By Rod Ort
The PA Sprint Series “PASS” kicks off its 15th anniversary season this Saturday at Port Royal Speedway. The series which came from humble beginnings in 1998 when a small group of racers adopted the new RacsSaver® format established by French Grimes in the Virginia Sprint Series. Since then Grimes vision of affordable racing has taken hold throughout the country and RacsSaver® has grown to over 800 cars and the number goes up daily. The “invitation only” series has grown within the hotbed of traditional sprint cars by interviewing every team and making sure the each new competitor understands the rules and objective of the series. Many new stars have emerged within the recreational series which encourages teams to focus on RacsSaver® and compete whenever they want without pressure to attend.
Several Sponsors have signed on to support PASS with cash and prizes this season including Pancho’s Racing Products returning for 2013 as well as the Tool Shed of America and the addition of Wee Bee Audio and Video Joining the series as a contingency sponsor. The PASS championship series will return in 2013 with Active teams being eligible for the title by only competing in just ¼ of the races. Complete details are provided to teams via exclusive access on the web site. Special 15th Anniversary T-shirts are in the works and should arrive in May. Shirt sponsorships are still available.
For 2013 the PASS schedule includes more than 40 dates including events at Path Valley which was an original track for the series, Port Royal and Susquehanna speedway take the bulk of Saturday events and Clinton County once again maintains a regular schedule on Fridays. Other tracks with dates include Williams Grove, Lincoln and special appearance at Selinsgrove and Hill Valley speedway also added to the schedule for 2013. The schedule includes “interregional” events where teams from other RacsSaver® regions join for a special event. PASS will host several of these including Lincoln, Susquehanna and the 2nd annual Keystone RacsSaver® Challenge to be held in October. PASS teams will also have several opportunities to visit other regions for interregional events including the RacsSaver® Nationals held in Virginia.
PASS has grown despite the fact that they have never promised “car counts” to speedways and have never required teams to attend to build car counts. The expectations are simple; teams from the PASS area can focus on an affordable racing format if they understand the rules and agree to the purse structure which is fair to all teams and reasonable for tracks. Like all racing series spending is a concern but the RacsSaver® rules have proven out over time. Teams that spend excessively have found that reliability is the only considerable gain. By interviewing teams to make sure they understand that the purse will not be altered to keep up with excessive spending the affordability is kept in check by common sense. The fact that the rules do not change and that strict engine tech is performed has helped RacsSaver® flourish.
For more information on the series visit www.pasprintseries.com