April 24, 2014 — story by Race Chaser Online Managing Editor and USCS Announcer Jacob Seelman — ATLANTA, GA and LUCAMA, N.C. – If the first verse shapes up to be exciting, the second should be even more so.
The United Sprint Car Series (USCS) Outlaw Thunder Tour filtercharged by K&N is preparing to tackle the Southern National Motorsports Park (SNMP) near Kenly, N.C. with their ground-pounding winged 360 sprint cars this weekend. The race will take place on Saturday, April 26th at 7 PM Eastern.
The event will be the first trip for the series to SNMP since 2008 and will also serve as the second race of the USCS “Road to Atlanta” pavement mini-series, which locks the top 10 drivers in asphalt points into USCS Sprint Car Shootout at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Labor Day weekend. The event is part of a doubleheader weekend with Anderson Motor Speedway in South Carolina on Friday night, and is is the first and only stop at Southern National for the USCS in 2014.
Race fans can expect both pavement-specific winged sprint cars as well as sprint cars set up primarily for dirt track racing to take to the track for the event. Driver pre-entries are expected from as many as seven states, including Arkansas, Florida, Tennessee and Ohio.
The United Sprint Car Series is the only winged sprint car series in the nation that races on both dirt and paved ovals to decide its champion. Weighing in at 1,300 pounds and producing upwards of 700 horsepower, the winged sprint cars are the world’s fastest and most powerful short-track cars, with a power-to-weight ratio that is unmatched anywhere else in motorsports.
The USCS sprint cars are anticipated to reach upwards of 130 M.P.H. around the 4/10 mile bullring.
“It’s been quite a while since the USCS has roared around Southern National and I’m excited to see what they can do,” series announcer Jacob Seelman said of the USCS’ return to Kenly. “This series showcases versatility and it’s going to be interesting to see how some of the dirt regulars can stack up against the pavement ringers. Veterans like Terry Gray and Johnny Bridges going up against young hotshoes like Garrett Green will make this a show for the ages.”
Names to watch for in the event will include 2010 USCS Asphalt Thunder champion and 2004 USCS/AOAS champion Bridges, out of Cherryville, North Carolina, who won one of the series’ two most recent outings on the dirt at Carolina Speedway in Gastonia and is always a threat anytime the USCS hits the asphalt. Gray, the ten-time USCS National champion and four-time USCS Asphalt Thunder champion, will also be a factor. Gray won the final USCS Asphalt Thunder event run in 2010 at Hickory Motor Speedway before the series returned to the pavement last summer in Georgia, and is a perennial contender to visit rockauto.com Victory Lane in any USCS event he competes in.
The pavement ringers will be out in force as well. 15-year-old Green will be driving his family-owned No.3 sprint car in an effort to score his first USCS victory after having a solid run in the two USCS asphalt shows he entered in 2013. JoJo Helberg is expected to make an appearance as well, coming east-side from California to participate in the doubleheader weekend. Helberg scored the victory in last year’s inaugural Tim Smith’s CLIMAX Moonshine Sprint Car Shootout at Atlanta and is a former Must See Racing Xtreme Sprint Series champion on the pavement as well.
All the thundering action kicks off at 7 PM Saturday night at Southern National Motorsports Park, with gates opening at 2 PM that afternoon. If you’re in the area, come out and see what the anticipation in the Carolinas is all about!
For information on Southern National Motorsports Park please visit www.snmpark.com or call the track office at 919-284-1114.
For information and/or rules for the United Sprint Car Series visit www.uscsracing.com or call the series office at 770-460-7223 or 770-865-6097.
