Commentary by: Langley Austin ~ [email protected]
Salisbury, NC(December 28, 2010) — I know I’m a little late, but I want to start by wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
We here at RACE22.com had a great Christmas, a good time with our families and maybe even a couple of cool presents. Now we’re starting to look forward to the New Years holiday as we bring in yet another year and yet another season of racing. Speaking of racing, it will begin on that day as well because despite Rockingham Speedway moving the Polar Bear Street Stock race from New Years day to this past Thanksgiving weekend, Dillon Motor Speedway has stepped up to provide a New Years Street Stock extravaganza of their own.
Our own, Chris Owens plans to be on the scene for the New Years Raceolution, which along with the Street Stock race that is attracting drivers and teams from all over, they will run the Mini Cups, Bandoleros, Legends cars and the U-Car divisions. It will surely be a great day of racing for those to watch who may still have a bit of a hangover from their New Years Eve celebrations as well as those who won’t be fighting a hangover to see 300-laps of action. Chris will have post-race coverage right here on RACE22.com for those of you who won’t be able to make it to the 4/10 mile track in Dillon, SC. For more info on the race you can check out www.dillonmotorspeedway.com
It’s always great when you can start a season off with a little racing and we’re thankful that we’ll have it covered this weekend. Right now as we look ahead to the “Official” kickoff of the 2011 season, which appears will be the weekend of March 12-13th. That will be the weekend when pretty much everything kicks off as four different series as well as a couple of NASCAR Weekly Tracks kick off their season and get us all back up and rolling again.
As you take a look at our always up to date, Schedule/Winners Page for 2011, you can see that not only is the UARA-STARS Late Model Stock Car Series and the PASS South Super Late Model Series opening their seasons, the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Series opens as well as the opening of the new Carolina Late Model Series and then you have South Boston & Kingsport Speedway’s kicking off their seasons respectively.
The UARA-STARS Series as they did last spring, will kick off their 2011 season at the “Birthplace of the Stars”, Hickory Motor Speedway. Also, known as “America’s Most Famous Short Track”, Hickory is the perfect place for Late Model Stock Car racings only touring series to kick off their season as you know the racing will be intense on the 3/8 mile bullring.
The PASS South Series has been opening up their season at Dillon Motor Speedway in Dillon, SC the last couple of seasons, but in 2011 they’re still staying south of the border in South Carolina, but they’ve moved the opener to Anderson Motor Speedway in Anderson, SC. Anderson is a track that in recent years hadn’t had any Late Models running there nor have they played host to any touring series, but last year the Late Model Stock Cars returned on a part-time basis and this year we’re expecting them to run a more often basis as well as the PASS South and UARA-STARS Series returning to the tough little track.
NASCAR Whelen Southern Modifieds typically open their season at Caraway Speedway and this year is no different as the bad-fast Modifieds will return to the 4/10 mile track for another season opener. The series, which we will be covering on a more consistent basis in 2011(hopefully all races) and we will be there for this one, possibly with our Five Star Bodies “Full Blown” LIVE Coverage as Caraway’s Late Model Stock Car season also opens with a new “Super Five Series” race for the tracks top division. Caraway’s opener with the Modifieds and Late Model Stock Cars will be an all-weekend affair with practice and more on Saturday and racing on Sunday, March 13th.
The Carolina Late Model Series, whose name is a bit confusing as they’re a not really a Late Model series, but rather a Limited Late Model(Sportsman) series. The Carolina Late Model Series will open their season as a companion to the PASS South Series at Anderson Speedway in Anderson, SC. It will be a big opener for a series that has never competed yet and it will be a big challenge for them to draw a solid field at a track far south of where most of the series competitors are expected to come from, which is the areas around Ace and Orange County Speedway.
South Boston Speedway tries to keep things similar from year to year, so that competitors know what to expect for the most part. This season as they have the last few, they’ll open up on the second weekend of March, which is March 12th. South Boston as always is expected to have a strong field of cars and this year we’re expecting to see the continuation of the Philip Morris, Lee Pulliam feud, which began in 2010 and culminated in both drivers final race of the season at South Boston in the Danville Toyota 300. It should make for an exciting kick off to the tracks season, which is always good anyways.
A new addition to the March 12th weekend, will be the newly resurrected Kingsport Speedway under the direction of former NASCAR driver, Robert Pressley. The track had laid dormant from 2002 to 2009, when Kerry Bodenhamer of the UARA-STARS Series opened the track because they had to make up a race canceled earlier in the season at Coastal Plains Raceway. On that day, it was obvious that the fans and people of Kingsport, TN wanted and needed racing to return to the 3/8 mile concrete oval as they packed the stands. Two more UARA races in 2010 and now Pressley has stepped up to the plate and reopened the track with NASCAR Sanctioning for 2011 and is expected to draw a huge field of Late Model Stock Cars.
Several other series and tracks open up in March as well including the SouthEast Limited Late Model Series is expected to be opening their season at Coastal Plains Raceway in Jacksonville, NC for their first visit to the fast, d-shaped track on March 26th. The SouthEast Limited Late Model Series is expected to open at CPR, but no official schedule has been released, so we’ll have to wait and see on this budding young series. Another series, who we know will be opening up on that same weekend, will be the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East, who will be opening up at Greenville Pickens Speedway, as they have the last few seasons. The East Series is expecting to again have a strong following again this year and RACE22.com is expecting to cover most if not all of the East Series scheduled races as well as all of the SouthEast Limited Series races.
March 19th brings about the opening of the USAR Pro Cup Series, which since losing primary sponsor Hooters a couple of seasons ago seems poised to bring in the New Year the right way as it boasts a strong schedule. March 19th will see the series head to New Smyrna Speedway in New Smyrna, FL for the first of fifteen race schedule. Currently their schedule has thirteen confirmed dates and two additional dates are expected to be announced soon. Other tracks opening up in March include Ace Speedway on the 25th and Hickory Motor Speedway on the 19th, with most other tracks opening up in April.
Well, that’s a little to catch you up on how the schedules and such are shaking out for the 2011 season and we’ll be sure to keep you up to date on everything that comes up schedule wise as the New Year comes about and more series and track schedules are released. Also, check back often for more news stories on crew chief changes, driver changes and so much more as well as our announcements coming up for the changes here at RACE22.com for the way we cover things in 2011.
Plus, don’t forget in the next few days we’ll have our “Top 10 of ’10” categories beginning as we let you know the Top 10 stand outs in many categories including Driver, Moments, Races, Paint Schemes and so much more.
