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DON’T MISS THE ‘BANDITS at the BRAND NEW 82 SPEEDWAY – SAT. APR. 27th!
Petty, TX (4/9/19) by DarinShort.com. First off, EVERYONE in the Texoma, Ark-La-Tex and North Texas regions needs to mark their calendars right now to plan to come to the new 82 Speedway in Petty, Texas on SATURDAY APRIL 27th for the Sprint Car Bandits Championships event! This is going to be a THROWDOWN track for sprint car racing – and this is going to be the first sprint car event held on the new track configuration!
Here’s the scoop on the new 82 Speedway:
-There are no walls all the way around the immediate racing surface of the track - including the straights. There is a runoff area of about 10' on the straights and upwards of 30' in the corners!
-The wide, full 1/3 mile track has plenty of width and will encourage lots of slide jobs, momentum and racing room, while still giving fans the ‘in-your-face’ racing experience they love.
-The facility is laid out great, and there's tons of space for everyone, from the pit area through the grandstand to the spectator parking area.
-It's located directly on Hwy 82 between Paris (15 minutes west) and Bonham (20 minutes east), so there's no having to 'search' for the track. It took me about 80 minutes to get there from the intersection of I-30/Bush/Bass Pro Shops in the Metroplex. Adult GA to this event is just $17, with Seniors/Military $15, Ages 6-11 are $5; while Pit Passes are $35. Small food/drink coolers (no glass containers) are allowed with a $5 service fee. A full compliment of hot food and cold soft drinks are available.
-Very good lighting, track amenities and excellent safety features.
-The elevated grandstand has seating for 3,400 fans - and the entire facility has zero obstructed views for fans in any seat. (Same goes for the pit grandstands.)
-As witnessed on opening night there, the track owners are all about the advancement of the sport and are very rational, fair and caring people and are all about creating an environment at the property everyone can enjoy going to.
RACE FANS: Make plans to arrive early at the track to take in the pre-race Sprint Car Bandits “Fierce 15” Fan Fest! It will take place directly next to the main ticket window from 6pm until about 6:45pm. There, you can meet the drivers of the Fierce 15, get selfies, purchase their 2019 t-shirt designs (get them autographed!) and get a good close look at the cars. SCB Fan Fest is an effort to help sprint car racing get back to the good ‘ol days when there was generally more fan interaction with the race teams. Back then it was common for most of the fans to go to the pits after the races to meet with the teams, and now in many cases the races at tracks don’t finish in time to make that feasible. This is an effort to fire back up that interaction by simply flipping the timing element. Pre-race Fan Fest will take place at every SCB series event in 2019.
If you’d like to get your brand new Fierce 15 driver t-shirts prior to Fan Fest, the new online store at www.SprintCarBandits.com is now open. Reminder, that proceeds from Fierce 15 driver apparel benefits each individual driver that is a part of the program, so please show your support by grabbing one when you can...and your support will help drivers better funded throughout the season.
The following drivers make up the 2019 Sprint Car Bandits Fierce 15 and will be competing for added money for their support of the series: Colby Estes, Michael Day, Claud Estes III, Dalton Stevens, Scott Evans, Chance McCrary, Dale Wester, Junior Jenkins, Cody Hall, Josh Hawkins, Casey Burkham, Steve McMackin, Will Eggimann, Mark Zoeller and Mark Huddleston. Fans can expect to see these drivers competing in 2019 Sprint Car Bandits series events, along with any eligible sprint car driver that chooses to on a night-to-night basis, just as in previous seasons. Drivers interested in the Sprint Car Bandits Fierce 15 program can contact [email protected] for additional information.
TRACK DIRECTIONS: Track is located about 1 mile east of Petty Texas right on Hwy 82, which is about 20 minutes east of Bonham and 15 minutes west of Paris. 16369 US Hwy 82 Petty, TX 75470. For track and details, go to www.82speedway.com or on Facebook @82Speedway.
RACE TEAMS: all sprint car teams that sign in will draw for heat race starting positions, regardless of their engine C.I. displacement (up to and including 360C.I.) and will receive passing points to determine their straight-up from points feature race starting position. All drivers make sure to read the posted rules at the series website prior to heading to the track.
Here’s the purse structure for the SCB championship feature: $2,000 – 1,000 – 600 – 500 – 400 – 390 – 380 – 370 – 360 – 350 – 340 – 330 – 320 – 310 – 300…to start. All non-qualifiers or non-starters will each receive $100. There is no entry fee, no series membership fee and a $20 nightly draw fee. Drivers should go to www.SprintCarBandits.com prior to arrival for complete rules, purse and procedures information.
This is also part of the www.SmileysRacing.com 4 Pack Bonus program that awards the SCB Fierce 15 teams with added bonus money, paid out for their support of the Series in increments of each ‘4 Pack’ of SCB events completed throughout the season. More details are posted at the series website.
DARE TO BE DIFFERENT: Why are we calling this season the ‘DARE TO BE DIFFERENT’ tour? The SCB series has a unique rules package that allows teams to use their current equipment (especially in the engine compartment) yet curbing nightly tire expense...which helps equalize the competition with teams of varying budget sizes. The SCB “20° wing angle rule” also helps by freeing up the cars to be able to pass easier in many cases that also helps reduce excess tire and engine wear. Our ‘one rear tire all night long’ rule has not only saved racers thousands of dollars over the past three years, but to date, we’ve yet to have one tire fail (blow) due to excess tire wear in any feature race we’ve held.
All these small, yet effective changes, have been accomplished without the racers having to purchase something out of the ordinary. And we essentially haven’t changed the rules since the inception of the series at the end of 2015.
And let’s face it, since the events of 9/11/2001, a lot of the economics of the sport of dirt track racing have changed drastically (especially the cost of travel, track insurance, general crowd sizes, cost of racing components), yet there really hasn’t been much being done on a nationwide level to help counteract those economic impacts. We aren’t trying to say we’ve ‘fixed’ all those impacts, but at least we are doing something to help curb racer expenses – and it’s working.
Our rules package certainly has made for exciting and unpredictable racing outcomes – as there were 13 different feature winners in 16 SCB events in 2018 – and we already had a brand new first-time winner at our opening event of 2019, so that makes 14 different winners the past 17 events! When you add these components together, that’s a result of why we DARE TO BE DIFFERENT.
Click www.SprintCarBandits.com for the latest in series news and where the DARE TO BE DIFFERENT Tour is headed to next. You can also reach the SCB on Facebook, at www.Facebook.com/SprintCarBandits .
NOTE TO SPRINT TEAMS GETTING THERE: It actually only took us like an hour and 20 minutes to get there from our location (Bass Pro Shops/Lake Ray Hubbard). We've actually been up there a few times already, but if you use Siri, there's a pretty decent shortcut that takes us there.
But for people hauling trailers you've got to be 'up on the wheel' if Siri takes you there on Hwy 50 going north out of Commerce. And for those that know me, I don't like being in panic situations (that are avoidable) when driving a race car hauler. There are two areas that you need to pay close attention to:
1. When you start to arrive in Ladonia, be advised that all of the sudden in the middle of the town...the asphalt suddenly ends and the road turns to gravel for about 4 blocks! If you're not mentally prepared for this unexpected twist, it can really throw you for a loop - as you do NOT want to accidentally turn thinking you're not supposed to go down that gravel road - as that is the correct way - and there are a lot of tiny TINY 'streets' that you'd have to figure out how to traverse to get back to where you're supposed to be. LOL, but it definitely had me a bit out-of-sorts for a moment the first time I encountered it.
2. And the final item to watch for is when you arrive in Honey Grove. When you approach the stoplight where you turn right onto Hwy 56 (you'll see a Shamrock gas station on the right side of the intersection), there is a pretty significant grade change going from where you pull up to the stoplight through where you turn on to Hwy 56. If you're not careful about taking the corner wide enough, I can totally see someone dragging the tail of their trailer on the ground due to the grade change getting on to the road.
Bottom line, 82 Speedway is clearly one of the top dirt tracks and facilities in the entire region. I really feel all the racers will enjoy it, the fans will love it and I can't wait til we have our first of three Sprint Car Bandits series stops at this ultra-modern speed plant - with the first one in the pipeline coming on Saturday April 27th...so DON'T MISS IT!
Click www.82Speedway.com or www.Facebook.com/82Speedway for more track details, schedules and news. Thanks to Shelley and Tracy Peters & staff for bringing us all such a FANtastic place to enjoy quality dirt track racing events!
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