Charlotte, NC 7/25/12– Over the last several seasons the 4/10th mile oval located in the tiny town of Rougemont, North Carolina, deemed the Orange County Speedway, has hosted two PASS South Series super late model events a year. The first normally comes early in the season schedule during mid spring time, and the second during the middle ofNorth Carolina’s sweltering summer time heat and humidity. Both events are known to produce some of the best racing all season, but round two at theNorth Carolina track, appropriately named the Southern Sizzler 150, always has that extra bit of flare or excitement to it that draws additional fans in the stands and cars in the pits.
Just like years past, the 2012 version of the Southern Sizzler 150 has high expectations of a strong car count with plenty of new faces set to do battle with the series regulars all in amidst a tight championship points battle.NamesPASSSouth fans don’t know such as Bill Catania (Winston-Salem,NC), Scott Hensley (Kannapolis,NC), Van Knill (Mooresville,NC), and Randy Gentry (Easley,SC) have all filed entries for the event with hopes of stealing the show from series regulars.
With just sixteen points separating the top five positions in the championship standings that tells all the invaders right away that they must be on their A game. Kyle Grissom took advantage of Brandon Ward’s off day at Motor Mile to take back the points lead heading into this weekend’s race. Local driver Jay Fogleman from nearbyDurham,North Carolinasits third and has continued his climb in the standings especially in his last outing when he picked up his first win of the 2012 campaign.
Brad Keselowski Racing development driver Landon Cling is fourth in the standings having picked up his first ever super late model win earlier in the year atSouth Boston. Rounding out the top five is Preston Peltier who’s numbers are impressive over the course of the season thus far having finished in the top five more often than any other driver. His only setback was a twenty-sixth place finish atHickoryin the Easter Bunny 150 event in April.
The veteran Peltier looked to be on his way to his second win of the season back in April when the series was at the speedway until a faulty front suspension piece gave way with just two laps to go handing the lead to Ross Kenseth, son of current NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points leader Matt Kenseth, on the white flag in route to his first career PASS South Series win. Since that win Kenseth has had some bad luck over the summer months making the return toOrangeCountya possible momentum changer as the season schedule continues into the fall.
The Southern Sizzler 150 at the Orange County Speedway kicks off this Saturday July 28th at 2pm with practice followed by time trials at 5:30pm. CCS Legends and the CCS/PASS Super Limited Series are also on the schedule to do battle with feature racing to start at 7pm. An on-track autograph session with the drivers of the PASS South Series before the drop of the green flag at approximately 7:30pm will lead up to 150 laps of green flag racing for the Southern Sizzler 150 set for 8pm.
For direction to the Orange County Speedway visit www.ocstrack.com. For more information about the PASS South Series Southern Sizzler 150 including exact scheduling and pre entered competitors visit www.proallstarsseries.com.