USCS OUTLAW SPRINT CAR RACING HEADLINES RACING ACTION
AT DIXIE SPEEDWAY THIS SATURDAY NIGHT (7/16)
Atlanta, GA - Wild and exciting winged outlaw sprint car racing will headline the racing program at Dixie Speedway on Saturday night, July 16th. The United Sprint Car Series "Outlaw Thunder" Tour presented by Goodyear www.uscsracing.com will roar into the fast three-eight mile clay oval for Dixie Speedway16th Annual Dixie Sprint Car Nationals. This will be event number eighteen of the 15th anniversary season for the Nationally touring USCS drivers.
This is the only USCS winged sprint car event scheduled for Dixie Speedway this season. The race will award National points as well as USCS Southern Thunder Tour presented by Goodyear regional series Championship points. The USCS Southern Thunder Tour presented by Goodyear regional series consists of races in Alabama, Georgia, Florida, North and South Carolina and East Tennessee.
The Dixie Sprint Car Nationals Shootout event is expected to bring top winged outlaw sprint car drivers from at least six states to the track. The exotic fire breathing, alcohol burning, 700 horsepower open wheel cars weight just 1,300 pounds, and are pound for pound the Worlds most powerful short track race cars. The cars will literally fly around the track surface at speeds over 130 M.P.H. It is not uncommon to see USCS sprint cars popping "wheelies" or doing wheel stands because of the brute force of their engines and their huge 17-inch wide Goodyear Eagle rear tires.
Saturday night's Outlaw sprint car action will feature a full program of racing in the outlaw sprint cars that includes test and tune hot laps followed by the evening's first sprint car race, the Goodyear Speed Dash that showcases the top six cars from the previous USCS sprint car main event in an edge-of-your-seat six-car shootout. Next up will be the qualifying heat races and a B-Main Last Chance race and the evenings finale will be the 30-lap Dixie Sprint Car Nationals winged sprint car main event. The new USCS 600 Sprint Car Series and the Georgia Micro Sprint Association winged mini sprints will wage war as well. A number of weekly Dixie Speedway racing divisions are also on the racing card including the popular Super Late Models for a slammed full action-packed night of family entertainment.
USCS presented by Goodyear entries will include a number of the nation's top ranked sprint car drivers including five-time USCS National Champion, Terry Gray from Bartlett, Tennessee, who currently leads the USCS National point standings and heads the entry list for the Dixie Speedway event. Gray holds a scant six point lead over his 18 year-old female teammate Morgan Turpen from Cordova, Tennessee in the USCS Southern Thunder regional point standings. The veteran (Gray) is also just nine points in front of former Dixie Sprint Car Nationals Champion, Matt Linder from Hoschton, Georgia, who is in third place in the tight regional title chase. Gray has won three times already in 2011 competition. Linder has won twice and Morgan Turpen once in 2011. Terry Gray is a four-time Dixie Outlaw Sprint Car Nationals champion. Gray is also among the top twenty-five drivers in the Nation in feature wins over the past 5 years with over 80 feature wins.
Other notable entries include: The 1998 USCS Rookie of the Year and 2004 USCS/AOAS Champion Johnny Bridges from Cherryville, North Carolina is entered. Bridges is always a threat to win in his rare Roush-Yates Ford powered mount. He won four times in 2010 USCS competition.
Eighteen-year old female sprint car hot-shoe and 2010 USCS Rookie of the Year, Morgan Turpen from Cordova, Tennessee leads a strong contingent of talented young drivers into Dixie Speedway. Turpen has been very impressive thus far in 2011 and just won her career-first USCS presented by Goodyear main event at East Alabama Motor Speedway on June 18, 2011 while capturing the Randy Helton Memorial Race. She is in second place in the National standings behind the defending Champion Terry Gray.
In addition to Turpen the young guns entries include, 2010 Southern Thunder regional series Rookie of the Year, Eric Riggins, Jr. from Charlotte, North Carolina. Riggins finished in third place in the 2010 USCS standings and is in that same position in the current 2011 standings. Also entered is the 2008 USCS Southern Thunder Rookie of the Year, Jake McLain from Indian Trail, North Carolina plus 2007 USCS Southern Thunder Rookie of the Year, Lee Moore from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Nick Defeo from Marietta, Georgia and New York transplant Nick Bashford from China Grove, North Carolina are both expected.
Other expected entries include: Lance Moss from Cherryville, North Carolina who ranks fifth in the USCS Southern Thunder standings. Also entered are brothers Darren and David Clark from Huntersville, North Carolina who rank fifth and sixth in the National point standings. USCS sprint car veterans, Brian Thomas from Pendergrass, Georgia and Joe Larkin from Suwannee, Georgia are entered as is USCS veteran sprint car driver David Thorman from Greenville, South Carolina. Others expected entries include; Bob Auld from Largo, Florida and teammates Tony Wilson from Paris, Tennessee and Mike Hampton from McKenzie, Tennessee. Sprint car driver Aubrey Black from Lookout Mountain, Georgia will be the only driver seeing double-duty as he will compete in the Outlaw sprint cars and winged mini sprint divisions.
Dixie Speedway is located just off Hwy 92 at 150 Dixie Drive in Woodstock just one mile Northwest of I-575 at Exit 7. The race tracks information phone number is 770-926-5315. Additional scheduling and information for Dixie website which is www.dixiespeedway.com
For USCS info please visit the USCS web site at www.uscsracing.com or call 770-460-7223.
