March 8, 2006
Pensacola , FL - Wild and exciting winged Outlaw sprint car racing returns to the home of the Snowball Derby, Five Flags Speedway this Friday night, March 10th. The O'Reilly Auto Parts sponsored United Sprint Car Series "Asphalt Thunder" Tour will roar into the famed 1/2 mile paved oval for its season opening paved track event of the season. This will be event number three on the season for the O'Reilly USCS National touring drivers who also race on dirt ovals.
The O'Reilly USCS is the only winged Outlaw sprint car series in the World that races on both dirt and paved surfaces. The event is expected to bring top winged Outlaw sprint car drivers from at least six states to the Speedway . Their exotic fire breathing, alcohol burning, 700 horsepower open wheel cars weight just 1,300 pounds and will literally fly around the track surface at speeds in excess of 150 miles per hour. It is not uncommon to see O'Reilly USCS sprint cars popping "wheelies" or doing wheel stands because of the brute force of their engines and their huge 18 inch wide rear tires. Friday night's Outlaw sprint car action will feature a full program that will include time trials, qualifying heat races and an A-main event. The evening's first sprint car race will be the Lucas Oil Power Dash that showcases the top cars from the previous O'Reilly USCS main event in an edge-of-your-seat six-car shootout. Also on the bill will be the season opener for one of the Speedway 's most popular stock car divisions, the Bombers. Additionally, the Tricky Travelstead Stunt Show will perform a series of death-defying stunts.
Heavy hitter O'Reilly USCS winged outlaw sprint car entries include a number of the nation's top ranked winged sprint car drivers including three of the Nation's hottest. Those are Kenny Adams of Malabar , Florida , Terry Gray of Bartlett , Tennessee and Young Gun Danny Martin, Jr. from Sarasota , Florida . Adams is the defending National champion and was the 2000 O'Reilly USCS champion. He is the series all-time leading career feature winner with 93. He has been one of the Winn ingest sprint car drivers in the country over the past six seasons. "The Malabar Missile" has over 130 wins overall since the beginning of the 2000 season including the 2005 season opener at Five Flags. He scored 18 O'Reilly USCS feature wins last season. The National Sprint Car Hall of Fame pollsters also named Adams 2000's National Sprint Car Driver of the Year. He finished second in the 2005 NSCHOF poll.
Adams will have his hands full with a host of challengers from across the 
nation including the four-time O'Reilly USCS National Champion Gray and the 19 year old Martin who was the 2004 and 2005 runner-up in the O'Reilly USCS National point standings. Martin also won the Fall 2005 O'Reilly USCS feature at Five Flags. Gray is the current National points leader and already has eleven national sprint car championships with three different series to his credit and over 300 feature wins. Gray finished in the number eight spot at the end of last season in the final Sprint Car Hall of Fame National poll. He is also among the top 25 win leaders in the nation over the last four seasons with over 60 main event wins. Martin is currently eighth in the current USCS national point standings and finished last season ranked ninth in the Nation out of 3000 drivers considered.
Another young gun, 18-year-old Ryan Myers from Eldora do, Ohio who was the “Cinderella” story of the 2005 O”Reilly USCS pavement season when he used a 10 year old dirt sprint car to finish fourth in the final O'Reilly USCS Asphalt Thunder point standings is entered. He will be joined by several other talented USCS Young Guns (drivers under 25 drivers) from the 2005 Asphalt Thunder top ten including 2005 O'Reilly USCS Rookie of the Year, twenty year old Bryn Gohn from Malabar , Florida . Gohn finished fourth in the National standings. Another young star is sixteen-year-old driving sensation, Matt Tiffany from Daytona Beach , Florida who finished 5 th in the National standings and captured a paved track win in 2005. These young speed demons will be joined by another pair of young challengers from the Buckeye State of Ohio. Those include the “Buckeye Bandit” Doug Berryman and his teammate Jason Kemp both from Mansfield , Ohio .
Other notable entries include: what has to be the local favorite, well known stock car ace Dave Mader III from Irvington , Alabama . Mader will be driving the famed #30 Ardis Automotive Special for legendary car owner Johnny Ardis of Mobile . Ageless Hank Lower from Angola , Indiana who has numerous titles and many feature wins over a four-decade career will make the long trip down from the great white North as well for his first USCS event. Driver and team owner Scott “Skeeter” Faulconer from Lutz, Florida who finished seventh in the National point standings in 2005 will bring a three-car team to the event. Additional out of state entries expected are : Father and son teammates Tom Winegardner, Sr. and Junior from Pierson , Florida .
The younger Winegardner is currently third in the O'Reilly USCS National standings. Veteran USCS sprint car driver Doug Day
from Winder, Georgia who was the runner-up in the 2002 title chase and has numerous top five performances on the asphalt is an expected entry as are “Chargin' Charlie Ladner from Tampa , Florida in the Mac Steele owned #0 and Nick Manikis from Tampa .
The Five Flags Speedway www.fiveflagsspeedway.com is located at 7451 Pine Forest Rd. (Hwy. 297) Just 1.5 mileds South of I-10 at Exit 2. The Speedway 's phone number is 850-944-8400. For O'Reilly USCS "Outlaw Thunder" info call 404-886-5913 or visit the official O'Reilly USCS web site at www.uscsracing.com USCS Media Contact : PETE WALTON, O'Reilly USCS (404) 886-5913 petewalton@bellsouth.net
