By T.J. Buffenbarger
The Kings Royal at Eldora Speedway is a single day event where one driver will take home the crown and famous $50,000 paycheck, but the entire week is full of various events surrounding the big race at Eldora. The week of the Kings Royal this season has several new things in store for competitors and fans.
• Three days of racing: This year the Kings Royal weekend at Eldora will feature three nights of racing on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. This occurred one other time in 1999 after the World of Outlaws were rained out at Eldora earlier in the season, but it’s the first time a Thursday “Jokers Wild” program is slated as an original event for Kings Royal weekend. All three days are separate programs makes Kings Royal weekend one of the best in all of sprint car racing.
• “The Doty” returns to its roots on a new night: The Brad Doty Classic returns to its original location at Attica Raceway Park. To avoid the situation mentioned above where the World of Outlaws rescheduled the Eldora event on the Doty rain date and forcing officials to cancel, the race has been moved to Tuesday July 12th with the 13th being available as a rain date. John Bores, Rex LeJeune, and the rest of the staff at Attica are ready for the biggest event since taking control of the facility in 2006.
• Major purse increase: This year the Kings Royal will have a major purse increase throughout the field. While the winner still receives the traditional $50,000 to win second place will now go home with $20,000, fifth pays $10,000, 10th will receive $5,000, and to start Saturday’s last place finisher will receive $3,000. B and C mains also have a pay increase along with Friday’s Knight Before paying $12,000 to the winner.
• Nothing but the World of Outlaws: All three nights of this year’s Kings Royal only has the World of Outlaws Craftsman Sprint Car Series with no support divisions. While we will miss the NRA Sprint Invaders the increased purse combined with Knoxville Raceway not awarding points towards the track championship for the 410 division this weekend there should be an uptick in the car count for the Royal. If you take in the Brad Doty Classic you will see four days of racing with nothing but The World of Outlaws on the program.
• Online pay per view streaming available: If you can’t make it to Eldora in person you can still watch the entire weekend. DIRTVision in conjunction with Eldora Speedway are offering Online PayPerView. Thursday night is a 24.95 purchase, Friday is available for 27.95, and Saturday night can be streamed for 33.95. Visit http://live.eldoraspeedway.com for more details.