By Andrew Kunas
COEUR d’ALENE, Idaho – After taking a few weeks off, the race teams of the Frontier Region of the American Sprint Car Series are returning to action in Montana this weekend, but they’ll have some company as the race teams of the Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour presented by MAVTV Motorsports Network will make their fourth annual visit to Big Sky Country.
Electric City Speedway in Great Falls will host several of the best 360 sprint car racers the nation has to offer for the fourth time on Friday night. Brad Loyet won last year’s event. The following night the National and Frontier Region teams will clash at Billings Motorsports Park for a third time. In 2014, Jeff Swindell dominated and led every lap of the A-Feature at Billings.
Friday night at Electric City Speedway, one car local fans will be keeping an eye on is the Peterson Racing No. 23n driven by Frontier Region points leader J.J. Hickle. Hickle drives from his home in Quilcene, Washington each time to drive the car that is based out of Great Falls. Naturally, the car is a favorite of local fans who are hoping to see a repeat of the 2012 ASCS National Tour event when Brock Lemely, who ironically is from Washington as well, drove the 23n to a victory that thrilled the Peterson Racing team’s hometown fans.
Hickle himself is off to a hot start, winning the first three races of the year and being on the podium in all eight ASCS Frontier Region A-Feature events run so far this season. One of those wins came at Electric City on June 5th. Hickle currently holds a 31-point advantage over Laurel, Montana’s Phil Dietz, who himself won at Electric City on June 19th to end a winless drought of nearly two years for the former series champion. Dietz has finished in the Top 5 in every Frontier Region feature this year.
Kelly Miller of Alberta is putting together a solid season, holding down third place while finishing in the Top 5 six times. Fourth place Skylar Gee, also out of Alberta, is winless in Frontier Region action despite seven Top 10 finishes, but is still fresh off his first career 360 sprint car main event win, and it was a big one as he won the Gold Cup, one of Canada’s most prestigous events, at Castrol Raceway in Edmonton on July 4th.
Helena, Mont.’s Trever Kirkland is just one point behind Gee in fifth with six Top 10 finishes. In last year’s ASCS National Tour event at Electric City Speedway, Kirkland earned the top passing points score in the heat races against the National Tour teams and earned first place Frontier Region points in the main event with his Top 10 effort against the National Tour.
David Hoiness, out of Billings, is one of the most confident drivers on the Frontier Region tour at this time. After a very rough start to the season, Hoiness came on very strongly the last two weekends the series was in action, winning June 12th and 13th at Gallatin Speedway and Billings respectively – ending a nearly two-year winless drought – and then impressively charging from 17th to finish 5th at Electric City on June 20th. In the process, he has climbed back up to sixth place in the standings and is hoping for a strong outing against the National Tour teams this weekend.
Meanwhile, on the National side of things, Aaron Reutzel of Clute, Texas is holding down a 62-point lead over New Mexico’s Johnny Herrera. Reutzel has three wins this season, the most recent being June 19th at Salina Speedway in Kansas, but has never won in Montana. Reutzel did pick up a third place finish at Billings last year.
Herrera meanwhile is fresh off his first ASCS National victory of the 2015 season, picking up the win in the Fred Brownfield Classic at Grays Harbor Raceway in Washington on July 4th, the last night the ASCS National Tour was in action entering this weekend.
Seth Bergman, out of Washington, is third in the ASCS National Tour standings and has three wins on the season. Former ASCS National champion Wayne Johnson and Matt Covington, both out of Oklahoma, are fourth and fifth in the standings. Johnson, who said he has raced at Electric City but not at Billings in the past, has a single win to his credit this year.
One driver fans in Montana will see for the first time is Jordan Weaver of Woodard, Oklahoma. Weaver, who hasn’t seen either track she’ll be racing on this weekend, currently sits eighth in the ASCS National Tour point standings and last month earned a season best fourth place finish in the Friday preliminary feature at the Jim Raper Memorial Dirt Cup at Skagit Speedway in Washington. Weaver also has a pair of B-Feature wins to her credit this season.
Mother Nature has not been kind to the ASCS National Tour in 2015. While racing 16 times, the series has lost nine events due to bad weather. The series, however, has gotten its last seven events off without incident.
Though this weekend’s races at Electric City and Billings are ASCS National Tour events and will be run by ASCS National officials, the local teams will still be racing for Frontier Region points. When main events are completed, the National Tour drivers will be taken out and the highest finishing non-National driver will earn first place Frontier Region points – a win in almost every sense of the word except in the win column itself – and the drivers following will be paid season points accordingly.
A perfect example of the National Tour shaking up regional points was last year’s races. Though he eventually recovered the win the 2014 Frontier Region championship, National Tour weekend was a disaster for Joe Ramaker as he suffered a DNF at Electric City and then didn’t start the feature after suffering problems in his heat race the next night at Billings . Kelly Miller stayed out of trouble and earned second place points and then first place Frontier Region points to take over the series lead that weekend. Everyone at or near the top of the Frontier Region points standings is hoping to take advantage of the extra competition again this weekend.
Friday night at Electric City Speedway, gates open at 5:00 p.m. with racing scheduled for 7:30 Mointain Time. Super stocks and modifieds will be on the card as well. Saturday’s show at Billings will have gates open at 6:00 with racing at 7:00. Modifieds will again share the card with the ASCS sprint cars.
The Frontier Region of the American Sprint Car Series, presented in part by Speedmart Inc. is a winged 360 dirt sprint car tour racing around the state of Montana and beyond. More information on the ASCS Frontier Region can be found online at frontier.ascsracing.com or you can follow the series on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ascsfrontier. The national website of the Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour presented by MAVTV American Real is www.ascsracing.com.
– – –
ASCS Frontier Region
Top 10 points (after 6/20)
1. J.J. Hickle, 1139
2. Phil Dietz, 1108
3. Kelly Miller, 1016
4. Skylar Gee, 963
5. Trever Kirkland, 962
6. David Hoiness, 952
7. Jeremy McCune, 875
8. Josh Ostermiller, 836
9. Bryan Brown, 816
10. Roger Cummings, 797