From Port Royal Speedway
What, Where, When: The Port Royal Speedway Living Legends Dream Race honoring Todd Shaffer and Patty Beam is this Saturday, August 3 at 7:30 pm. Gates will open at 4:30 pm.
The adult general admission price is $27 with students ages 12 – 18 admitted for JUST $5.
What’s It About: The Living Legends Dream Race was begun at Port Royal Speedway in 2007 as a way to post a lucrative payoff for Pennsylvania’s 410 sprint car stars that didn’t force them to compete against an outside sanctioning body for the money. It also includes a boatload of free contingency prizes and cash, this year amounting to over $10,000 in value. In short, it’s a way to give back to all the local drivers in a special way.
Special This Year: As part of honoring Todd Shaffer and Patty Beam as Living Legends this year, a group of former Beam drivers and Shaffer owners will be on hand for autographs under the grandstand from 5:30 to 6:15 pm. Aside from Shaffer and Beam, those taking part in the meet and greet are drivers Larry Jackson, Chuck Reinert, Scott Gesford, Kevin Nouse and TJ Stutts along with former Shaffer owners Jim and Laura Allebach. Members of the Maynard Yingst family will also be on hand honoring Beam’s first driver, the late Maynard Yingst. PLUS, NASCAR driver Dave Blaney will be appearing between 5:30 and 6:30 pm for autographs, pending his arrival from Pocono Raceway. Blaney will then compete in the Dream race. Honors will be bestowed upon Shaffer and Beam during the night’s racing.
How It Works: Sprint car teams will time trial and then those in even qualifying spots and those in odd qualifying spots will be split into respective groups. Each of those batches of cars will compete in a 16-lap semi-main event that pays a full purse of nearly $10,000 each with $2,000 to the winner. The top 10 finishers from each semi advance to a 30-lap A Main paying $10,000 to win. The top three finishers from each semi will revenge draw against each other to establish the front three rows of the Dream starting grid while all others line up according to their finishing position in the semis. Each lap of the semis and the A Main pays $20 to lead. After the A feature a non-qualifiers race will be run paying $500 to win and $150 to start. A B Main will fill out the A field plus a fan voted 25th starter will be added to the field.
On The Line: With the addition of a non-qualifiers race recently, the total purse money posted for this year’s dream race is over $55,000. The contingency cash up for grabs on the night is worth just over $3,000 and the contingency prizes have reached a value of just over $7,000. The minimum prize value is $50 so that value coupled with last place pay in a semi of $200 and starting money in the non-qualifiers race of $150 means that no car should leave the track after entering with less than $400 in accrued earnings on the night.
What Fans Can Expect: Extremely competitive racing action will unfold for the Dream event as no heat races are conducted but instead the twin semi mains will advance drivers to the big dance while also paying handsomely. How each driver finishes the semis will determine where they start in the Dream feature. And then nearly $35,000 alone is up for grabs in the Dream A feature which promises to be highly rewarding both in stature and finances. There is no opportunity for teams and drivers to skip a beat, miss a step or lay back for a second chance as they try to come away big winners.
to calm the kiddos