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Weather continues to disrupt area racing.
Lincoln Speedway was forced to utilize a rain date Thursday for the annual World of Outlaws visit. Donny Schatz held off Danny Dietrich at Lincoln for the win.
The Outlaws moved on to Williams Grove Speedway last night and are scheduled to be there again tonight. A forecast for rain could change those plans.
Tonight’s Outlaw event at Williams Grove is billed as the Morgan Cup race in honor of late speedway owner Morgan Hughes. Port Royal and Lincoln Speedways are dark this evening due to the Outlaws’ visit.
Selinsgrove Speedway presents the Empire 360 super sprints and the latest installment of the Route 35 super late model challenge series this evening. The late model series is run in conjunction with Port Royal Speedway. Both divisions pay the winner $2,000.
Long term weather projections look better for Memorial Day weekend racing activities. Port Royal Speedway presents the first three-day rendition of the Bob Weikert Memorial Sprint Car Spectacular. More than $110,000 is up for grabs in races featuring 410 sprint cars, URC 360 sprint cars and super late models. More information on those events next week.
This weekend’s NASCAR Sprint Cup All Star race is expected to be impacted by weather in a major way, and was already on Friday.
In other racing news the Rockingham Motor Speedway has a new owner this week. Billy Silas, who was part of a former group involved with the track purchased the facility this week. No word on future plans for the facility. County officials are hopeful auto racing is part of the plan.
It’s wonderful to see a picture of injured driver Kevin Swindell standing beside fiancee Jordan Armstrong this week without crutches or a walker. Swindell was left paralyzed following a sprint car accident last season at Knoxville, Iowa. Swindell is making amazing progress in recovering.
Tony Stewart’s legal battle continues in the lawsuit filed last year by the parents of deceased sprint car driver Kevin Ward. Stewart’s insurance carrier, Axis, has denied coverage citing two exclusions to the policy. One is that Stewart was only covered for dirt racing in sanctioned World of Outlaws sprint car racing, United States Auto Club sprint cars and silver crown cars. The second exclusion centers around whether Kevin Ward was a racing driver after he exited his car. Axis maintains Ward was not a driver at that point and therefore it has no liability. Needless to the say the courts will decide the issue. Ward was fatally injured Aug. 9, 2014, in upstate New York.
In better news involving Tony Stewart, The All Star Circuit of Champions have signed a six race delayed broadcast TV deal through the American Sports Network. Races will be filmed from tracks in Ohio, Indiana, and Wisconsin. Sharon Speedway is one of the tracks featured. Programming will be made available to regional sports channels as well as CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox sports outlets. The first race to be taped is tonight at Wilmont, Wisc.
Let’s hope for better weather. Until then please drive safely!
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Craig Rutherford writes about motorsports for The Sentinel.