Lakeland, FL (October 31, 2007) –
Officials from the Midwest-based Champion Racing Association (CRA)
Super Series, the Southern-based FASCAR/Sunbelt Super Series and USA
International Speedway in Lakeland, Florida have combined to announce
the dates for "SpeedFest 2008" at the beautiful central Florida
facility. Super Late Model teams and fans will gather for the fourth
annual event, January 24-26, 2008.
In January of 2007, 44 teams took part in the
3rd annual "SpeedFest" that brought the countries top teams
together. The North and South had their own 100-lap qualifying
features on Friday, which transferred teams to Saturday’s 200-lap main
event. Florida legend Wayne Anderson won the South qualifier after a
tough battle with Jay Middleton, while Maine driver Ben Rowe won the
North qualifier over Jeremy Lepak and fellow Maine driver Cassius
Clark. The following night, 38 cars took the green flag for the
SpeedFest 200 Presented By Goodyear, and when the dust settled it was
veteran Illinois racer Eddie Hoffman standing in victory lane and
$10,000 richer, holding off veteran Michigan racer Butch Miller and
Florida’s Justin Drawdy. The event was interrupted several times by
rain.
"SpeedFest has been a great event for our
facility and fans as well as the Late Model teams," noted USA
International Speedway promoter Bill Martino. "It has been a true
battle of North vs. South, with each side seeming to alternate in
claiming victories, Wisconsin’s Charlie Menard won the inaugural event
in 2005, Florida’s Mike Fritts won in 2006 and Hoffman last year. It
is definitely something we look forward to each year now."
The event will be under the direction of CRA’s
Glenn Luckett and R. J. Scott and FASCAR’s Don Nerone. The series’
will also be co-promoting the event with the speedway. While these
sanctioning bodies will direct the on-track activities, officials want
to be very clear that this is an "open" event.
"We welcome teams from all over the country
and different organizations to be part of this weekend," commented CRA
managing partner R. J. Scott. "Only four of the 36 starting spots are
reserved for provisionals for the two sanctioning series, the other 32
spots are open to all comers, making it a truly ‘OPEN’ event."
Series officials will announce a tire at a
later date, as discussions with all three major race tire
manufacturers are currently taking place. Regardless of which company
is chosen, the event will only be using fresh, new production tires.
Added to this years’ SpeedFest racing slate
will also be the Crate Late Model Challenge. This event will be
supported by the ASA Late Model Series as a non-points special event
for Crate Late Models from around the country. SpeedFest officials
will oversee the event with technical support of from ASA Late Model
technical officials. More details about this portion of the SpeedFest
racing activities will be released in the next few weeks.
For the Super Late Models, the format and
schedule are identical to last year’s, with open practice and
technical inspection on Thursday January 24th. On Friday
the 25th, teams will practice, qualify by region, and race
in one of the North or South 100-lap qualifying features, with the top
10 from each transferring to Saturday’s SpeedFest 200. The SpeedFest
200 winner’s check will once again be a minimum of $10,000.
Entry forms, rules, and a schedule of
activities can all be found in coming weeks at any of the following
sites: craracing.net,
fascar.org,
asalatemodels.com or
usaspeedway.com.
