CONCORD, NC – Feb. 19, 2010 – A 2010 season that promises to be the biggest in World of Outlaws Late Model Series history has grown even larger with the announcement of a springtime doubleheader in the Midwest at Lincoln (Ill.) Speedway and Bluegrass Speedway in Bardstown, Ky.
The nation’s premier dirt Late Model tour will visit Lincoln Speedway on Fri., May 7, and move on to Bluegrass Speedway on Sat., May 8, pushing the 2010 schedule to 49 events at 42 tracks in 20 states and two Canadian provinces.
“We’re excited to add another big weekend of racing to the 2010 World of Outlaws Late Model Series schedule,” said series director Tim Christman. “Illinois and Kentucky are hotbeds for the dirt Late Model division and we look forward to bringing the best drivers in the country to perform in front of the region’s great fans.”
The WoO LMS will stop at the quarter-mile Lincoln oval for the fourth consecutive season, but this year’s event will be unlike any held there in the past. Promoter Don Hammer has upped the ante at Lincoln, increasing the track’s WoO LMS program to a 50-lap A-Main (from 40 laps in previous years) and a $10,000 top prize (from $7,000).
With a total payoff of roughly $50,000 for the evening, this year’s Land of Lincoln 50 will boast the biggest purse for a dirt Late Model event in the history of Lincoln Speedway.
“Thats what it’s all about — making everything bigger and better for the fans and racers,” said Hammer, who also oversees the fledgling Monster Midwest Tour and plans to make the Land of Lincoln 50 a shootout between drivers from his DIRTcar UMP-sanctioned series and the stars of the WoO LMS. “We want to give everybody the kind of show they want to see.”
This year’s WoO LMS extravaganza at Lincoln will also move to a Friday-night date, a change from the traditional Sunday that the event has occupied for the last three years. The change puts the big show in line with the new weekly format at Lincoln; Hammer recently announced he is switching the track’s regular race night to Friday in 2010, taking the track off the central Illinois area’s busier Saturday-night slot and allowing the headline Pro Late Model and Modified classes to carry the sanction of DIRTcar’s UMP circuit.
Lincoln will now run head-to-head weekly with Farmer City (Ill.) Raceway, the quarter-mile oval that Hammer has also promoted for several seasons. But Hammer sees no conflict between the tracks; UMP-sanctioned Super Late Models will be featured at Farmer City and the support divisions that will run weekly at both tracks share only a handful of the same drivers. What’s more, Farmer City’s weekly programs will be organized this season by Brian Stuart, who has promoted events at Quad Cities Raceway in East Moline, Ill., and other tracks; Hammer will continue to promote Farmer City’s special events (like the third annual WoO LMS Illini 100 on April 9-10) and work closely with Stuart — in fact, Hammer said Stuart will keep Farmer City closed on May 7 in support of the WoO LMS show at Lincoln.
Three different drivers have won the previous WoO LMS events held at Lincoln Speedway: Brian Shirley of Chatham, Ill. (2007), Chub Frank of Bear Lake, Pa. (2008) and Rick Eckert of York, Pa. (2009).
Bluegrass Speedway, meanwhile, is set to host the WoO LMS for the first time in its history on May 8. The 50-lap, $10,000-to-win event will serve as the track’s eighth annual ‘My Old Kentucky Home Shootout.’
Anticipation figures to run high for the Bluegrass show, which brings the WoO LMS to the Commonwealth of Kentucky for the first time since 2007 and just the fourth time in the tour’s seven-year run under the World Racing Group banner. Building interest in the night even further, Bluegrass Speedway’s fans will be chomping at the bit to go racing on May 8 because the track will be quiet the previous week in deference to the running of the Kentucky Derby horse race less than an hour away.
“We’re hoping to have a tremendous turnout for the first-ever World of Outlaws race at Bluegrass Speedway,” said David Ferrell, a veteran track promoter who has operated the high-banked, half-mile oval with his wife Anita for 11 years. “We have somewhere around 11-12,000 seats but we’ve never filled all of them up, so maybe we can come close with this race.
“I know we’re excited to have the Outlaws coming in, and I know the fans will see a great show. We have one of the fastest tracks in the country and it’s plenty wide for three- and four-wide racing, so I’m sure there will be lots of action.”
By the time the WoO LMS reaches Bluegrass, Ferrell will have one of the tour’s biggest stars in his family. Steve Francis of Ashland, Ky., the 2007 series champion and three-time runner-up, is marrying Ferrell’s daughter, Amanda, on Feb. 27.
“I told Steve, ‘I hope you’ll be there for the Outlaw show,'” Ferrell said with a smile.
With the addition of Lincoln Speedway and Bluegrass Speedway to the 2010 schedule, the WoO LMS is well positioned to reach new heights this season. The tour currently boasts single-season records of 44 A-Mains (2007) and visits to 36 different tracks (2007 and 2008).
For more information on Lincoln Speedway, visit www.lincolnspeedway.org or call 217-737-7134.
Additional info on Bluegrass Speedway is available by logging on to www.bluegrass-speedway.com or calling 859-854-6922 or 859-854-6495.
For information on the WoO LMS, visit www.worldofoutlaws.com.
The World of Outlaws Late Model Series is brought to fans across the country by many important sponsors and partners, including Arizona Sport Shirts (Official Apparel Company), Armor All (Official Car Care Products), Hoosier Racing Tires (Official Racing Tires), STP (Official Fuel Treatment), SuperClean (Official Cleaner-Degreaser) and VP Racing (Official Racing Fuel); in addition to contingency sponsors Eibach Springs, Integra Shocks, MSD Ignition, Ohlins Shocks, Pink Carburetors, Pro Power Engines, Quartermaster, Rocket Chassis and Wrisco Aluminum.