| EAST BAY RACEWAY PARK TO HOST CRATE LATE MODEL WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS | By Roby Helm
Ken Schrader and Jeff Purvis Among Entries
East Bay Raceway Park in Tampa, FL will host the Inaugural Jasper Engines Crate Late Model World Championship Race presented by American Race Tire on December 1-3 with the Crate Racin' USA-sanctioned 100-lap main event paying $10,000-to-win. Crate Racin' USA sanctions affordable late model racing using factory-sealed economical engines.
The East Bay Raceway Park event will begin with a practice night on Thursday night, December 1. The racing action will begin on Friday night, December 2 with time trials and heat races that will lock in 18 drivers into the main event, which will be run on Saturday night, December 3. Two B-main events to fill the 24-car main event starting field will also be run on December 3.
The Crate Racin' USA formula of teams utilizing spec factory-sealed engines right out of the crate gives racers an opportunity to compete on a level playing field where talent plays a more important role in the race's outcome, rather than how much one can spend on an engine.
The cost of an aluminum-head crate engine is $4,800, and the cost of a steel-head crate engine is $2,800, or one-tenth the cost of an open late model engine. The engines are sealed at the factory, and made available through General Motors dealerships throughout the country. Competitors are not allowed to make any modifications to the engines.
The entry list for the Jasper Engines Crate Late Model World Championship Race is a good mix of dirt late model legends, top stars, and young drivers looking to make a name for themselves.
NASCAR star Ken Schrader of Fenton, MO will be at the 1/3-mile clay oval to compete in the three-day event. Through the years, Schrader has competed at East Bay Raceway Park in Open Late Model, Sprint Car, and Midget competition.
RELATED ARTICLE:ROBY HELM JOINS CRATE RACIN' USA
National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame inductee and former NASCAR star Jeff Purvis of Clarksville, TN is entered. Purvis has been a regular competitor with the Crate Racin' USA series, finishing sixth in the 2005 National point standings, and will make his first East Bay Raceway Park appearance since the mid-1980s.
A pair of former open late model Dirt Track World Championship Race winners, Ronnie Johnson of Chattanooga, TN and Marshall Green of Dalton, GA, will join former Southern All-Star Late Model Champions Clint Smith of Senoia, GA and Shane Tankersley of Morganton, GA on the entry list, plus Jimmy Owens of Newport, TN.
The 2005 Crate Racin' USA National Champion Denny Slayton of Rossville, GA is expected to be joined at East Bay Raceway Park on December 1-3 by series regulars Jeff Fields, Matthew Turner, Curtis Cline, and Robby Bilbrey. A host of local East Bay Raceway Park regulars are also expected.
For Crate Racin' USA rules and additional information visit the series web site at www.crateracinusa.com, or call 770-560-1240. East Bay Raceway Park is located five miles south of I-4 on U.S. Highway 41. For more track information visit the track web site at www.eastbayracewaypark.com, or call 813-677-7223.
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