From Rich Vleck
Rochester, NY — (July 26, 2012) — The Patriot Sprint Tour America Series Championship picture will become extremely clearer this weekend at two tracks that have been part of the series history over the years but have not been seen in more than two seasons.
Friday Night, the Patriot Sprint Tour returns to the Ransomville Speedway for the ninth appearance at “The Big R” in series history. There will be plenty of reasons to salivate over this event, including the built up anticipation after last year’s event was lost to rain. Longtime series sponsor A-Verdi Storage Containers will be helping to sponsor the event as they have in years past. In addition, fans of the popular Western New York Facility will be treated to the first ever Original Pizza Logs Super Dash, which will run five laps, pay $500-to-win, and also hand out bonus points towards the Original Pizza Logs Four Laps of Fame Dash Series. Original Pizza Logs will be well-represented throughout the night with Charlie Donk on hand.
It is worth noting that all five drivers that have won a Patriot Championship (Billy Krull, George Suprick, Bryan Howland, Chuck Hebing and Jared Zimbardi) have won at Ransomville, so there are number of championship contenders that know how critical this event can be. Hebing is the only Patriot driver to win on multiple occasions at the 4/10-mile oval.
Local favorites of Western New York include Don Adamczyk of Williamsville, Derek Jonathan of Lewiston and Scott Kreutter of Alden, among others.
On Saturday Night, the PST will make a long-awaited return to the McKean County Raceway in Smethport, PA for the first sprint event at the fast 1/3-mile oval since 2006. A lot has changed since that time, especially for Jared Zimbardi, the local favorite who has since won nine PST features.
Back in 2006, current PST America Point Leader Bryan Howland missed his only race of the year, thus the four-time champ has never attacked the speedway. Other drivers to race MCR for the first time include Tommy Wickham, Scott Kreutter, Clint Ide, Steve Hutchinson Jr., Brandan Warner, local favorite Steve Collins, Paul Habeck, Tracy Potter, Todd Hoddick, Jamie Bodo, Jay Groves and Mitch Brown. This could play in to the hands of drivers such as Tim Kelly, Dave Wickham and George Suprick, three veterans have attacked the speedway on a number of occasions.
Another competitor to keep a look out for on this weekend includes Justin Barger, who dominated last Saturday’s event at Woodhull to become the first repeat winner on the 2012 Patriot Tour.
For more information, be sure to visit www.PatriotSprintTour.com.
Patriot History at Ransomville
Races: 8
7/11/2003- Billy Krull
9/17/2004- Chuck Hebing
7/1/2005- Bryan Howland
7/29/2006- Rick Wilson
6/29/2007- Jared Zimbardi
8/3/2007- George Suprick
6/27/2008- Chuck Hebing
6/18/2010- Stewart Friesen
Patriot History at McKean County
Races: 1
7/8/2006- Chris Shuttleworth