By Robert Miller
After a twenty race season that started at the Big Diamond Raceway in Minersville, PA and ended at the Cherokee Speedway in Gaffney, SC, JJ Grasso emerges as the Rislone URC Sprint Series Driver Champion. For car owner Kenny Eldreth, it was his first ever championship as a URC car owner.
Early in the season, defending URC Champion Robbie Stillwaggon was a dominant force, winning three of the first five URC events including the opener at Big Diamond. JJ Grasso turned up the juice by winning the Jack Gunn Memorial at the Selinsgrove Speedway on May 11. There was a run of different feature winners to include Art Liedl, Dave Ely, Kevin Darling and Josh Weller.
Mark Smith made a statement at the Williams Grove Speedway on August 2nd for the 8th running of the Rislone Nationals. Smith started twelfth and worked his way to the front of the pack, easily going on to claim the $4,000 first place prize. The following night, Chad Trout scored his first career URC win, taking the checker flag at the Lincoln Speedway.
Robbie Stillwaggon was the man on a mission at the Black Rock Speedway on August 9th. Stillwaggon started outside the top twelve and threaded this way through traffic to score the win in convincing style.
Talented Brian Carber scored his first career URC win taking the victory at the New Egypt Speedway on September 4.
As the URC season began to wear down, the point battle was heating up with Josh Weller within striking distance of point leader JJ Grasso. Both Weller and Grasso raced with very calculated moves as they inched towards the final point race. At the Selinsgrove Speedway on Saturday, September 28, the biggest payday of URC’s season was on the line and at the drop of the checker flag, TJ Stutts collected the $8,000 first place prize.
URC was heading south with a two race weekend in the Carolina’s. Once again, planned and calculated, both Grasso and Weller were on their game, neither one could flinch going into what would be, the final two point races of the 2013 season. Grasso kept it all together and celebrated his championship victory on Saturday night, October 5 at the Cherokee Speedway. Weller ran strong and was in the hunt right down to the final laps, earning a solid runner-up finish in the point chase. For the Carolina weekend, Charlotte, NC standout Eric Riggins Jr. made a clean sweep of the Carolina weekend winning both features.
Plans for the 2014 Rislone URC Sprint Series season are already underway. Selinsgrove is looking at six dates for the coming season as Bedford has two URC events planned. Big Diamond is confirmed with one spring date and the Carolina two race weekend is also planned. More to come on the schedule over the next few weeks.