With several inches of snow covering the parking lots of the Abbottstown speedway last weekend, the promoters of Lincoln Speedway were forced to cancel their opener although the track racing surface was ready for the 410 sprinters.
Opening for the 59th season, the Hanover area four-tenths mile clay oval will present a two-division show Saturday, featuring the 410 sprint cars and thundercars. Gates open at noon and racing begins at 2 p.m.
Brian Montieth collected his third consecutive 410 sprint car title last season. He and many other top 410 drivers will be looking to claim the opening-day money. A complete order of qualifying events will lead up to the 30-lap feature, which will pay $3,500 to the winner, while the thundercars will race for a $500 winner's check in their 20-lap feature event.
A Sunday raindate is scheduled with the same times for the show.
Brett Deyo, public relations director and announcer at Big Diamond Speedway, sends along word of their race car show this coming week. The Fairlane Village Mall (Boscov's), located on Route 61 outside of Pottsville, will hold the race car show this week, Monday, March 7, through Saturday, March 12.
The Minersville area track is slated to open its gates for the 358 modifieds, sportsman and roadrunners, on Sunday, April 3.
Charlie Paige's Selinsgrove Speedway is ready for its 66th season of racing. The Snyder County half-mile will open next Sunday, March 13, featuring the 410 sprint cars and pro stocks. The following weekend finds the Race of Champions Dart Dirt Modified Series kicking off its 2011 campaign with the 4th Annual Icebreaker Weekend.
The 358 modifieds will take to the track on Friday night for the $2,200-to-win, 25-lap event (2010 winner, Pat Ward) and Saturday's 40-lap feature pays $4,000-to-win (2010 winner, Matt Sheppard), for the big block mods.
The RoC Icebreaker weekend carries a raindate of Sunday, March 20 if needed.
Plenty of the top stars of dirt modifieds have committed to compete for the weekend including 2010 RoC Champion, Stewart Friesen, Jeff Strunk, Brett Hearn, Duane Howard, Doug Manmiller, Justin Holland, Matt Sheppard, Craig Von Dohren, Jimmy Horton, Kenny Brightbill, Danny Johnson, Jimmy Phelps, Ryan Phelps, Mike Colsten and many more from Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Canada.
The National Hot Rod Association just kicked off its 60th season of racing with the running of the 51st Annual Kragen O'Reilly's Auto Parts Winternationals at Pomona, as winners of the top three professional classes were: Morgan Lucas over teammate, Shawn Langdon in top fuel; Robert Hight defeated Matt Hagan in funny car and Jason Line drove his Summit Racing Pontiac to victory over Greg Stanfield in pro stock.
The tour is off this weekend before heading to Gainesville, Florida for the 42nd Annual Tire Kingdom Gatornationals, March 11-13.