It’s time for our weekly Friday morning tour around the racing world. From hot laps to the main event, here’s what’s on our mind this week.
Hot Laps: Play It Again, Sam
Do we really need a sequel to the Days Of Thunder movie starring Tom Cruise?
Qualifying: One Week Away
The long NTT IndyCar Series offseason finally ends with next weekend’s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. IndyCar teams warmed up with a two-day test at Sebring Int’l Raceway that saw Team Penske and Arrow McLaren leading the way on the speed charts.
First Heat: Daytona Debrief
Despite a daylong rain delay that pushed the finish of the Daytona 500 past 9 p.m., multiple multicar, chain-reaction accidents, including one that sent Ryan Preece’s Ford flying through the air and controversy over officiating in regard to a last-lap yellow flag, NASCAR came out of the 67th annual event smelling like a rose.
The Daytona 500 enjoyed a ratings increase over last year and the FOX Sports broadcast was the most watched sporting event of the entire weekend.
Second Heat: Overtime
Ironic that green-white-checkered finishes and wild crashes started the NASCAR season. Scheduling that puts Daytona and the superspeedway race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, another crash-plagued race, will have crew members at most NASCAR teams working overtime making repairs in consecutive weeks.
Third Heat: Both Sides
Many touring dirt late model racers are playing both sides of the fence to start the season. Numerous racers have run every race with the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series and the World of Outlaws Late Model Series and have yet to commit to either one, waiting to see where they sit after the first couple of months of the season before the tours run against one of another for much of the remainder of the year.
Dash: Breaking The Ice
As of early Friday morning, the annual Icebreaker weekend at Pennsylvania’s Lincoln Speedway was still on schedule for races for the 410 winged sprint cars on Saturday and Sunday afternoon. Better wear your coveralls.
B Main: Touring Sprint Cars
In addition to two national touring winged sprint car series (High Limit and World of Outlaws), there are multiple regional tours with multiple dates this season. The All Star Circuit of Champions returns with 26 races planned while the POWRi 410 Outlaw Sprint League has 37 events on its calendar. California’s long-running NARC 410 Sprint Car Series has 29 races and the Upper Midwest’s Interstate Racing Ass’n has 32 events on its docket.
It’s a lot of opportunity for racers to hit the road and make some cash. The question is, how will this impact weekly sprint car racing?
Including weekly events, more than 630 winged 410 sprint car races are scheduled this season from coast to coast.
Feature: Historic Racing Brand
One of America’s most enduring racing series, the Trans Am Series will open its new season this weekend at Sebring (Fla.) Int’l Raceway.
With a long history on in motorsports, it is only fitting that Tran Am Races will be televised on the SPEED SPORT 1 network this season.
Having survived a down period to flourish again, the Trans Am Series, which ran its first race way back in 1966 (that may or may not have been before I was born), boasts an interesting collection of accomplished racing champions and stars of the future within its driver roster.
Headlined by the TA and TA2 classes, one race is run on Saturday and a second on Sunday.
Longtime NASCAR Cup Series racer and Brickyard 400 winner Paul Menard is the reigning champion in TA. Also entered for the TA class race this weekend are former NASCAR, IMSA and SCCA racer Wally Dallenbach Jr., Adam Andretti (brother of John), Xfinity Series racer Brandon Jones, Trans Am veterans Chris Dyson, Tomy Drissi and Amy Ruman. Brent Crews, a winner in stock, Trans Am and midget competition is also among those competing.
The GT1, XGT, SGT and GT classes also compete in the TA race and longtime Indy car racer Paul Tracy and USAC Silver Crown Series winner Kaylee Bryson are entered in the XGT division.
The TA2 class has 39 entries and will run a standalone race on Saturday. The class has gained a reputation in recent years for training future NASCAR competitors. Among those who graduated to the Xfinity Series this season are Connor Zilisch and Connor Mosack.
Corey Day, who has set the winged sprint car world on fire the past two seasons, is entered in this class at Sebring, while fellow up and comers Tyler Gonzalez, Thomas Merrill, Boris Said Jr., Thomas Annunziata, Tristan McKee and Mia Lovell will be part of the field.
Former Indy car racer Rafa Matos is the reigning champion in the division.
Watch it all on SPEED SPORT 1.
