O'Reilly Auto Parts USCS 5th Annual Missouri State Championship winged outlaw sprint car and USCS Open Wheel Modified double-header headlines racing at Malden Speedway this Friday! ( Sept. 22nd )

MALDEN, MO - O'Reilly Auto Parts United Sprint Car Series winged outlaw sprint car racing and a $1000 to win USCS Open Wheel Modified race will headline the racing action at Malden Speedway this Friday night in the 5th annual O'Reilly Auto Parts USCS sanctioned Missouri State Championship Races. The program will feature a state championship winged outlaw sprint car and open wheel modified double-header. The O'Reilly Auto Parts sponsored United Sprint Car Series "Outlaw Thunder" Tour www.uscsracing.com will roar into the fast 3/8 mile high banked clay oval for their event number forty on the season for the O'Reilly USCS drivers who also race on paved ovals. The O'Reilly USCS is the only winged outlaw sprint series in the World that races on both dirt and paved surfaces.

Friday's event will award points in the potent O'Reilly USCS Mid-South Thunder regional division as well as points towards the O'Reilly USCS National Championship. The O'Reilly USCS Mid South Thunder regional series consists of races in Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee. The event is expected to bring top winged outlaw sprint car drivers from at least six states to the Speedway.

The exotic fire breathing, alcohol burning, 700 horsepower open wheel O'Reilly USCS sprint cars weight just 1,300 pounds, and are pound for pound the World's most powerful short track race cars and will literally fly around the track surface at speeds over 120 M.P.H. 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 includes test and tune hot laps, qualifying heat races and a 30-lap main event. The evening's first sprint car race will be the Lucas Oil Power Dash that showcases the top six cars from the previous USCS main event in an edge-of-your-seat six-car shootout. All of Malden Speedway's weekly racing divisions will also compete.

O'Reilly USCS entries will include a number of the nation's top ranked sprint car drivers including one America's winn ingest drivers, four time O'Reilly USCS National Champion, Terry Gray from Bartlett, Tennessee who again leads the current O'Reilly USCS National point standings. Gray is among the top twenty-five drivers in the Nation in sprint car feature wins over the past 5 years with over 70 feature wins. Gray was ranked fourth in the 2006 National Sprint Car Hall of Fame Summer driver of the year poll out of 3000+ drivers considered.

Another top entry is Hoosier tire Young Guns points leader, twenty year-old Danny Martin, Jr. from Sarasota, Florida who is currently ranked second in the O'Reilly USCS National point standings. Martin was ranked ninth at the end of last season in the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame driver of the Year poll. Martin is currently the hottest driver on dirt surfaces in the O'Reilly USCS outlaw thunder Tour with three feature wins in a row.

Other notable entries include: 2006 O'Reilly USCS Speed Week Champion, Mike Ward from Memphis, Tennessee who currently leads the 2006 O'Reilly USCS Mid-South standings and has four feature wins on the season. Ward has nearly 400 career wins at Mid-South tracks. Ward was also ranked in the top 32 drivers in the Nation in the Summer NSCHOF poll.

Also entered is 1999 O'Reilly USCS Dirt Cup Champion, Marshall Skinner from West Memphis, Arkansas who won the inaugural O'Reilly USCS Missouri State Championship Race at Malden Speedway on September 8th, 2000. Skinner is currently third in the O'Reilly USCS Mid-South Thunder point standings and has three wins in the series this season. Another potent entry is twenty-one year old Tom "TJ" Winegardner, Jr. from Pierson, Florida who is fourth in the Mid-South standings and ranked third Nationally.

Two-time 2006 Malden Speedway feature winner, Jerrod Hull from Sikeston, Missouri is an expected entry as are Doc Sloan, Dustin Barks and Tyler Thompson from Farmington, Missouri. Also entered are Dylan DeJournett and Kenny Pope from nearby Dexter.

A host of talented O'Reilly USCS Young Guns (drivers under 25 ) including Martin and Winegardner are entered plus fifteen year-old Derek Hagar from Marion, Arkansas who has several top ten finishes in the series as a rookie driver. Hagar currently leads the O'Reilly USCS National and Mid-South Rookie of the Year standings. Eighteen year-old Brad Bowden from Hernando, MS who is second in the Mid-South rookie standings behind Hagar is expected and has a top five and several other outstanding performances on the season in the series.

Other top young gun entries include 19 year old, Lee Sowell from Coldwater, Mississippi who won last fall with the O'Reilly USCS in Atlanta, Georgia at Dixie Speedway in the finale of the Outlaw Dixie Double. Another expected Young Gun is Brian Bell from Memphis, Tennessee. Add into the mix nineteen year-old Ryan Myers from Eaton, Ohio who is second in the O'Reilly Asphalt Thunder standings and his twenty two year-old teammate Doug Berryman from Mansfield, Ohio.

Other Nationally ranked and prominent drivers expected to enter are Jason Sides from Bartlett, Tennessee who won the exciting O'Reilly USCS Mid-South Thunder regional event at Malden Speedway on June 23rd after starting ninth. Darren Stewart from Bixby, Oklahoma who was ranked 13th in the Summer NSCHOF Poll is entered as well.

Additional expected entries include the legendary Ray Bugg from Iuka, Mississippi, Ronnie Howard and Michael Craddock from Southaven, Mississippi, Raymond Stull from Coldwater, Mississippi and Greg Merritt from Nesbit, Mississippi.

Malden Speedway is located by traveling one mile North of Malden on Highway 25, then two miles West on County Road 102 also known as Thunder Road. Pit Gates and Grandstands open at 5:00 p.m. with racing action at 7:00 p.m. The race track phone number is 573-276-6265 and the website is http://www.maldenspeedway.com For USCS "Outlaw Thunder" info call 404-886-5913 or visit the USCS web site at www.uscsracing.com. Contacts: PETE WALTON, USCS President (404) 886-5913 petewalton@bellsouth.net WWW.USCSRACING.COM