TRACKS: Free show to fans offered at Irwindale November 3 & 4
28 October 2000
RARE TWO-DAY SHOW WILL FEATURE "TRUCKERS" FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY AT AMERICAN RACE TRUCKS NATIONAL FINALS NOV. 3 & 4 Public To Be Admitted FREE To Friday Night Time Trials - November 3rd Irwindale, Calif. - - Irwindale Speedway, usually "quiet" on Friday nights, will this week be alive with the sounds of racing trucks on BOTH Friday and Saturday nights, November 3 and 4 as the super-competitive American Race Trucks stage their National Finals at "LA's ½ Mile Super Speedway". Truck racing teams from across the nation will assemble at Irwindale this weekend to see who truly is the best of the best is in the popular American Race Truck series. "We expect upwards of 60 ART teams to be on hand here at Irwindale this weekend," said Greg Larrimore of American Race Trucks. "This is our Indy 500, Olympic Games, and Super Bowl all rolled into one. Everyone has run hard all year to get here, and they're all very excited to be at this fantastic racing facility again for our 2000 Finals." In keeping with the special event flavor of the two-day affair, the public will be invited to Friday night's preliminaries free of charge. "This will be a great chance for families who haven't had the opportunity to visit Irwindale Speedway as yet to get a great 'free sample' of what all the excitement is about here," said the Speedway's VP of Marketing, Pat Patterson. As Friday night's practice sessions and qualifying heat races will set the fields for the all-important finals on Saturday night, this will be a perfect occasion for fans to figure out who they're going to root for on Saturday when the National Championship is on the line. Saturday night's line up will include American Race Trucks National Finals, plus qualifying, heats and main event races for the MSRA Pro4 Modifieds, Legends Cars, and Mini-Stockars. Saturday's MSRA Pro4 Modified event will see that division's tight season championship points battle coming down to the short strokes with Mike Wright of Twentynine Palms leading El Monte's Kenny Smith by only 15 points. On a roll, Wright has won the last three Pro4 races and Smith has vowed to: "… Pull out all the stops in order to win," at his "home track". Smith resides within a stone's throw of the racing facility and he and his family-crew have been very active in the promotion of the Speedway at many community events across the Southland. As an added attraction, the editor and a columnist from Miss Information's Automotive Calendar of Events (Rick Denver and Harold Osmer) will choose each other off in a six-lap "Challenge" race that has been variously referred-to as: "One of the great driving match-ups of all time …" (by them), and "The night of the 2 turkeys" (by others). Disparaging comments aside, these two racing tyros have had a good time preparing to race against each other in exactly equal Legends Cars, and have done a wonderful job of publicizing the "shoot-out" to their readers and various motorsports cronies. If nothing else, they'll be proving the idea that (almost) anyone can participate in real racing with "spec" class cars like Legends. Good Luck boys! For Friday, gates to the stands will open at 4:00 pm. There will be no parking, nor entry fees charged, and the track's great snack and refreshment stands will be open for business. This might be a good opportunity for the whole family to assemble after work and school and come out to Irwindale Speedway for a fun "trackside" dinner and some great racecar-watching. For Saturday's festivities fans are urged to get their tickets early and to come out to the Speedway early to get a good look at the cars and drivers as they prepare and qualify for the important events that night. Gates open at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday night and there's plenty to do (for example: a free live band, free car club show, practice, qualifying, pre-event contests, the Alta Dena Milk Chugs autograph session, people-watching, track mascot LugNut Junior's T-shirt-shooting antics, NASCAR Trivia, etc. etc. etc.) right up to showtime at 7:00 p.m. Tickets for the aforementioned great Saturday night of racing are only $15.00 for adults and $5.00 for kids and are available at all the usual places including www.tickets.com, (626) 358-1100, or in person at the on-site box office.