TULARE, Calif. – The Abreu Vineyards 27th Annual Trophy Cup Presented By Rudeen Racing entry deadline has passed and 107 entries have been accepted for the Oct. 21-23 event at Thunderbowl Raceway.
The large field of winged 360 sprints will be racing for a $200,000 purse which guarantees the Cup champion $27,000 for capturing the title.
All drivers who qualify for the Saturday night 50-lap main event are guaranteed a minimum of $5,000 total for the three-day event. Preliminary racing on Thursday and Friday offers two opportunities for drivers to earn points, with the better of the two nights being used to select the top 48 for the Saturday heat races.
Drivers will earn points in qualifying, heats and the main events they run during the three days, with the top-20 in points after Saturday heat races moving directly to the big finale. Those 20 will be completely inverted by points and the top four from the B main will tag to fill the last two rows.
The payoff for just the Saturday main is $21,450 and the point fund portion totals $81,500. The Saturday A main cars are automatically the top 24 in points when the event is finished and, due to the guaranteed payoff, the main basically pays $5,000 to start for a cumulative payout for the three nights
Since the 2020 edition of the race was canceled, it will have been two years and four days between Trophy Cup events once next month’s opening night starts. The 2019 race was memorable when Rico Abreu won the main events all three nights. Abreu took the checkers after starting fifth, 10th and 17th, showing it didn’t matter where he started.
Of the 107 entries, 15 have the driver noted as TBA. The entire entry list can be viewed at https://www.trophycup.org/trophy-cup-drivers/