Manzanita Speedway takes a page out of the NASCAR scheduling book as they, like NASCAR, open their 2009 season Friday night and Saturday night with the Copper on Dirt, the biggest race of the year. The race features USAC’s triple crown with the Silver Crown, Sprint Car and Midgets kicking off their guest for the National championships. Manzy is one of only two tracks that runs the triple crown on one program. The Eldora Speedway in Rossberg, OH not only runs all three of the USAC divisions, they throw in a Dirt Modified race as well.
The Copper on Dirt is in its third year but this is the first time that all three divisions are running for national points. The Sprint cars ran for only USAC/CRA points the first two years and will still count points toward their championship even though it is a national sanctioned event as well. The Mopar midget races will also be awarding points to both the national chase and the USAC Western midgets.
Jerry Coons, Jr., the 2008 national non winged driver of the year, won the K&N Silver Crown 50 lap feature last year and won national titles in both the sprints and silver crown. He won the national midget title in 2007 making him only one of five drivers to take championships in all three divisions. Two other triple crown champions, JJ Yeley and Dave Darland will be in the field and Tracy Hines, who missed becoming a triple crown champion when he lost out to Cole Whitt by only one point in the chase for the midget title, is also entered. Yeley won all three titles in one year, a feat matched only by Tony Stewart.
Shane Cottle won last year’s 40 lap sprint car race and followed that three months later with a victory in the prestigious Little 500" in Anderson, IN. Daren Hagen won the 2008 25 lap Mopar National and Western Midget race and then won the Rich Vogler Classic and "Border Wars" Sprint races on the high banks at Winchester Speedway.
Chad Boat finished sixth in both the Sprint Car and Midget features in last year’s races and raced the entire year in both USAC divisions where he was named rookie of the year in both. He won one sprint car race and that made him the youngest driver (16) to ever win a USAC sprint car race.
The Copper gets off to an early start with a practice session on Thursday night as the drivers test the famed half mile track. The practice session is open to the public in grandstand seating at no charge. The session lasts from 6:00 P.M. to 9:00 P.M.
The Friday night program features qualifying runs with competitive racing featuring heat races and a ten lap shootout to determined starting positions in the Saturday night championship races taking their first green flag at 7:00P.M.
The front gate opens at 2:30 on Friday and at 3:00 Saturday and competitive racing is slated to start 7:00 The Saturday night format has the sprints and midgets running preliminary races to fill the fields for the feature races and then the three divisions will stage 115 laps of main event competition.
