It’s always been a short off season in Central Pennsylvania sprint car racing. Some parts of the country tracks are open for four or five months and then they are done.The Central PA season concludes at BAPS Motor Speedway the second week of November and opens again the last weekend of February at Lincoln Speedway.
It‘s always been a short off season in Central Pennsylvania sprint car racing. Some parts of the country tracks are open for four or five months and then they are done.
The Central PA season concludes at BAPS Motor Speedway the second week of November and opens again the last weekend of February at Lincoln Speedway.
Pennsylvania weather isn‘t Florida or California, so sometimes a day or night at the races during those months can be cold and windy.
The fans turn out, though, with Lincoln Speedway always having a good crowd for its Icebreaker in February and the same for the final show of the year at BAPS Motor
Speedway in the fall.
This year‘s Champion Racing Oil/Hoseheads.com Central PA Sprint Car schedule had 123 scheduled shows throughout those 10 months with visits to 13 different tracks throughout Central PA, with a few in New Jersey and Maryland. With some of those shows being on the same night at different tracks that leaves one driver the possibility of running 110 nights if he or she so chooses.
That is quite a bit of racing for one team to do with very minimum travel. If a team is based out of the Harrisburg area, it can run all 110 nights and still sleep in their own beds, with no need of a motel or expensive motorhome.
During that time, there are 17 weekends with three nights of racing or more. There are actually nine weekends of racing with four or more nights of 410 sprint car racing. With tracks such as Selinsgrove Speedway, BAPS, Bridgeport Speedway and others adding Sunday and midweek shows, it makes for many racing packed weekends.
Central PA also added a new track with shows at the new Bloomsburg Fairgrounds Speedway.
Selinsgrove Speedway has increased its 410 schedule to 11 shows this year with BAPS running seven 410 sprint car programs. The All Star Circuit of Champions come east 16 times with the World of Outlaws venture to Central Pennsylvania 11 times.
Red Robin PA Speedweek runs June 24 to July 3 for 10 straight nights of action at seven different tracks.
If 110 nights of racing isn‘t enough for any given team, the option is there to travel to New York to hit a few more midweek All Star and World of Outlaw races, but they don‘t get to sleep at home then.
The top 10 in Champion Racing Oil/Hoseheads.com Central PA Sprint Car Series points this year will once again receive checks in December courtesy of Champion Racing Oil, Hosehead.com, Maxim Chassis, Capitol Renegade, Hoosier Tire Mid-Atlantic, Fast Tees and J&S Customs.
Product sponsors include Kreitz Oval Track Parts, Zemco Speed Equipment, Triple X Race Co, Smith Titanium, Indy Race Parts, King Racing Products, Red Robin, DMI Inc, Chop Designs, AL Driveline and Hot Shoe Racewear.
The season opened on schedule with Freddie Rahmer winning the Feb. 27 Icebreaker at Lincoln Speedway. That left another 109 nights of competition with some of the best sprint car racing in the country — all within a few hours drive 
from Harrisburg.