By Pete Walton
Atlanta, GA – August 9, 2018 – The 22nd Annual United Sprint Car Series Outlaw Thunder Tour presented by K&N Filters winged sprint cars headline the action-packed racing card at Hattiesburg Speedway in Hattiesburg, Mississippi on this Friday, August 10th at 7:30 pm. The event for the United Sprint Car Series is the 44th scheduled event on the 2018 Outlaw Thunder Tour. This will be the fourth and final scheduled event to the historic track after one race and being rained-out twice.
Defending United Sprint Car Series National Champion, Jordon Mallett from Greenbrier, AR and two-time series Champion Morgan Turpen from Cordova, Tennessee lead the USCS driver entry list into the event. Mallett has yet to record a victory at the ¼ mile high-banked oval, but has seven stops in the www.RockAuto.com USCS Victory Lane this season already with 20 races to go.
Turpen, who led the series in wins during 2017 with nine victories has two wins during last season and the current one at the speedway where she is a fan favorite. She won the March 3, 2017 season opener last year and won the June 9, 2018 USCS event at Hattiesburg Speedway.
Eleven-time USCS Outlaw Thunder Tour National Champion, Terry gray from Bartlett, Tennessee, who is Turpen’s car owner and team-mate is a past winner at Hattiesburg Speedway. He is currently in the runner-up spot in the National point standings and is also a threat to win on any given night is entered.
Two other drivers who are in the top five in the USCS National point standings, Jeff Willingham from Ripley, Mississippi, who was the 2012 USCS Rookie of the Year and Tony Agin who is in the top five in the National standings are both expected.
The Father and Son team of Ronny Howard and 14-year-old, Chase Howard from Nesbit, Mississippi are both entered. Ronny Howard is fifth in the current USCS Mid-South Thunder Tour regional point standings while Chase ranks in the top ten of the same standings after being honored at the end of the 2017 season as the USCS Mid-South Thunder Tour regional series Rookie of the Year at thirteen years old.
A pair of Alabama competitors, Kyle Amerson from Montgomery, Alabama and Lee Moore from Tuscaloosa, Alabama are also pre-entered. Amerson was the 2016 Southern Outlaw Sprint Series Rookie of the Year. He has several top five finishes during the 2018 season with a season best of a runner-up finish and is poised for a win in-the-near-future. Moore was the 2007 USCS Southern Thunder Tour regional series Rookie of the Year.
The exotic USCS Outlaw Thunder winged sprint cars weight only 1300 pounds with 700+ horsepower engines. Those two elements in addition to a huge 25 square foot top wing and seventeen-inch-wide and specially designed Hoosier rear race tires make them the fastest cars ever to compete on the ¼ mile clay oval. The USCS sprint cars are expected to reach speeds over 100 miles per hour on the straight-a-ways at Hattiesburg Speedway.
Other expected entries include two-time 2018 USCS winner Shane Morgan from Biloxi, Mississippi and 2017 National Sprint Car Hall of Fame Rookie of the Year nominee, Cody Kahl from Gulfport, Mississippi. Another Mississippi Gulf Coast racer, Brandon Blendon from Gulfport is pre-entered. Bill Mason from Florence, Mississippi is expected as well as second year driver, Dewayne White from Byhalia, Mississippi.
The event at Hattiesburg Speedway awards the USCS Outlaw Thunder Tour drivers with championship points towards the USCS Outlaw Thunder National championship and also awards points towards both the new USCS Deep South Thunder Tour and USCS Mid-South Thunder Tour regional series championships. The 2018 USCS Deep South regional series schedule has drivers competing in events in Alabama, Mississippi and Florida for that title. The USCS Mid-South Thunder Tour regional series primarily competes in Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee. The event is expected to draw drivers from five or more states including some of the top ranked drivers in North America.
In addition to the USCS Outlaw Thunder Tour winged sprint cars the Nesmith Late Models, Open Wheel Modified, Nesmith Street Stock, Outlaw Street and Pure Street Stock divisions keep an action-packed racing card busy all
Race fans are sure to get their money’s worth with a full night of non-stop family entertainment that includes a guarantee of plenty of thrills, chills and spills from the time the green flag flies for the USCS Hoosier Speed Dash race until the checkered flag falls on the final main event of the evening.
Hattiesburg Speedway is located at 4663 US 49 Highway, Hattiesburg, MS 39401. For more info on the track, Please visit www.hattiesburgspeedway.net or call For more information about the United Sprint Car Series Outlaw Thunder Tour and associated series please visit www.uscsracing.comm or call the series office at 770-865-6097.