O’Reilly USCS Asphalt Thunder Tour Kicks Off At Peach State
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Atlanta, GA
Mar 13, 2007
Peach State Speedway in Jefferson, Georgia will host the first race of the 14 race 2007 O’Reilly United Sprint Car Series Asphalt Thunder Tour this coming Saturday March 17th. It will be the first-ever visit for the series to the paved ½ mile oval and the O’Reilly USCS drivers are expected to produce a new all-time track record when the World’s fastest short track race cars take to the Speedway for the CnB Mushroom Farms time trials at approximately 6:30 pm on Saint Patrick’s Day. The O’Reilly USCS is the only winged outlaw sprint car series in the World that contests it’s National championship on both dirt and paved ovals.
The fans will see plenty of the O’Reilly USCS sprint cars and in action on the track surface as the Asphalt Thunder race format includes two lap time trial qualifying for each entry plus the 6 car, 6 lap Lucas Oil Products sponsored Lucas Oil Power Dash, followed by qualifying heat races, a B-Main if necessary and a 35 lap A-Main event. The O’Reilly USCS sprint car speeds are expected to reach 140-150 miles per hour at the high-banked one half-mile speed plant.
The race is expected to draw top winged outlaw sprint car drivers from at least eight states for the early season event. Past O’Reilly USCS Champions entered include the series All-time career feature winner, Kenny Adams from Malabar, Florida. Adams is just two feature wins away from his 100th O’ Reilly USCS career feature win. He would be the first driver to ever reach that milestone.
Another 70+ O’Reilly USCS career feature winner entry is five-time and defending O’Reilly USCS Champion Terry Gray from Bartlett, Tennessee. Gray won four times in O’Reilly USCS Asphalt Thunder competition in 2006 while en-route to the series title. Gray won both halves of a double-feature event at nearby Lanier National Speedway on September 2, 2006 to clinch the series title.
Additional expected entries, favorites and past Asphalt Thunder feature winners include a pair of Hoosier Tire Young Guns (drivers less than 25 years-old. Those are seventeen year-old Matt Tiffany from Daytona Beach, Florida who previously also won at Lanier National Speedway and three time O’Reilly USCS National Championship title runner-up Danny Martin, Jr. from Sarasota, Florida who is a past Asphalt Thunder winner at several speedway’s including historic Greenville-Pickens Speedway just an hour and a half up the road. Martin won the June 30, 2006 event at GPS’s half mile paved oval and should be a contender on the big fast track at Peach State as well.
Other talented young guns that are entered include twenty-one year old Tom Winegardner, Jr. from Pierson, Florida and twenty year-old Ryan Myers from Eaton, Ohio. Winegardner finished in third place in the 2007 O’Reilly USCS National point standings and seems poised for his first O’Reilly USCS victory lane visit after setting quick time at the last two Asphalt Thunder Tour events and finishing in the top three in two out of the last three events. Myers finished in third place behind Gray and Martin in the 2006 O’ Reilly Asphalt Thunder standings. The 2004 O’Reilly USCS Rookie of the Year, R.J. Johnson from Decatur, Tennessee and 2005 Rookie of the Year, Bryn Gohn from Malabar, Florida and talented nineteen year-old USCS regular Stephen Darvalics from Venice, Florida and Ryan Myers team-mate Chad Livingston are all entries as well.
The youngest entry and a newcomer to O’Reilly USCS Asphalt Thunder competition will be, a very talented fourteen year-old driver Trey Robb from New Castle, Oklahoma. Robb spent last season racing with the American Sprint Car Series and finished eighth in their National touring series point standings in his second full season in the 700 horsepower open-wheeled cars. At age 13, in 2005 Robb broke a 51-year-old record at State Fair Speedway in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma by being the youngest driver to ever win an A-Feature in a sprint car. He was named 2005 Rookie of the Year at State Fair Speedway for the 360 Sprint Car Class and finished 5th overall in points.
Other expected entries include veterans and local favorites, Doug Day from Winder, Georgia and Greenville, South Carolina’s Dave Thorman. Another O’ Reilly USCS Asphalt Thunder regular Dan Statter from Deltona, Florida is entered as is another Floridian, Charles Ladner who finished tenth in the 2006 O’Reilly USCS Asphalt Thunder points.
Additional out of state entries include Cherry Hill, New Jersey’s Jeff Taylor and Jack Helget. Also entered are Indiana’s Dave Baumgardner and another Ohio traveler, Jonathan Kettlewell who both compete regularly with the HOSS (the Hoosier Outlaw Sprint Series) and have been able to enter this early season North vs. South early season event prior to the start of racing season up North.
