, with the rest of the Midwest top five including Brian Brown, Lee Grosz and Ryan Roberts.
Friday’s racing action atop the high-banked, 3/8-mile U.S. 36 Raceway clay oval is set to fire off at 8:00 p.m., with Saturday’s card atop the 3/8-mile Lucas Oil Speedway clay oval going green at 7:00 p.m.
U.S. 36 Raceway is located 50 miles northeast of Kansas City on I-35 to Exit 54, then 6.3 miles west on U.S. 36, then 0.1 mile north on SR 33. For more information, contact the track at 816-675-2279.
Lucas Oil Speedway is located in Wheatland, MO, 0.2 miles south of US 54 on SR 83. For more information, contact the track at 417-282-5984.
The inaugural season of Speedway Motors Warrior Region action under the ASCS banner currently consists of 17 nights of competition at nine different tracks throughout Missouri and into Kansas.
Past ASCS Regional Winners at U.S. 36 Raceway:
7/16/10 – Bronson Maeschen
6/18/10 – Jack Dover
6/19/09 – Jesse Hockett
7/11/08 – Jack Dover
9/7/07 – Jesse Hockett
9/8/06 – Chris Morgan
6/23/06 – Toby Chapman
9/9/05 – Johnny Anderson
Past ASCS Regional Winners at Lucas Oil Speedway:
None – First ASCS Regional event at Lucas Oil Speedway
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.