Winegardner Father and Son team making impression on 2006 O'Reilly USCS 10th Anniversary Tour
For immediate release:
Winegardner Father and Son team making impression on 2006 O'Reilly USCS 10th Anniversary Tour
Revised: 12:31PM Atlanta, Georgia - After sitting out most of the 2005 racing season the Father and Son sprint car racing tandem of Tom Winegardner and Tom "TJ" Winegardner, Jr. From Pierson, Florida have returned to the road on the 10th Anniversary O'Reilly USCS "Outlaw Thunder" Tour www.uscsracing.com in 2006 with much success. While both drivers are in the top ten in the O'Reilly USCS National standings in almost every O'Reilly USCS category or division, it has been twenty-one year old as Tom "TJ' Winegardner, Jr. who has found the most success.
When the team took time-off for family matters like Tom's Daughter's weddings and the birth of Tom, Jr's first child, a son, during the 2005 season they still raced, but, it was on a very limited schedule. Even with the reduced participation, Tom, Jr. was still able to garner his first sprint car feature at East Bay Raceway in Tampa, Florida. Then, over the winter the team rebuilt and re-loaded their efforts and they have come back stronger than ever to show they can be a force to reckon with in the only winged outlaw style sprint car series in the World that competes on both asphalt and dirt ovals.
Tom Winegarden Sr. At Golden Isles Speedway - Photo By Terry Caton
Tom, Jr. is the team's Hoosier Tire Young Gun of the Year title contender and has used steady driving and several top five finishes against some of the country's toughest competition to rank in fourth place in the O'Reilly USCS National point standings. After eight national points events he has competed against sixty-nine different competitors including at least ten of the top twenty-five drivers in last season's National Sprint Car Hall of Fame Driver of the Year final poll.
Five out of eight of "TJ" Winegardner's finishes in O'Reilly USCS National events have been in the top ten. He has two season-best fourth place finishes. The first one was at Garnertown Speedway in Round #1 of the Hooker Hood Sprint Car Shootout on April 14th and the second was last Saturday night (April 22nd) in the 30 Lap finale of the Clash on the Coast at Golden Isles Speedway.
In addition to his solid feature finishes, "TJ" has been piling up a collection of prestigious individual driver awards and confidence building victories in heats and dashes at almost each event along the way since the beginning of the season. He kicked the season off with a win in his heat race at Volusia Speedway Park on February 6th. He then won another qualifying heat race at Volusia on the following night. It then became apparent that a different Tom Winegardner, Jr. may have showed up for the 2006 season when he followed up by finishing seventh in a tough thirty car field that same night in a "smooth as glass" performance.
Tom Winegarden Jr. At Golden Isles Speedway - Photo By Terry Caton
He then collected his first Huggins Cams Hard Charger Award of the season at Five Flags Speedway in a career-best pavement finish in the O'Reilly USCS Asphalt Thunder Tour event at Five Flags Speedway on March 10th. He finished sixth in that event after starting eleventh. The next night he was running in the sixth spot again and suffered a suspension failure midway through the 30 Lap A-Main at Mobile International Speedway when it appeared he was headed for a top five finish before the gremlins hit him.
Winegardner, Jr. then garnered a victory lane ceremony and photo opportunity by winning the Lucas Oil Power Dash at Malden Speedway in the O'Reilly USCS Mid-South Thunder Tour season opener on April 1st.
He collected the K&N Filters Pole Award on April 14th at Garnertown Speedway. He then earned his second Huggins Cams Hard Charger Award for passing the most cars in the A-Main event at Golden Isles Speedway on Saturday April 22nd.
All this has placed Tom. Jr. not only fourth in the National Championship standings, but near the top of each of the O'Reilly USCS National and regional point standings. He is in fourth place in the O'Reilly USCS Dirt Cup standings, fourth in the Carolina Thunder region, fourth in the Southern Thunder regional point standings, seventh in the tough O'Reilly USCS Mid-South Thunder regional standings and tenth in the O'Reilly USCS Asphalt Thunder Tour paved track standings so far.
The other half of the team has it's own success story going. While most people would have taken it easy and slowed down in life after a major life-changing event like the open-heart surgery that Tom Winegardner, Sr. had in 2003, he has continued to pursue his dream of racing print cars with his son most weekends. He has also enjoyed considerable success so far this season with the O'Reilly USCS Outlaw Thunder Tour and ranks seventh in the O'Reilly USCS National point standings. He shows up eighth in the O'Reilly USCS Dirt Cup National dirt track standings after six races. He is twelfth in the O'Reilly USCS Southern Thunder regional series, tenth in the tough Mid-South region and ranks tenth in the Carolina Thunder regional standings.
O'Reilly USCS Founder and President, Pete Walton said " It has been both a pleasant surprise and a joy to see "TJ" Winegardner start to become one of the top competitors in this series. He has matured and improved tremendously over the past year. Maybe a new baby and responsibility has settled him down, because he seems to be making smart decisions while sill driving his tail off. And I am so glad to see they have gotten a much better handle on their pavement program and really stepped it up. They have worked so hard and deserve the success. It's really just great to see Tom, "TJ" and Gary all back on the road having fun together. We really appreciate their commitment and the valuable contribution they have made to the O'Reilly USCS over the past several years" concluded Walton.
The team could not be where they are without the help of veteran crew chief and friend Gary White. White builds the WRP Racing Engines that power both Tom's #11 and Tom, Jr's #11T J and J Auto Racing cars. He also helps to do most of the set-ups. Their sponsors are ATL and J and J Auto Racing who they are a dealer for and the cars are powered by their own WRP Racing Engines. WRP stands for Winegardner Racing Products. WRP can be reached for info on the complete lines of sprint car components they carry by calling Tom at 386-7491683.
This weekend the team returns to action in the O'Reilly USCS Asphalt Thunder pavement wars at the three-eights mile paved Lanier National Speedway http://www.laniernationalspeedway.com/ oval in Braselton, Georgia. Fore ticket info visit the website or call 770-967-8600. Fore more info on the O'Reilly Auto Parts www.oreillyauto.com sponsored United Sprint Car Series www.uscsracing.com visit the website or call 404-886-5913.
Media contact: Pete Walton 404-886-5913 email petewalton@bellsouth.net
