Grueling Dirt Late Model Series Will Test Teams With 33 Races Over 39 Days
CONCORD, NC – Dec. 12, 2013 – A record number of events appear on the 2014 DIRTcar Summer Nationals ‘Hell Tour’ schedule, which was released Thursday by DIRTcar officials during the Performance Racing Industry Trade Show in Indianapolis.
Stretching nearly six weeks for the second consecutive year, dirt Late Model racing’s biggest test of man and machine will feature 33 races at 32 tracks in nine states over a period of 39 days.
The DIRTcar Summer Nationals will begin and end with traditional dates, kicking off on Wed., June 11, at Brownstown (Ind.) Speedway and concluding on Sat., July 19, at Oakshade Raceway in Wauseon, Ohio. In between competitors will travel nearly 6,000 miles and compete for $215,000 in first-place prize money.
“The expansion of the DIRTcar Summer Nationals to six weekends in 2013 proved to be a big success so we’re sticking with the same time frame for the 2014 ‘Hell Tour’ schedule,” said DIRTcar UMP director Sam Driggers. “Extending the Summer Nationals not only allows us to slot in more off days for the race teams but also gives us the opportunity to accommodate more racetracks that desire events – and that, of course, brings the Summer Nationals to more fans across the Midwest.”
While weather prevented the 2013 ‘Hell Tour’ from boasting a record number of events (26 of the 32 scheduled points races were run), Driggers’s scheduling of 33 races in ’14 once again puts the circuit in line for a new high-water mark. The current record for DIRTcar Summer Nationals points races is 28 in 2010 and 2012.
As has become customary, racing in the DIRTcar UMP hotbed of Illinois dominates the 2014 DIRTcar Summer Nationals schedule with 15 tracks located in the Land of Lincoln set to host events. The series will also compete at four tracks in Ohio; three in Indiana; two in Iowa, Kentucky, Tennessee and Wisconsin; and one in Michigan and Missouri.
The only track scheduled to hold more than one DIRTcar Summer Nationals event is Cedar Lake Speedway in New Richmond, Wis., which will make its ‘Masters’ weekend a part of the ‘Hell Tour’ for the fifth consecutive season. The one-third-mile oval will run a $5,000-to-win A-Main on Fri., June 13, and a $10,000-to-win affair on Sat., June 14.
The lone track that will hold a DIRTcar Summer Nationals event for the first time in 2014 is Atomic Speedway (formerly K-C Raceway) in Chillicothe, Ohio, which leads off the series-ending four-race swing through the Buckeye State with a $5,000-to-win show on Wed., July 16.
Most of the host tracks are stalwarts on the DIRTcar Summer Nationals – none more so than Fairbury (Ill.) American Legion Speedway, which is set to present a record 26th ‘Hell Tour’ A-Main on Sat., June 21.
Among the notable returning tracks are Farmer City (Ill.) Raceway, which is back on the ‘Hell Tour’ schedule after a two-year absence on Fri., July 11, and Farley (Iowa) Speedway, which will host its first Summer Nationals event since 2005 on Tues., June 17.
A total of 10 DIRTcar Summer Nationals events will offer $10,000 first-place checks. Another 22 features will pay $5,000 to win and a single race has a posted winner’s check of $7,500 (July 4 at Fayette County Speedway in Brownstown, Ill.).
Purses for the ‘Hell Tour’ will total nearly $900,000. Another $65,000-plus in points-fund money will be on the line, including a $25,000 check for the 2014 champion.
Twenty-year-old Brandon Sheppard of New Berlin, Ill., won the DIRTcar Summer Nationals championship in 2013, becoming the youngest driver to capture the title since the series began in 1986.
Most of the DIRTcar Summer Nationals programs will be run as doubleheaders with the DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals, a points series showcasing the open-wheel UMP Modified division. The full 2014 DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals schedule will be announced in a separate press release.
Additional info on all of the series, sanctioning and member tracks of DIRTcar Racing is available at www.DIRTcar.com .
2014 DIRTcar Summer Nationals Schedule (as of Dec. 12, 2013)
June 11th – Brownstown Speedway – $5,000 to win
June 12th – Kankakee County Speedway – $5,000 to win
June 13th – Cedar Lake Speedway – $5,000 to win
June 14th – Cedar Lake Speedway – $10,000 to win
June 15th – Wilmot Raceway – $5,000 to win
June 17th – Farley Speedway – $10,000 to win
June 18th – Spoon River Speedway – $5,000 to win
June 19th – Quincy Raceway – $5,000 to win
June 20th – Tri-City Speedway – $10,000 to win
June 21st – Fairbury American Legion Speedway – $10,000 to win
June 22nd – I-96 Speedway – $5,000 to win
June 23rd – Peoria Speedway – $5,000 to win
June 25th – Clarksville Speedway- $5,000 to win
June 26th – Clayhill Motorsports Park – $5,000 to win
June 27th – Paducah Int’l Raceway – $10,000 to win
June 28th – Federated Raceway at I-55 – $10,000 to win
June 29th – Lincoln Speedway – $5,000 to win
July 1st – Belle-Clair Speedway – $5,000 to win
July 2nd – Jacksonville Speedway – $5,000 to win
July 3rd – La Salle Speedway – $5,000 to win
July 4th – Fayette County Speedway – $7,500 to win
July 5th – Highland Speedway – $10,000 to win
July 6th – Tri-State Speedway – $5,000 to win
July 8th – Florence Speedway – $5,000 to win
July 9th – Terre Haute Action Track – $5,000 to win
July 10th – Macon Speedway – $5,000 to win
July 11th – Farmer City Raceway – $10,000 to win
July 12th – 34 Raceway – $10,000 to win
July 13th – Vermilion County Speedway – $5,000 to win
July 16th – Atomic Speedway $5,000 to win
July 17th – Brushcreek Motorsports Complex – $5,000 to win
July 18th – Attica Raceway Park – $5,000 to win
July 19th – Oakshade Raceway – $10,000 to win!