USCS OUTLAW SPRINT CAR RACING HEADLINES RACING ACTION
AT DIXIE SPEEDWAY THIS SATURDAY NIGHT (7/14)
Atlanta, GA - Wild and exciting winged outlaw sprint car racing will headline the racing program at Dixie Speedway on Saturday night, July 14th. 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 Speedways 17th Annual Dixie Sprint Car Nationals. This will be event number twenty-one of the 16th 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 race is also a bonus points opportunity for drivers competing for the Championship in the USCS Mid-South Thunder regional series point standings.
The Dixie Sprint Car Nationals 2012 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 www.rockauto.com USCS 600 Sprint Car Series winged mini sprints will make their second visit of the season to Dixie Speedway to wage war around the high-banked D-Shaped Georgia red clay oval. Those lightning fast winged race cars look like a scaled down version of the larger USCS winged outlaw sprint cars and are powered by 600cc and larger motorcycle engines. The will also reach speeds over 100 miles per hour at around Dixie's famed tri-oval. The Mini Sprints are expected make laps as fast as the Super Late Models. 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 ten-time USCS National Champion, Terry Gray from Bartlett, Tennessee, who heads the entry list for the Dixie Speedway event. Another top entry is 2005 National Sprint Car Hall of Fame driver of the year, Tim Crawley from Benton, Arkansas who currently leads the USCS National point standings. Crawley has visited the www.rockauto.com USCS victory lane eight times this season. He leads the point standings over Terry Gray in the national and regional point standings. Gray and Crawley are among the top twenty-five drivers in the Nation in feature wins over the past 5 years with over 75 feature wins each. Terry Gray is a four-time Dixie Outlaw Sprint Car Nationals champion.
Nineteen-year old female sprint car hot-shoe and 2010 USCS Rookie of the Year, Morgan Turpen from Oakland, Tennessee leads a strong contingent of talented young drivers into Dixie Speedway for this event. Turpen has been very impressive thus far in her career and won two times during the 2011 season. She is fourth place in the current USCS presented by Goodyear National point standings. 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 who is the defending USCS Dixie Sprint Car Nationals Champion. Riggins who finished in third place in the 2010 and 2011 USCS standings is currently in fifth place in the 2012 National standings.
Also entered is the 2008 USCS Rookie of the Year Anthony Nicholson from Bartlett, Tennessee who is third in the National standings behind Crawley and Gray. Nicholson is the most recent USCS presented by Goodyear Outlaw Thunder Tour feature winner. He won at Batesville Motor Speedway in Batesville, Arkansas on Friday, July 6th. The 2006 USCS presented by Goodyear Rookie of the Year, Derek Hagar from Marion, Arkansas who is the 2010 USCS Dixie Sprint Car Nationals Champion will also be in the talented field of entries for the 2012 event. Hagar is sixth in the National point standings and in the top ten in the USCS Southern Thunder regional standings, but in third place in the current USCS Mid South Thunder regional standings.
Another former Dixie Sprint Car Nationals Champion, Matt Linder from Hoschton, Georgia, is entered. Linder is currently in seventh place in the USCS Southern Thunder regional title chase. Linder has six career USCS victories on his resume. 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 and once in 2011 USCS competition and is coming to Dixie Speedway looking for his first 2012 visit to the www.rockauto.com victory lane.
USC regular and veteran sprint car driver, Lance Moss from Cherryville, North Carolina joins sprint car veterans, Brian Thomas from Pendergrass, Georgia and Nick Defeo from Marietta, Georgia plus Joe Larkin from Suwannee, Georgia, USCS veteran sprint car driver David Thorman from Greenville, South Carolina and Clint Weiss from Seale, Alabama on the entry list. Others expected entries include; veteran sprint car racer, Bob Auld from Largo, Florida and second year sprint car driver, Jeff Willingham from Ripley, Mississippi. Veteran USCS sprint car driver Aubrey Black from Lookout Mountain, Georgia will be one of two drivers seeing double-duty as he will compete in both the USCS Outlaw sprint cars and winged mini sprint divisions.
Several 2012 Rookie of the Year contenders are entered for Saturday�€™s contest. Those first year drivers include former Late Model and Open Wheel Modified driver Stacy Mashburn from Newnan, Georgia and eighteen year-old, Kyle Amerson from Matthews, Alabama who will also pilot a USCS 600 Sprint Car Series winged mini-sprint and former USCS Crew Chief of the Year, Jason Day from Cherryville, North Carolina who is trying his hand as a sprint car driver after racing four cylinder stock cars at Carolina Speedway near his home. Another talented Rookie sprint car and former mini sprint driver, eighteen year-old Brandon Hanks from Burlison, Tennessee is also expected.
Dixie Speedway is located just off Georgia Hwy 92 at 150 Dixie Drive in Woodstock just one mile west of I-575 at Exit 7. The race track�€™s information phone number is 770-926-5315. Additional 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.
ATTACHED PHOTO AND CAPTION for Dixie Speedway 7/14/11
USCS "Outlaw Thunder" Tour event.
Black #10 @ speed Ten-time United Sprint Car Series presented by Goodyear National Champion, and four-time Dixie Sprint Car Nationals Champion, Terry Gray from Bartlett, Tennessee leads a strong field of talented winged outlaw sprint car drivers expected from six states into Saturday (7/14) night's USCS "Outlaw Thunder Tour Dixie Sprint Car Nationals event at Dixie Speedway in Woodstock, GA. (USCS file photo)
2012 USCS Southern Thunder regional Series point standings
As of June 23, 2012
Pos. Car# Driver Points
1 88 Tim Crawley 1099
2 10 Terry Gray 1050
3 16 Anthony Nicholson 1032
4 80 Morgan Turpen 1030
5 47 Eric Riggins Jr. 1015
6 07 Johnny Bridges 965
7 1X Matt Linder 942
8 96D Nick DeFeo 886
9 33 Joe Larkin 874
10 9Jr Derek Hagar 759
11 87 Justin Carver 718
12 83 Bob Auld 628
13 14 Jordon Mallett 564
14 82 Danny Martin, Jr. 528
15 67 Brian Thomas 514
Tie 33M Stacy Mashburn 514
17 4Q Jason Day 470
18 5 Jerod Roller 438
19 94 Jeff Swindell 294
20 4m Michael Miller 278
21 87 Aaron Reutzel 266
22 31 Justin Webb 264
23 46 Kyle Amerson 244
24 3A AJ Maddox 218
25 23 Brian Bell 142
26 3H Brandon Hanks 138
27 67 Jake McLain 136
28 13 Tristan Tidmore 134
29 21 Aubrey Black 130
Tie 44 Gary Troutman 130
31 25 Ray Bugg 128
32 51 Lee Sowell 118
33 23 Lance Moss 100
Tie 89 Rob Stillwagon 100
