{"id":15380,"date":"2013-01-05T06:46:40","date_gmt":"2013-01-05T06:46:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/?p=15380"},"modified":"2013-01-05T06:46:40","modified_gmt":"2013-01-05T06:46:40","slug":"this-years-24th-annual-prairie-dirt-classic-set-to-become-biggest-event-in-history-of-fairbury-american-legion-speedway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/front-page-news\/this-years-24th-annual-prairie-dirt-classic-set-to-become-biggest-event-in-history-of-fairbury-american-legion-speedway\/","title":{"rendered":"This Year’s 24th Annual Prairie Dirt Classic Set To Become Biggest Event In History Of Fairbury American Legion Speedway"},"content":{"rendered":"

New July 26-27 Date, Record Purse & World of Outlaws Late Model Series Sanction Highlight Prestigious Weekend\u2019s 2013 Makeover<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"FAIRBURY, IL \u2013 Jan. 4, 2013 \u2013 Fairbury American Legion Speedway\u2019s marquee event is getting a spectacular makeover in 2013.<\/p>\n

With a new mid-summer date, a record purse and sanctioning from the World of Outlaws Late Model Series, the 24th<\/sup> annual Prairie Dirt Classic is set to become the biggest and richest dirt Late Model race in the history of the popular quarter-mile oval.<\/p>\n

A $20,000 first-place prize will be on the line when the 100-lap Prairie Dirt Classic is run as a two-day festival of speed over the July 26-27 weekend, FALS and WoO LMS officials jointly announced on Friday.<\/p>\n

Traditionally contested as a 50- or 75-lap DIRTcar UMP-sanctioned event over Labor Day weekend, the Prairie Dirt Classic\u2019s move to an earlier place on the 2013 racing calendar and first-ever affiliation with the WoO LMS promises to take the event to unprecedented heights.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Prairie Dirt Classic has always been the race everyone identifies with Fairbury American Legion Speedway,\u201d said Matt Curl, a 36-year-old, life-long resident of Fairbury, Ill., who is the track\u2019s new race director and will head the race committee for the first time in 2013. \u201cBut the weekend has kind of gotten to where it\u2019s more of a local, Midwestern show rather a \u2018spotlight\u2019 race. With the national sanctioning bodies racing out East over Labor Day weekend, we couldn\u2019t draw those national drivers, which is something our fans have been wanting for a long time.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaking the Prairie Dirt Classic a true national event that attracts the country\u2019s best drivers has long been the track\u2019s vision for the race, and when we met as a race committee (earlier this off-season) we talked about what we could do to make that happen in 2013. We contacted the World of Outlaws, we came up with a date (July 26-27) that we thought could work really well on their schedule and ours, and everything just came together from there.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of us at Fairbury American Legion Speedway are really excited about what we\u2019ve come up with for 2013,\u201d he added. \u201cWe\u2019re taking the Prairie Dirt Classic to the next level. We\u2019re going to give our area fans a chance to see the best national, regional and local Late Model racers competing in a show that we hope to build into the biggest race in Illinois.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Prairie Dirt Classic weekend will follow the usual two-day format for 100-lap WoO LMS events. Time trials and qualifying heats will be run on Fri., July 26, with B-Mains, a Non-Qualifiers\u2019 Race paying $2,000 to win (from a purse of over $12,000) and the century grind headliner on Sat., July 27.<\/p>\n

DIRTcar UMP Modifieds will be the featured support class both nights, racing for over $20,000 in purses during the weekend ($1,750 to win on Friday, $3,000 to win on Saturday). UMP Sportsman ($500 to win) will also compete on Friday evening while UMP Street Stocks will battle for a $500 winner\u2019s payoff on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re thrilled to add the Prairie Dirt Classic to the 2013 World of Outlaws Late Model Series schedule,\u201d said Tim Christman, who is in his seventh season as the director of the renowned national tour. \u201cFairbury American Legion Speedway has a well-deserved reputation as one of the DIRTcar UMP circuit\u2019s top tracks so it\u2019s a perfect place to hold a huge event. I think there\u2019s no doubt this will be a weekend no Late Model fan will want to miss.\u201d<\/p>\n

A historic fairgrounds track owned by the Town of Fairbury\u2019s American Legion, the speedway has been a Saturday-night motorsports staple in the Land of Lincoln since 1946. An all-volunteer fair board, which runs the fairgrounds for the Legion, oversees the race committee that organizes the weekly racing action at FALS, which was voted the DIRTcar UMP Track of the Year in 2006 and \u201907.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have incredible weekly fan support and we know this race is going to get them all talking,\u201d said Curl, who was just nine months old when he attended his first race at Fairbury and has worked there in various capacities since he was a teenager. \u201cWe\u2019re gonna do everything possible for the fans and drivers to make this the best weekend for everybody. We want everybody to feel at home, have a great time and see the great racing that Fairbury is known for \u2013 and we want this to be an annual, stable event, a race that is one of the biggest every year on the World of Outlaws Late Model Series.\u201d<\/p>\n

Curl said a limited number of reserved seats at the historic FALS facility will be sold in advance. Ticket information and other details about the Prairie Dirt Classic weekend, including an event time schedule and special attractions, will be released soon.<\/p>\n

A title sponsor for the event has not yet been signed, but advertising partners already on board for the weekend include Livingston Stone Company, Brandt Consolidated, Schahrer Trucking Inc. and Lynn Chevrolet-Buick. Hampton Inn & Suites in nearby Normal, Ill. (309-452-8900) will serve as the official hotel of Fairbury American Legion Speedway.<\/p>\n

The Prairie Dirt Classic will kick off a big week of summer action in the Midwest for the WoO LMS. The tour will continue on to Shawano (Wis.) Speedway on Tues., July 30; Cedar Lake Speedway in New Richmond, Wis., for the USA Nationals on Aug. 1-3; and Independence (Iowa) Motor Speedway on Mon., Aug. 5.<\/p>\n

For the latest information on the Prairie Dirt Classic, visit Fairbury American Legion Speedway\u2019s brand-new website atwww.fairburyspeedway.com<\/a> and the home of World of Outlaws racing at www.worldofoutlaws.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fans can also follow the WoO LMS on Twitter at Twitter.com\/WoOLateModels <\/a>and Facebook at Facebook.com\/WorldofOutlaws <\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New July 26-27 Date, Record Purse & World of Outlaws Late Model Series Sanction Highlight Prestigious Weekend\u2019s 2013 Makeover FAIRBURY, IL \u2013 Jan. 4, 2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"publish_to_discourse":"","publish_post_category":"","wpdc_auto_publish_overridden":"","wpdc_topic_tags":"","wpdc_pin_topic":"","wpdc_pin_until":"","discourse_post_id":"","discourse_permalink":"","wpdc_publishing_response":"","wpdc_publishing_error":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22,3,71,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-front-page-news","category-late-models","category-upcoming-events"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15380"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15382,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15380\/revisions\/15382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}