Kyle, Texas -- It's an off-season race for super late model stock cars with a $100,000.00 purse and thirty grand to win, but the Second Annual “Texas Big Shot 250,” set for Saturday, November 9, 2002, at Thunder Hill Raceway, is turning into a race of champions as more entries hit the mailbox. The 2001 Big Shot winner and new 2002 ROMCO series champion Chris Davidson of Houston leads a field that looks like a "Who's Who" list of the top short-track drivers in the country.
The list so far includes NASCAR All Pro champion (and short-track legend) Freddy Query of Mooresville, North Carolina along with two-time All Pro champ Wayne Anderson of Wildwood, Florida. (They ran second and third in the 2001 Big Shot.) Also entered is new Southern All Stars champion John Wilkinson III, along with two-time SAS champ Ricky Turner. Scott Hantz, who won both rookie of the year and the championship in the Sunoco Super Series in 2000 will be here, as will the brand-new 2002 Sunoco champ, 16-year-old Joel Kauffman. Also expected is three-time Hooters Pro Cup champ Bobby Gill.
John O'Neal, Jr. of Kansas City has won over 200 times at I-70 Speedway and Lakeside Speedway and was track champion at Lakeside in 1996 and at I-70 in 2001. Six times voted Most Popular Driver at I-70, he also took the 2001 NASCAR Heartland Region Weekly Racing Series Championship.
Closer to home, Casey Smith of Austin has racked up three national titles in two different classes and finished fourth in the 2001 Big Shot. Houston drivers Chris and Greg Davidson and Donnie Wilson of Oklahoma City are all current or past ROMCO series champions, and Austin's Colt James won two national ARTS race truck titles.
Of course, just as most college football players were all-district in high school, roughly three-fourths of those entered for the Big Shot were local track champions, including Heath Stewart (three times) and Doug Hooks of Austin and Brandon Bendele of San Antonio. Fellow San Antonio driver Joe Aramendia finished sixth in the 2002 All Pro series and was runner-up for rookie of the year.
The Texas Big Shot 250 is presented by the Texas Asphalt Race Promoters. Rules and other information are posted at www.thunderhillraceway.com.
