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(Savannah, GA) After a
second consecutive week of rainy weather on Friday night and
a fifth rained out event of the season, Oglethorpe Speedway
Park now turns it’s attention to the upcoming 10th
Annual Summer Sizzler weekend on June 16, 17 and 18. The
historic half mile speedway will host the National Late
Model Series for the first of two annual appearances during
the Summer Sizzler. Oglethorpe Speedway Park will also
entertain fans with the Green Mamba Jet Car melting down a
four door sedan, the first ever ‘Chipper Mania’, FREE four
wheel drive test runs and racing in the Street Stocks, Pure
Stocks, Mini Stocks, Queen Bee and 440 divisions. The
weekend will culminate with the running of the Cindy McCurry
Memorial 100 on Saturday night.
“We have been
putting together a weekend full of racing and some wild
family type fun things,” said track promoter Ted Austad.
“There is a little something for all ages this year at the
Summer Sizzler.”
The National
Late Model Series headlines the weekend with their
high-powered traveling tour. Ocala, Florida’s Ivedent Lloyd
currently leads the National Late Model Series point
standings and has three victories under his belt this
season. Lloyd has never won the Summer Sizzler 100 and has
only one victory at the very fast Oglethorpe Speedway Park.
That win came at the October ‘Showdown on the Coast’ event
in 2002.
“The summer
race is always a little more tricky for our series,”
explained Lloyd on the Dixieland Race Report radio program.
“The weather is a lot warmer and the track can dry out
faster creating a real tire management problem. It is tough
to predict what the track is going to do over 100 laps in
the middle of summer.”
DeWayne
Johnson is closing the gap on Ivendent Lloyd in the point
standings. Johnson is fresh off his third win of the season
at Golden Isles Speedway the first weekend of June. Johnson
has been fast timer at OSP in the past. But, has struck out
finding his way to victory lane at the half mile speed
plant.
“I have to
learn to be more patient at Oglethorpe,” said Johnson. “I
have used up my tires to early and it’s cost us some races.”
Oglethorpe
Speedway Park is a special place in the hearts of many of
the National Late Model Series drivers. The half mile
speedway is considered one of the tougher tracks to win at
and is well respected among the contingent of competitors.
“Our biggest
race of the year is the Showdown on the Coast,” Johnson
added. “Everyone wants to win that one. Everyone wants to
just win one at OSP.”
Joining Lloyd
and Johnson on the quest for victory will be former Summer
Sizzler winners Tuck Trentham, Henry Carter, Bobby Oglesby,
Robert Diekemper and defending race winner Terry Lumley.
Eighteen-year-old Jordy Nipper is looking forward to a
return trip to OSP after winning the Budweiser 150 at last
year’s Showdown on the Coast while others looking for their
first trip to OSP’s hallowed victory lane include Chesley
Dixon, Lonnie Roberts, Jason Davis, Stacey Roberts and Jeff
Fortner. All have been close before.
“Oglethorpe is
one of those tracks with such a great history,” said
National Late Model Series coordinator Ray Miller. “NASCAR
greats have raced there. National champions have called OSP
home. It’s a great race place and it’s honorable to tell
people you have won a race there.”
The
entertainment of the weekend is not placed solely on the
racing competition. Oglethorpe Speedway Park has also
planned some of it’s wild special attractions for the
weekend. One of those is the wildly popular Green Mamba Jet
Car.
Doug Rose has
been piloting the Green Mamba Jet Car since the early
sixties when he began a career that has included eleven
national jet dragster titles. He no longer burns up the
drag strip with his unique snake like shaped race car. Now
he merely chains disabled automobiles to the back of the
race car and melts them down to nothing using the powerful
6,000 degree afterburner of an F-7 jet fighter engine.
“It is one of
the wildest shows I have ever seen,” said Mike Thomas of
nearby Statesboro, GA. “My family and I never miss this
show when it comes to OSP. The kids talk about it for days
on end. It’s really cool for all of us.”
The high jinx
continues with Friday night’s “Chipper Mania” where the
track has contracted with Vermeer Forestry Products to throw
various items through a giant wood chipper. Race fans have
been calling in to the track wanting to throw everything
from watermelons to old box springs to cardboard cut outs of
Jeff Gordon through the chipper.
“We asked the
caller if he was Tony Stewart,” laughed Austad in reference
to the person wanting to throw Jeff Gordon’s cut-out through
the chipper.
The weekend
festivities will begin on Thursday night with an open
practice for the drivers of the National Late Model Series
and other divisions competing at the Sizzler. There will
also be FREE test drives in four wheel drive Toyota Tundra
and Tacoma pick-ups on Thursday night. OSP has created a
quarter mile off-road course for the test drives. Admission
for spectators and the test drives is free.
Friday night
is qualifying night for the National Late Model Series,
Love’s Seafood Street Stocks and Southern Racing Supplies
Pure Stocks. There will also be heat races for those three
classes and main events for the Sunset Novelties Mini Stocks
and Queen Bees. The Friday night activities will culminate
with a music party outside the track’s famous Finish Line
Pub.
Saturday
night’s main event is the National Late Models Cindy McCurry
Memorial 100 and the $5000 first place prize money. It’s
the first year that the race has been held in honor of long
time friend of the speedway and series Cindy McCurry who
lost her battle with cancer this past December. The race
has a special meaning for many of the racers.
“Cindy was a
special lady that was a friend to anyone she met,” said Ted
Austad. “This race is going to shine even greater with
Cindy’s name attached to it.”
The Street
Stock, Pure Stock and Four Star Security 440 feature races
will take place on Saturday night as well finishing up the
10th Annual Summer Sizzler at OSP.
A full weekend
schedule is listed below. For additional information,
tickets or camping reservations, contact the speedway at
912-964-8200 or visit
www.ospracing.net.
Thursday, June 16
Noon – Camping opens for
the weekend
5:30pm – Pits Open & FREE
Toyota Test Drives Begin
7:00pm – Open Practice
Begins (continues until 9:30pm)
Friday, June 17
2:00pm – Pits Open
6:00pm – Grandstands Open
7:30pm – Opening
Ceremonies, Qualifying and Racing
Time Trials for the Nat’l Late Model, Street Stock and Pure
Stock
Heat Races for Nat’l Late Model, Street Stock, Pure Stock &
Mini Stock
Feature Races for Mini Stock and Queen Bee
Green Mamba Jet Car, Chipper Mania and Music after the races
Saturday, June 18
2:00pm – Pits Open
5:30pm – Grandstands Open
7:30pm – Opening
Ceremonies and Racing
Last Chance Race for Nat’l Late Models
Feature Races for Street Stock, Pure Stock and 440
Cindy McCurry Memorial 100 for Nat’l
Late Models
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