(Lakeland-FL) – 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 just released the details for the
2006 Super Late Model "SpeedFest". Super Late Model teams and fans
will gather at USA International Speedway January 26-28, 2006 for the
second installment of the "North vs. South" battle at the renowned
Florida facility.
In January of 2005 60 teams took part in the
first "SpeedFest" that brought all the different teams and sanctioning
bodies together. The first 100-lap event was one by Florida’s Mike
Fritts, while Wisconsin’s Charlie Menard won the Mark III Conversions
200-lap finale.
Inside the recently released 2006 rules/entry
form, teams will find that the overall purse has been increased for
the 2006 event, with the winner taking home over $10,000. Teams will
also find that the schedule of events has one less day in it and an
easy to understand format. Teams will enter the grounds for technical
inspection and open practice on Thursday January 26th, then
qualify on Friday for one of the Twin 100 qualifiers. Nashville will
be the geographic dividing line for determining who runs in the South
qualifier and who runs in the North Qualifier. The top 10 cars from
Friday’s North 100 and the top 10 cars from Friday’s South 100 will be
locked into Saturday’s SpeedFest 200 finale. In all, a minimum of 36
cars will take the green flag for the 200 Lap finale on Saturday,
while all cars will run a feature on Friday.
"The 2005 SpeedFest was a great event for our
facility and fans as well as the Late Model teams," noted USA
International Speedway promoter Bill Martino. "It was a true battle of
North vs. South, like we had envisioned, and I believe everyone went
away thinking it was truly a great event. We knew right then that we
would come back and do it again… and even better."
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 the
on-track activities will be directed by these sanctioning bodies,
officials want to be very clear that this is an "open" event and that
a minimum of 32 starting spots are open to all teams regardless of
sanctioning body affiliation. Bonus dollars are available to the top
finishing CRA and Sunbelt teams, as well as all other non affiliated
cars, which will be battling for bonus dollars in their own pool.
For rules, entry form, purse, and format
questions, downloads will be available at:
here,
www.fascar.org, or
www.usaspeedway.com.
Interested teams can also call Glenn Luckett at 812-883-0455.
