The anticipated excitement is growing rapidly surrounding the official debut of the Dart Machinery LTD North-South Shootout, a special two race points series presented by the Lucas Oil Modified Racing Series and Rockstar Energy Drink. The green flag will officially fall on the first race of the Shootout on July 16th at the Madera Speedway, the fastest one third mile in the west. The second event of the series, scheduled for August 13th, will be held at the Toyota Speedway At Irwindale, the fastest half mile oval in the southwest.
This spectacular series, within a series, will pit the talents of the Lucas Oil Modified Racing Series teams, curently racing in southern California, Arizona and Nevada, against the equally talent modified racing contemporaries from northern California, as well as Idaho, Oregon and Washington. Hence the name North-South Shootout.
Another huge aspect of the special series debut involves yet another debut. The Lucas Oil Modified Racing Series, presented by Rockstar Energy Drink will be making their official debut at the Madera Speedway on July 16th. There's a very special reason why the Madera Speedway is known as "the fastest one third mile in the west" and the Lucas Oil Modified teams will be finding why that night. The speedway is lightning fast with sweeping high banks that allows a lot of room for passing. The laps go by very quickly which means it will be "go time" for the drivers the moment the green flag falls on the Dart Machinery LTD North-South Shootout 75 lap main event.
Kenny Shepherd, the Madera Speedway President and General Manager, is very excited to host the Lucas Oil Modified teams and he's especially pleased that the inagural Dart Machinery LTD North-South Shootout will be held at his speedway. "We've had a lot of question and answer conversations with drivers and race teams over the past few months about this event," Shepherd said adding "there has been a lot of talk about the North-South Shootout as well as a lot of anticipation from our fans about the series coming to the Madera Speedway."
Shepherd's style of promoting a Saturday night race often involves large scale, elaborate, shows that always insures his fans receives the highest bang for their ticket bucks. Commenting recently on his special Madera Speedway shows, he said "at the beginning of the 2010 season, we factured in the tight economic conditions and offered our fans budget shows. To our surprise we were told by the fans that they much prefered the bigger shows even if some of them meant a higher ticket price for a special evening. These larger shows are very much worth our while and produce a high level of success."
Shepherd and his staff has already gone all out to promote their July 16th evening at the Madera Speedway in a very large scale fashion. The evening has been officially named "Summertime Horse Power presented by Lucas Oil." In addition to the debut of the Dart Machinery LTD North-South Shootout, the speedway will also be presenting high flying action from the 410/360 Super Modifieds and round four of their Super Saturday Series presented by Coors Light. The Bay Cities Racing Association, BRCA, will also be on hand that night to treat the fans to their intense brand of open wheel racing with their midget and vintage sprint/midget divisions. There will also be a special guest appearance from the Western All Star Super Late Models as well as action from the speedway's Hobby Stock and Four Banger divisions. Now that's giving the fans more bang for their ticket bucks.
The debut of the Dart Machinery LTD North-South Shootout is a dream come true, and the culmination of some careful planning and hard work, by officials from the Lucas Oil Modified Racing Series. Series Race Director Bill Rozhon is very excited that this long awaited project is finally going to become a reality and recently said "Madera is going to be a good night, and if what we're hoping and what we're hearing all comes together, we're going to have a pretty good field of north and south cars. Our guys are definitely looking forward to going to Madera to meet new racers from the north end and I'm sure the north guys are coming with the same attitude that we have."
Series Promoter Greg Scheidecker is a veteran racer who actually raced at the Madera Speedway while participating in the former NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Tour Series, as did Madera Promoter Kenny Shepherd. "It's my understanding that the race track really hasn't changed that much," Scheidecker said adding "it's going to be very interesting to see north-south teams together in that type of atmosphere at their home turf. We're going to the north and most of our drivers has never run on that race track. Right now I'd say that a lot of the favortism might be leaning towards the north teams."
Jeff Stephens is also extremely excited about the Dart Machinery LTD North-South Shootout. Stephens is the owner of Fire House Racing, a unique racing team consisting of Sacramento-California area firemen. They will be towing their modfied, driven by Rich Lindgren, to Madera to participate in the shootout. That will happen after Stephens takes care of important official duty scheduled for July 7th. That's when he will officially retire after 30 years of protecting and serving the citizens of his community as a fire fighter with the Sacramento Metro Fire Department.
Referred to by Scheidecker as one of the North-South Shootout's biggest cheerleaders, Stephens has more than proven that by going all out to promote the special series' two races at the north end. Stephens believes that there is going to be a very healthy modified car count at Madera with at least 15 cars from both regions capable of winning the race. He fully expects northern California modified teams to make the two to Madera from their home tracks in Ukiah, Shasta and Roseville.
"For this project to work it first took a certain level of cooperation", Stephens said adding "Greg Scheidecker and Bill Rozhon made that first step by implementing some rule changes that made it possible for the teams from the two regions to race together.The Lucas Oil Modified Racing Series is a first class operation. Greg and Bill go all out to make anyone who races in their series feel welcome. That includes giving the teams a selection of Lucas Oil products. It's little things like that guesture that really makes a difference," he said.
Stephens truly wants to see this project work and thinks it has a very bright future. He acknowledges the fact that the first year of the Shootout will require some minor adjustments such as the area of tire manufacturers. The northern teams use Goodyear while the southern teams race on Hoosiers. However, Stephens believes these are areas that can be easily addressed and reconciled. He can easily see this series being around for many years to come and would love to see a location trade off where the south teams head north to race on the tracks located there. He also beleives that the teams he races with will be very impressed adding "the northern California teams needs to find out that the Lucas Oil Modified Racing Series is a first class operation."
However, there's another major why this two race series is going to generate a lot of attention. That's because the Dart Machinery LTD North-South Shootout is a very lucrative racing proposition. The July 16th inaugural event, at the Madera Speedway, is a 75 lap event featuring a full field of 22 cars racing for a combined purse of $10,000, with $1,500 going to the winner. Any driver in the field is guaranteed at least $300 for just starting the 75 lap feature.
In addition to the highly lucrative purse available from these races, the driver who scores the highest amount of points in the Dart Machinery LTD North-South Shootout will recieve a set of small block heads from Dart Machinery for either a Ford or Chevrolet engine. The points champion will receive his choice of either a set of PRO-1 or Iron Eagle heads, steel or aluminum. The value of this special prize is approximately $1,000.
For more information, regarding the Dart Machinery LTD North-South Shootout, contact Greg Scheidecker, 1 800 342 2512, Bill Rozhon 1 928 716 6300 or Kenny Shepherd, Madera Speedway, 209 384 9500. You can also dial up their websites at www.lucasoilmodifieds.com or www.RaceMadera.com.
The Lucas Oil Modified Racing Series, presented by Rockstar Energy Drink, is supported by a highly potent marketing concept known as "Team Lucas." Team members include Lucas Oil Products Inc, Magnaflow Exhaust Products, E3 Spark Plugs, General Tire, K&N Performance Filters, GEICO, CANIDAE All Natural Pet Food, MAV TV, Dart Machinery LTD, Rockstar Energy Drink and Master Craft Safety Equipment.
The series is also strongly supported by a group of associate sponsors featuring Eibach Springs, Hoosier Tire West, Budweiser, Blue Water Resort and Casino, Sunoco Race Fuels, Frank's Radio, Racing Plus, Roush Yates Performance Parts and J E Pistons.
