O'Reilly USCS readies for first ever Riverside Speedway visit on 5/27 during Speedweek 2006
May 20, 2006 - For immediate release:
Atlanta, GA - The O'Reilly Auto Parts United Sprint Car Series (www.uscsracing.com) is set for it's first ever visit to Riverside Speedway in West Memphis, Arkansas next Saturday, Sat. May 27th during the O'Reilly USCS Speedweek 2006. The event at Riverside Speedway is the second event on the seven race Speedweek schedule that is distributed over a nine-day span. Drivers from eight states are entered for the event at the historic quarter mile gumbo oval including most of the top ten drivers in the O'Reilly USCS National point standings as well as all of the drivers ranked in the top ten of the O'Reilly USCS Mid-South Thunder regional point standings. The entries include at least six O'Reilly USCS drivers who were ranked in the top 43 drivers in the 2005 National Sprint Car Hall of Fame 360 North American sprint car poll or honored for individual honors.
Entries include 2005 O'Reilly USCS Champion Kenny Adams from Malabar, Florida and four-time O'Reilly USCS National champion Terry Gray from Bartlett, Tennessee who were ranked second and eighth in the poll at the end of the season. Additionally entered are 20 year-old, Danny Martin, Jr. from Sarasota, Florida who was also ranked in the top ten in the poll in the ninth position and received the NSCHOF 360 "Wild Card Driver of the Year" award is entered as well as 2003 National Sprint Car Hall of Fame 360 sprint car "Rookie of the Year" Ricky Stenhouse from Olive Branch, Mississippi. Stenhouse currently leads the 2006 O'Reilly USCS Mid-South Thunder regional point standings. 2005 O'Reilly USCS Rookie of the Year Bryn Gohn from Malabar, Florida and sixteen year old Matt Tiffany from Daytona Beach, Florida add to the talented Hoosier Tire Young Guns entered that will be racing at the tricky quarter mile for the first time. Both won features in their rookie year with the USCS and have been impressive. Tiffany was one of only first year five drivers nominated for the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame Rookie of the Year in 2005. That award went to Kevin Swindell who race primarily with the O'Reilly USCS Asphalt Thunder pavement series.
Multi-time champion Riverside Speedway track champion, Mike Ward from Memphis, Tennessee who received Honarable Mention in last season's final poll and was one of only 43 drivers out of over 3000 considered in the poll will be at Riverside Speedway to try to improve on his third place ranking in the Mid-South Thunder standings and is one of approximately twenty drivers who is expected to challenge for the series first Speedweek crown by competing in all of the events. Each of the events awards National, O'Reilly USCS Dirt Cup and O'Reilly USCS Mid-South Thunder points. 1999 O'reilly USCS Dirt Cup champion Marshall Skinner fom West Memphis, Arkansas who in the second position on the O'Reilly USCS Dirt Cup all dirt track National standings and tied with Gray for second place in the Mid-South standings will be on familiar ground at Riverside in quest of the Speedweek title. Skinner is a two-time track champion at Riverside.
Additional expected entries include Hoosier Tire Young Gun, Lee Sowell from Nesbit, Mississippi who is tied for tird in the O'Reilly USCS Mid-South point standings. Sowell won the second half of the Hardee's Dixie Double at Dixie Speedway with the O'Reilly USCS. Brad Bowden from Hernado, Misissippi leads the O'Reilly USCS Mid-South Thunder Rookie of the Year standings
in October of 2005. Twenty year-old Tom Winegardne, Jr. from Pierson, Florida who is fifth in the National standings and seventh in the Mid-South rankings is entered as is his team-mate and father, Tom Winegardner from Pierson, Florida who is tenth in those same standings. Eric White from Southaven, Mississippi is entered and after three events ranks ninth in the O'Reilly USCS Mid-South regional point .
standings. Another Speedweek title hopeful Scott Bolden from West Memphis, Arkansas is entered as is Mid-South Rookie of the Year candidiate, Derek Hagar also from West Memphis, Arkansas.
Expected to defend their home turf will be the always tough Riverside Speedway regualrs including two-time O'Reilly USCS Champion, Eddie Gallagher, Henry Gustavus and Ronnie Howard who is also expected to compete for the Speedweek title. Other expected local entries hoping for an O'Reilly USCS Speedweek feature win at their home track include, A.G. Rains, Kenny Coke, Phillip Faulkner, Greg Merritt, Raymond Stull, Ernie Ainsworth, Kevin Kilpatrick, Jeff Leach, Donnie Howard, Andy McElhannon, Bennie Chesteen, Robert Gant, and Josh Baker.
For more info on the O'Reilly USCS Speedweek 2006 visit ww.uscsracing.com or for ticket info call Riverside Speedway (riversidespeedway.us) at 870-735-8071.
