August 24, 2005
FAYETTEVILLE, GA - O'Reilly United Sprint Car Series driver Bruce Cline of Apex, NC will head for the next series race this Saturday night at Laurens Speedway in Laurens, SC with high expectations. Cline is third in the regional points, and is also the Carolina Thunder Tour Robison Racing Products Rookie of the Year point leader.
Cline has found the to his liking. Series Founder and President Pete Walton developed the regional tour for drivers that wanted to race close to their respective homes without having to run the O'Reilly USCS National Outlaw Thunder Tour that encompasses eight Southeastern states.
Drivers, like Cline, that are based in the Carolinas can compete for a separate point fund in the Carolina Thunder Tour by competing in events in North and South Carolina, Virginia, and Eastern Georgia. The O'Reilly USCS also has the Southern Thunder Tour in East Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida, and the Mid-South Tour in West Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi.
After running the Open-Wheel Modified Division throughout the Carolinas for many years, Cline decided to step up to winged outlaw sprint cars in 2004. The change was a drastic one with a big learning curve, as a winged outlaw sprint car weighs half as much as an Open-Wheel Modified with twice as much horsepower.
A winged outlaw sprint car is pound-for-pound the most powerful short track racing car in the world, weighing 1,300 pounds, and powered by a 700 horsepower, fuel-injected, methanol burning V-8 engine. Cline stepped into a winged outlaw sprint car for the first time at an O'Reilly USCS event in Gaffney, SC during May of last year.
Cline's first lesson to learn was to stay out of the way of the faster cars driven by more experienced sprint car drivers. Cline did well because he survived without incident, and gained experience. Those lessons have been put to use for the 2005 season, and Cline also improved his program by hiring on veteran sprint car crew chief Denny Chase.
After the first 11 events this season, Cline is ranked third out of the 79 different drivers that have competed in the Carolina Thunder Tour. Cline has put together 5 top ten finishes in his last five events, with a best of fifth in the event on July 8 at Riverside Speedway in Travelers Rest, SC.
Veteran drivers Kenny Adams of Malabar, FL and Terry Gray of Bartlett, TN are ahead of Cline in the Carolina Thunder Tour points, and that's some pretty good company to be with in winged outlaw sprint car racing.
Adams is also the O'Reilly USCS National point leader with 12 wins this season, and is the all-time series career-leading driver with 87 wins. Adams is also the winningest winged outlaw sprint car driver in the 21st Century with 127 total feature race wins since the 2000 season.
Gray is the defending and four-time O'Reilly USCS National Champion, and has 10 winged outlaw sprint car National Championships on his resume. Gray is currently third in O'Reilly USCS National points with two wins on the season.
Saturday night's Outlaw sprint car action at Laurens Speedway will feature a full program that includes test and tune hot laps, 10-lap heat races and a 30-lap A main event. The Speedway's weekly racing divisions are on the program as well.
The evening's first sprint car race will be the Airflow Research Power Dash that showcases the top six cars from the previous USCS main event in an edge-of-your-seat six-car shootout.
Laurens Speedway is located 6/10-miles southwest of U.S. Highway 76 on State Road 127. The race track phone number is (864) 984-2427. For USCS "Outlaw Thunder" info call (404) 886-5913, or visit the USCS web site at www.uscsracing.com .
