(5/26/07)
West Memphis, AR - An O’Reilly Auto Parts United Sprint Car Series "Outlaw Thunder" Tour www.uscsracing.com sanctioned National event for winged sprint cars headlines the racing action at Riverside International Speedway in West Memphis, Arkansas this Saturday night. The special event features Round #2 of the O’Reilly USCS Speed Week 2007 in the 2nd Annual “Rumble at the River”
at the fast 1/4-mile high-banked gumbo clay oval. This event is race number eleven on the season for the Nationally touring O’Reilly USCS sprint car drivers who also race on paved ovals. The O’Reilly USCS is the only winged outlaw sprint series in the World that races on both dirt and paved surfaces.
The race is the one and only visit presently scheduled for the 2007 season for the O’Reilly USCS winged sprint cars at Riverside International Speedway. The race will award National Championship points as well as O’
Reilly USCS Mid-South Thunder regional series Championship points. The O’
Reilly USCS Mid-South Thunder regional series primarily consists of races in Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri and West Tennessee.
The special event is expected to bring top winged outlaw sprint car drivers from at least eight 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 World’s most powerful short track race cars. The cars will literally fly around the track surface at speeds over 100 M.P.H. It is not uncommon to see O’Reilly USCS sprint cars popping "wheelies" or doing wheel stands because of the brute force of their engines and their huge 18-inch wide rear tires.
Saturday night's O’Reilly USCS sprint car action will feature a full program of racing that includes test and tune hot laps followed by the evening's first sprint car race, the Lucas Oil Power Dash that showcases the top six cars from the previous O’Reilly USCS main event in an edge-of-your-seat six-car shootout. Next up will be qualifying heat races and a Last Chance/B-Main race(s). The evening’s grand finale will be the 30-lap “ Rumble at the River” A-main event. Also on the program are Riverside’s weekly Saturday night racing divisions including the Limited Late Models, Riverside Stock Cars, Mini Stocks and 250 Mini Sprints.
O’Reilly USCS entries will include a number of the nation's top ranked sprint car drivers. Terry Gray from Bartlett, Tennessee, heads the entry list for Saturday’s event. Gray is a five-time O’Reilly USCS National Champion. He who currently leads the O’Reilly USCS National, Mid-South, Southern Thunder and Asphalt Thunder pavement series point standings. Gray is also among the top twenty-five drivers in the Nation in feature wins over the past six years with over 65 feature wins.Gray is a twelve time National Champion with three touring series. He has multiple National titles in the O ’Reilly USCS, ASCS and NCRA series .
Another potent entry is twenty year-old young gun Danny 'Hammer" Martin, Jr.
from Sarasota, Florida. Martin was the runner-up in the 2004, 2005 and 2006 O’Reilly USCS National title chases. He was named as the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame’s 2005 “Wild Card Driver of the Year’ an honor for outstanding driving performances. Gray and Martin both finished last season highly ranked in the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame North American “Driver of the Year” poll. Gray was ranked third in the National poll and Danny Martin, Jr.
finished in the eighth spot. The NSCHOF poll considers over 3000 for the rankings.
Martin will be joined by a host of other talented USCS Hoosier Tire Young Guns (drivers under 25-years-old) including 19-year-old R.J. Johnson of Land-O-Lakes, Florida who was the 2004 O’Reilly USCS Rookie of the Year plus 20 year old Ryan Myers from Eaton, Ohio who is sixth in the current National standings. The youngest of all will be barely 15-year-old Trey Robb from Newcastle, Oklahoma who is fifth in the O’Reilly USCS in the current National standings and already has a 2007 O’Reilly USCS feature win to his credit. Robb became the youngest driver to ever win an O’Reilly USCS feature on March 30th of this year when he won the O’Reilly USCS Asphalt Thunder Tour pavement series race at the one-half-mile paved Five Flags Speedway oval in Pensacola, Florida. Robb was only 14-years-old at the time and it was only his second paved track race ever.
Other notable local Mid-South area drivers who compete regularly with the O’
Reilly USCS entered include: 1999 O’Reilly USCS Dirt Cup Champion, Marshall Skinner from West Memphis, Arkansas and 16-year-old 2006 USCS “Rookie of the Year” Derek Hagar. Skinner who won three times in 2006 O’Reilly USCS competition already and has won a Riverside International Speedway weekly racing feature race once already this season. The quickly improving Hagar Has finished in the runner-up spot the last two weekends at Riverside and is poised for a win there soon, possibly this weekend.
Another potent Hoosier Tire Young Gun entered is past Riverside and O’Reilly USCS feature winner, Lee Sowell from Nesbit, Mississippi. Sowell a third generation Memphis area driver whose Grandfather was the late legendary Leland Sowell finished sixth in the 2006 O’Reilly USCS Mid-South Thunder standings and is entered to run the entire seven-race Speed Week with the series as well.
There will be plenty of other competition as Riverside International Speedway has some of the toughest home track competition found anywhere in sprint car racing. Local competitors include 1998 O’Reilly USCS Champion and perennial Riverside Speedway Champion, Eddie Gallagher from Memphis, Tennessee. Other top guns include Coldwater, Mississippi’s Raymond Stull and Ernie Ainsworth who both won multiple times last season at the speedway.
Past Riverside feature winners also include Kenny Coke from Olive Branch, Mississippi and Henry Gustavus from Earle, Arkansas.
Also entered is Forest City, Arkansas’ Bryce Vowan who ranks fourth in the Mid South Thunder point standings coming into the event. Several North Mississippi sprint car veterans are entered including, Michael Craddock from Olive Branch, Ronnie Howard from Southaven, Greg Merritt from Nesbit, Mississippi and Wade Oliver from Southaven.
Other top young drivers expected to compete include 19-year-old Brad Bowden from Hernando, Mississippi who has had a number of good early season runs going this season plus Phillip Faulkner from Drums, Tennessee, Andy McElhannon from Hernando, Mississippi, Don Young from Bartlett, Tennessee and Buster Dickerson from Columbus, Mississippi. Also entered are newcomer Jay Adams from Southaven and racing returnee, Chris Williams from Memphis.
Essex, Missouri’s Rookie of the Year candidate, Dylan DeJournett.
Additional competitors from out-of state and out of the Memphis metro area include Christopher “Doc” Sloan from Imperial, Missouri who ranks fourth in the O’Reilly USCS Mid-South regional standings and Jason Evans from Sikeston, Missouri. Additional entries include Todd Fayard from Gulfport, Mississippi and USCS veteran regular Randy Helton from Palmetto, Georgia.
Riverside International Speedway is located just off Interstate 40/55 at 150
Legion Rd. in West Memphis, Arkansas. Highway
The track’s phone number is 870-735-8071 and the website is www.riversideinternationalspeedway.com For O’Reilly USCS info visit the USCS web site at www.uscsracing.com or call 404-886-5913.
MEDIA CONTACT: Pete Walton 404-886-5913
petewalton@bellsouth.net
Current O’Reilly USCS Mid-South Thunder point standings
1. 10 Terry Gray - Bartlett, TN 300
2. 88 Mike Ward - Memphis, TN 292
3. 26 Marshall Skinner - W. Memphis, AR 291
4. 2m Bryce Vowan - Forrest City, AR 277
5. 12dr Christopher Sloan - Imperial, MO 270
6. 58 Wade Oliver - Southaven, MS 265
7. 9jr Derek Hagar - Marion, AR 262
8. 88 Jason Evans - Sikeston, MO 254
9. 22 Dustin Barks - Farmington, MO 246
10. 07H Rob Hartman - Ozark, MO 244
Pete Walton/President
O'Reilly United Sprint Car Series
305 Industrial Way Suite A
Fayetteville, GA 30214
404-886-5913
Fax 770-460-2053
www.uscsracing.com
West Memphis, AR - An O’Reilly Auto Parts United Sprint Car Series "Outlaw Thunder" Tour www.uscsracing.com sanctioned National event for winged sprint cars headlines the racing action at Riverside International Speedway in West Memphis, Arkansas this Saturday night. The special event features Round #2 of the O’Reilly USCS Speed Week 2007 in the 2nd Annual “Rumble at the River”
at the fast 1/4-mile high-banked gumbo clay oval. This event is race number eleven on the season for the Nationally touring O’Reilly USCS sprint car drivers who also race on paved ovals. The O’Reilly USCS is the only winged outlaw sprint series in the World that races on both dirt and paved surfaces.
The race is the one and only visit presently scheduled for the 2007 season for the O’Reilly USCS winged sprint cars at Riverside International Speedway. The race will award National Championship points as well as O’
Reilly USCS Mid-South Thunder regional series Championship points. The O’
Reilly USCS Mid-South Thunder regional series primarily consists of races in Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri and West Tennessee.
The special event is expected to bring top winged outlaw sprint car drivers from at least eight 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 World’s most powerful short track race cars. The cars will literally fly around the track surface at speeds over 100 M.P.H. It is not uncommon to see O’Reilly USCS sprint cars popping "wheelies" or doing wheel stands because of the brute force of their engines and their huge 18-inch wide rear tires.
Saturday night's O’Reilly USCS sprint car action will feature a full program of racing that includes test and tune hot laps followed by the evening's first sprint car race, the Lucas Oil Power Dash that showcases the top six cars from the previous O’Reilly USCS main event in an edge-of-your-seat six-car shootout. Next up will be qualifying heat races and a Last Chance/B-Main race(s). The evening’s grand finale will be the 30-lap “ Rumble at the River” A-main event. Also on the program are Riverside’s weekly Saturday night racing divisions including the Limited Late Models, Riverside Stock Cars, Mini Stocks and 250 Mini Sprints.
O’Reilly USCS entries will include a number of the nation's top ranked sprint car drivers. Terry Gray from Bartlett, Tennessee, heads the entry list for Saturday’s event. Gray is a five-time O’Reilly USCS National Champion. He who currently leads the O’Reilly USCS National, Mid-South, Southern Thunder and Asphalt Thunder pavement series point standings. Gray is also among the top twenty-five drivers in the Nation in feature wins over the past six years with over 65 feature wins.Gray is a twelve time National Champion with three touring series. He has multiple National titles in the O ’Reilly USCS, ASCS and NCRA series .
Another potent entry is twenty year-old young gun Danny 'Hammer" Martin, Jr.
from Sarasota, Florida. Martin was the runner-up in the 2004, 2005 and 2006 O’Reilly USCS National title chases. He was named as the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame’s 2005 “Wild Card Driver of the Year’ an honor for outstanding driving performances. Gray and Martin both finished last season highly ranked in the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame North American “Driver of the Year” poll. Gray was ranked third in the National poll and Danny Martin, Jr.
finished in the eighth spot. The NSCHOF poll considers over 3000 for the rankings.
Martin will be joined by a host of other talented USCS Hoosier Tire Young Guns (drivers under 25-years-old) including 19-year-old R.J. Johnson of Land-O-Lakes, Florida who was the 2004 O’Reilly USCS Rookie of the Year plus 20 year old Ryan Myers from Eaton, Ohio who is sixth in the current National standings. The youngest of all will be barely 15-year-old Trey Robb from Newcastle, Oklahoma who is fifth in the O’Reilly USCS in the current National standings and already has a 2007 O’Reilly USCS feature win to his credit. Robb became the youngest driver to ever win an O’Reilly USCS feature on March 30th of this year when he won the O’Reilly USCS Asphalt Thunder Tour pavement series race at the one-half-mile paved Five Flags Speedway oval in Pensacola, Florida. Robb was only 14-years-old at the time and it was only his second paved track race ever.
Other notable local Mid-South area drivers who compete regularly with the O’
Reilly USCS entered include: 1999 O’Reilly USCS Dirt Cup Champion, Marshall Skinner from West Memphis, Arkansas and 16-year-old 2006 USCS “Rookie of the Year” Derek Hagar. Skinner who won three times in 2006 O’Reilly USCS competition already and has won a Riverside International Speedway weekly racing feature race once already this season. The quickly improving Hagar Has finished in the runner-up spot the last two weekends at Riverside and is poised for a win there soon, possibly this weekend.
Another potent Hoosier Tire Young Gun entered is past Riverside and O’Reilly USCS feature winner, Lee Sowell from Nesbit, Mississippi. Sowell a third generation Memphis area driver whose Grandfather was the late legendary Leland Sowell finished sixth in the 2006 O’Reilly USCS Mid-South Thunder standings and is entered to run the entire seven-race Speed Week with the series as well.
There will be plenty of other competition as Riverside International Speedway has some of the toughest home track competition found anywhere in sprint car racing. Local competitors include 1998 O’Reilly USCS Champion and perennial Riverside Speedway Champion, Eddie Gallagher from Memphis, Tennessee. Other top guns include Coldwater, Mississippi’s Raymond Stull and Ernie Ainsworth who both won multiple times last season at the speedway.
Past Riverside feature winners also include Kenny Coke from Olive Branch, Mississippi and Henry Gustavus from Earle, Arkansas.
Also entered is Forest City, Arkansas’ Bryce Vowan who ranks fourth in the Mid South Thunder point standings coming into the event. Several North Mississippi sprint car veterans are entered including, Michael Craddock from Olive Branch, Ronnie Howard from Southaven, Greg Merritt from Nesbit, Mississippi and Wade Oliver from Southaven.
Other top young drivers expected to compete include 19-year-old Brad Bowden from Hernando, Mississippi who has had a number of good early season runs going this season plus Phillip Faulkner from Drums, Tennessee, Andy McElhannon from Hernando, Mississippi, Don Young from Bartlett, Tennessee and Buster Dickerson from Columbus, Mississippi. Also entered are newcomer Jay Adams from Southaven and racing returnee, Chris Williams from Memphis.
Essex, Missouri’s Rookie of the Year candidate, Dylan DeJournett.
Additional competitors from out-of state and out of the Memphis metro area include Christopher “Doc” Sloan from Imperial, Missouri who ranks fourth in the O’Reilly USCS Mid-South regional standings and Jason Evans from Sikeston, Missouri. Additional entries include Todd Fayard from Gulfport, Mississippi and USCS veteran regular Randy Helton from Palmetto, Georgia.
Riverside International Speedway is located just off Interstate 40/55 at 150
Legion Rd. in West Memphis, Arkansas. Highway
The track’s phone number is 870-735-8071 and the website is www.riversideinternationalspeedway.com For O’Reilly USCS info visit the USCS web site at www.uscsracing.com or call 404-886-5913.
MEDIA CONTACT: Pete Walton 404-886-5913
petewalton@bellsouth.net
Current O’Reilly USCS Mid-South Thunder point standings
1. 10 Terry Gray - Bartlett, TN 300
2. 88 Mike Ward - Memphis, TN 292
3. 26 Marshall Skinner - W. Memphis, AR 291
4. 2m Bryce Vowan - Forrest City, AR 277
5. 12dr Christopher Sloan - Imperial, MO 270
6. 58 Wade Oliver - Southaven, MS 265
7. 9jr Derek Hagar - Marion, AR 262
8. 88 Jason Evans - Sikeston, MO 254
9. 22 Dustin Barks - Farmington, MO 246
10. 07H Rob Hartman - Ozark, MO 244
Pete Walton/President
O'Reilly United Sprint Car Series
305 Industrial Way Suite A
Fayetteville, GA 30214
404-886-5913
Fax 770-460-2053
www.uscsracing.com
