From Dick Jordan
The “Laura Stockon Memorial” is set for October 15 at Route 45 Raceway in Flora, Ill. The race brings USAC’s AMSOIL National Sprint Car slate to a record 48 races. It’ll mark the first appearance of the USAC Sprint Cars at the Illinois oval. The Illini State hasn’t seen USAC Sprint Cars in 10 years. The series also return to Tri-City Speedway in Granite City July 29 and 30, where Josh Wise was victorious in 2006.
The race will feature a 32-lap main event, saluting the life of the late mother of USAC driver Chase Stockon, who won last year’s ProSource Fast Qualifier championship and finished third in the final AMSOIL standings. Mrs. Stockon passed away in 2012 after a bout with cancer.
Chase, who led the 2015 AMSOIL standings for 2-1/2 months at the start of the season and for a week during July, looks forward to the race honoring his mother. “My mom is still a large part of the way I live my life on and off the track. I would say that she also had the biggest influence on my mindset and helping me mature mentally to be one of the top drivers in the nation without a wing. It means a lot that a track wanted to host this race in honor of my mom, and even more that USAC wanted to be involved with it. My whole family loves racing and that we get to run a race in my mom’s memory”
USAC Racing Director Levi Jones, an Illinois native, is excited about the return of the AMSOIL series to his home state. “It’s been a decade since that Granite City race and it’ll be good to get back,” he says. “We hope that this race establishes another USAC tradition and we anticipate a banner field of cars and drivers to honor the memory of this great lady.”
Continuing with the reference to the family car number of 32, drivers will vie for a winner’s paycheck of $5,032 in the race which will feature 32 laps on Route 45 Raceway’s quarter mile dirt oval.
“We have made a lot of facility upgrades since taking over the track, and this is the next step for us in the improvements at our track,” says race organizer B.J. McCammon. “Hosting a race of this magnitude is exciting and lets our fans witness the best sprint car racers in the country right here as their last event of the season in the Midwest.”