By Dick Jordan
This year’s Stoops Freightliner-Quality Trailer “Sprint Car Smackdown III” at the Kokomo (Ind.) Speedway is rapidly becoming one of America’s destination events for participants and fans alike. The three-night racing extravaganza begins Thursday and runs through Saturday night at the 1/3-mile dirt oval.
In addition to securing Stoops Freightliner-Quality Trailer as the title sponsor for 2014, the event has already generated an impressive list of performance-driven sponsorships and prizes, including a total of $10,000 in lap prizes to be distributed to the top-five drivers in each feature event lap during the three nights!
Saturday’s 40-lap feature offers $10,000-to-win and the competition even spills off-track with Thursday night’s inaugural “Sprint Car Snackdown,” thanks to Cooper Tire. They will award a set of tires as part of a prize package for the top-two finishers in an eating contest among the top-six finishers from the 2013 “Smackdown” finale. Dave Darland, Shane Cottle, Chase Stockon, Chris Windom, Brady Bacon and Bryan Clauson will head to Kokomo Speedway’s Turn 5 Bar after the evening’s 30-lap feature to down 20 boneless chicken wings faster than their competition. All fans and fellow on-track competitors are invited to attend.
On the track, two new major awards come courtesy of Brase Yourself, which is also a lap sponsor for the weekend. The will award $500 to the “Newcomer of the Year” (the top finishing driver attending his first Smackdown), along with $500 to the team voted to have the “Best Appearing Car” during the weekend.
AllStar Performance will also reward “Smackdown” newbies as they will give a random event rookie a $100 certificate each of the first two nights before posting a prize pack for the top finishing driver in the Saturday feature who has advanced that far for the first time. QuickCar Racing Products is another new supporter, offering gauge panels to both the combined fastest qualifier over Thursday and Friday, along with the driver to post the fastest lap in Saturday’s feature.
Perhaps the most coveted award of the weekend will be the $300 “True Grit Award” in honor of recently passed Indiana sprint car supporter Bill Gardner.
B & W Auto Mart continues their involvement with USAC Sprint Car racing as the sponsor of Saturday’s “King of the Hill” program, which will offer $400 to the winner. Spire Sports + Entertainment joins the fun this year as the sponsor of the $500 “Passing Master Award,” which goes to the driver gaining the most positions in all events for the weekend.
In addition to each night’s ProSource “Fast Time Award,” the Phoenix Racer’s Advantage Store has posted cash prizes for both second and third quick on each preliminary night. He Arizona Open Wheel Museum “Hard Charger Award” in Saturday’s feature pays $250 and the establishment owned by Steve Stroud will also sponsor heat races the first two nights, along with CSI Shocks. CSI will also present Saturday’s qualifying races, which will serve as the heat races for cars not locked into the night’s “King of the Hill.”
Another shock company, Hummel’s Factory Kahne, will offer gift certificates for each night’s “Factory Kahne Front Row.” PPM Titanium Products again handles the “Hard Charger Award” on both Thursday and Friday, while Indy Performance Composites is softening the blow for the first car to miss the transfer to the feature each night with their “Close Call Award.”
The slowest qualifier (or point earner on Saturday) to transfer to each night’s Feature will receive the Pace Performance Coatings “Hard Work Award,” while the first car to retire from Saturday’s Main Event will receive the “Tough Break Award” from Wilwood Brake Systems.
American Racing Ministries again rewards the final car to transfer from the Semi-feature with a right-rear tire each night. DRC Chassis posts the “Hard Luck Award” for the week, and Weld Racing returns with a left-rear wheel for the recipient of their “Smackdown Badass Award.” As they did during “Indiana Sprint Week,” Roger and Barb Tapy of Customized Service Trucks will give away a right-rear tire each night to a random competitor.
In addition, prizes will be doled out from Impact Racing, Rod End Supply, Simpson Racing Products, C & R Racing, Hinchman Racewear, Hoosier Tire, Arizona Sport Shirts, Traxxas, Go Pro, Rugged Radios and the United States Auto Club.
With all feature laps sponsored for the weekend, the top-five of each lap will be compensated for running up front with a breakdown of $30-25-20-15-10.
The lap sponsors are as follows:
Thursday
1 – Brase Yourself
2 – Chalk Racing Products
3 – Earlywine Auctions
4 – Eldora 4-Crown Nationals Sept. 19-20
5 – Brase Yourself
6 – Stitch98
7 – Wolfe’s Auto Auctions Terre Haute-Evansville-South Bend
8 – Lincoln Park Speedway
9 – Brase Yourself
10 – Michael Gooch
11 – Terre Haute Action Track
12 – K-ROB
13 – Brase Yourself
14 – C&R Racing
15 – Jimmy Carter
16 – Brase Yourself
17 – RW Motorsports
18 – Conroy “Pneu” Control
19 – Brase Yourself
20 – Chevy & Stewart Clauson – Go Dad!
21 – Hinchman Racewear
22 – The Minnesota Mafia
23 – Indy Race Parts
24 – Brase Yourself
25 – ProSource
26 – Indy Screen Print
27 – Brase Yourself
28 – Lincoln Park Speedway
29 – American Racing Ministries
30 – Brase Yourself
Friday
1 – Momentum Racing Suspension
2 – Benic Enterprises
3 – Chalk Racing Products
4 – Eldora Speedway 4-Crown Nationals Sept. 19-20
5 – Brase Yourself
6 – Earlywine Auctions
7 – Wolfe’s Auto Auctions Terre Haute-Evansville-South Bend
8 – Brase Yourself
9 – KT Construction Services
10 – Crume Evans Insurance
11 – Terre Haute Action Track
12 – Jockish Flowers
13 – Brase Yourself
14 – C&R Racing
15 – Arata Brothers Racing/Brian Gard
16 – Brase Yourself
17 – RW Motorsports
18 – Conroy “Pneu” Control
19 – National Speedway Directory
20 – “Haubstadt Guzzlers”
21 – Stitch98
22 – Brase Yourself
23 – Jason Sharp – John Force Racing GM
24 – Brase Yourself
25 – In Memory of Norman Girard
26 – ProSource
27 – Brase Yourself
28 – Lincoln Park Speedway
29 – American Racing Ministries
30 – Brase Yourself
Saturday
1 – National Sprint Car Hall of Fame & Museum
2 – In Honor of Tate Hartzler/Childhood Cancer Awareness
3 – Brase Yourself
4 – Eldora Speedway 4-Crown Nationals Sept. 19-20
5 – City of Syracuse Special #65
6 – Bill & Tyson Wever
7 – Wolfe’s Auto Auctions Terre Haute-Evansville-South Bend
8 – Momentum Racing Suspension
9 – The Frolic Bar & Grill
10 – Crume Evans Insurance
11 – Terre Haute Action Track
12 – In Recognition of National Sprint Car Hall of Fame Inductee Chuck Merrill/Maxim Chassis
13 – Infinity Shocks
14 – C&R Racing
15 – In Memory of Joseph H. Wilson
16 – Lincoln Park Speedway
17 – RW Motorsports
18 – Conroy “Pneu” Control
19 – Brase Yourself
20 – Manvel Motorsports
21 – Chalk Racing Products
22 – Jockish Flowers
23 – 2013 Kokomo Speedway Track Champion Wes McIntyre
24 – Keith Wendel
25 – ProSource
26 – Hinchman Racewear
27 – Coastal 181 – “The People’s Champ”
28 – Pit Stop BBQ & Grill
29 – American Racing Ministries
30 – Earlywine Auctions
31 – Lincoln Park Speedway
32 – In Memory of Laura Stockon
33 – Brase Yourself
34 – Indy Screen Print
35 – Lincoln Park Speedway
36 – Indiana Stone Works
37 – Indiana Underground Construction
38 – Stitch98
39 – Claxton Engines
40 – Lincoln Park Speedway