From Scott Daloisio
Perris, CA, October 11, 2012) Anne Wilkerson, wife of the late 1967 and 1970 CRA Sprint Car Champion and National Sprint Car Hall of Famer Billy Wilkerson, has announced the “Billy Wilkerson Fast Time Awards” at the 17th Annual Budweiser Oval Nationals at Perris Auto Speedway on November 2nd and 3rd. The awards will carry a $500.00 bonus to the fast qualifier each night.
“We want to thank Anne for this great award,” promoter Don Kazarian said on Wednesday. “It will give fans an extra reason to get in their seats early as the best drivers in the business battle for the bonus both nights.”
Billy Wilkerson was born in Nashville, Tennessee and came to California when the family moved to the San Gabriel Valley when he was two years old. The future Hall of Famer won his first race at Lakeland Stadium in El Monte in a jalopy in 1949. His first major title came when he was crowned California Jalopy Association champ in the mid 1950s. He began racing sprint cars with CRA in 1964 and won his first sprint car main event the following season at Clovis. Billy scored 21-lifetime CRA wins (five of them were 100 lappers) and that has him ranked 25th on the all-time CRA, SCRA, USAC/CRA win list from 1946 to 2012.
After he retired from the driver’s seat, Billy became a car owner and had a bevy of stars steer his entries including Rip Williams, Brad Noffsinger, Damion Gardner and Ron Shuman. He also served on the CRA board, was competition director for the Ascot Midget Series and competition director for the sprint cars at the Copper World Classic in Phoenix.
“Billy was a great guy who could to it all in racing,” Kazarian said. “It will be a pleasure to honor and remember him at this years Budweiser Oval Nationals.”
Budweiser Oval Nationals all time victory list.
1996 – Jimmy Sills
1997 – Rip Williams
1998 – Rodney Argo
1999 – Rickie Gaunt
2000 – Tony Jones
2001 – Bud Kaeding
2002 – Bud Kaeding
2003 – Cory Kruseman
2004 – Cory Kruseman
2005 – Dave Darland
2006 – Dave Darland
2007 – Bud Kaeding
2008 – Jesse Hockett
2009 – Damion Gardner
2010 – Chris Windom
2011 – Damion Gardner
Advance tickets for the 17th Annual Budweiser Oval Nationals, the 72 running of the Annual Turkey Night Grand Prix on November 22nd and inaugural 1-800LoanMart Street Stock Turkey Bowl are available 24-hours a day online at: http://pas.tix.com/Schedule.
The entire 2012 PAS schedule is listed at the end of this release.
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Perris Auto Speedway wants to thank its corporate sponsors for the 2012 season. 1-800LoanMart, 777 Racecars, Aaron’s, Ahern Rentals, All Coast Construction, Amsoil, Ayers Hotel and Spa, Budweiser, Champion Towing, City of Perris, Comfort Inn, Day Construction, Daytona Boat & RV Storage, Frazee Paint, Hoosier Tires, K&N Engineering, P.I.P.E., Pepsi-Cola, Pick-A-Part Auto Salvage, Prolong Super Lubricants, Scott Sales, Snap-on, Soboba Casino, Square H, Swedish Speed, Temecula Valley Pipe & Supply, Trench Shoring, US Foods, Valley Auto Salvage, White Nuckl USA and Zanzabuku Sports Lounge.
Video and DVD productions of all racing events at Perris Auto Speedway are available from Loudpedal Productions. For more information on these productions you can contact them by calling (805) 844-3854, E-mailing mailto:trtruex@gmail.com or you can visit the web site http://www.loudpedalvideo.com/
For more information call The PAS at: (951) 940-0134.
Perris Auto Speedway is located on the Lake Perris Fairgrounds (home of October’s Southern California Fair), approximately one hour east of Los Angeles and one hour North of San Diego. To get to the track, take the 215 freeway, exit on the Ramona Expressway and go three miles east to the fairgrounds.