For Immediate Release
April 30, 2008
Third Annual "99" Extravaganza Highlights Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Visit to Kentucky Lake; New Format for 2008
CORONA, CA (April 30, 2008) - Coming off of two rainouts last weeked in Pennsylvania and Maryland, the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series looks to get back on the road this weekend as the series travels to Kentucky Lake Motor Speedway in Calvert City, KY this Friday and Saturday, May 2nd and 3rd for the Third Annual "99" Extravaganza.
Promoter, Sherri Heckenast, has decided to change things up from the past two years, and will introduce a new format for this year's 3rd Annual running of the "99". This year's race format calls for a complete show each night for the LOLMDS with time trials, heat races, B-mains and a feature event each evening paying $9,999 to win and $700 to start.
With a healthy purse up for grabs each night Heckenast is looking forward to having the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series back in 2008. "We have brought in some new help to prepare the race track, I know in the past we have not had the greatest track conditions due to a number of things, the races at the end of last year and early this year at the track have been better and I believe with the new help, the fans and drivers will see a huge difference for the '99'," said Heckenast who also is trying to be "family friendly" as she is allowing kids 16 and under free with a paying adult.
The "99" is also special to Heckenast and her racing family as that race car number has been in the family as long as she remembers. "My dad (Frank Sr.) started going to Raceway Park (in Blue Island, IL) as a kid and his favorite driver had the number 99. When he started to race he used that number and it has carried on with me and my brother (Frank Jr.)."
Raceway Park first began racing dirt back in 1938. The track later was paved and held weekly racing (4 nights a week) until it closed in 2000. The track which held a total of 2,949 race programs during its long and prolific tenure was torn down in June of 2001 and sadly is now the site of a supermarket.
The series trip to Kentucky Lake featuring the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series will be the next event that 20 drivers will be eligible for the "Winners Circle Program" and the "Jasper Engines Road to Wheatland" bonus monies. This is an incentive program that will pay the top ten drivers in the 2008 Championship Points an extra $600 each with perfect attendance throughout 2008. The "Jasper Engines Road to Wheatland" Program will also pay an additional $600 to each of the ten highest points drivers from the final 2007 Championship Points standings that follow the Road to Wheatland with perfect attendance but are not in the current top ten in points. The SuperClean "Diamond Nationals" at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, MO is slated for May 9th and 10th and will pay $40,000 to win this year. There will also be an open practice night on Thursday May 8th for all drivers wishing to come out to the track before the SuperClean "Diamond Nationals."
Kentucky Lake Motor Speedway is located off of I-24, exit 27 in Calvert City, KY. The pit gates will open both days at 12 Noon, with grandstand gates open at 4:00 PM each day and race time is slated for 7:00 PM each evening. Adult admission will be $20 each night with kids 16 and under free with a paying adult. KLMS has a re-designed website to better serve the racers and it located at www.kentuckylakemotorspeedway.net or you can call the track office at (270) 395-3600.
The tire rule for the weekend is as follows: Hoosier 1300, 1350, LM20, 1600 and LM40 and American Racer SD44, SD48 and MD56.
For the latest information concerning the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series you can visit www.lucasdirt.com or call the series office at (951) 532-2503.
Third Annual "99" Extravaganza Payoff
Kentucky Lake Motor Speedway-Calvert City, KY
Friday, May 2nd and Saturday, May 3rd
Feature Payoff Each Night: $9999, $5000, $3000, $2500, $2000, $1500, $1400, $1300, $1200, $1100, $1000, $950, $900, $875, $850, $825, $800, $775, $750, $725, $700, $700, $700, $700
1) Earl Pearson Jr. (Jacksonville, FL) - 1310
2) Terry Casey (New London, WI) - 1305
3) Steve Casebolt (Richmond, IN) - 1260
4) Bart Hartman (Zanesville, OH) - 1220
5) Justin Rattliff (Campbellsville, KY) - 1215
6) Donnie Moran (Dresden, OH) - 1165
7) Dan Schlieper (Sullivan, WI) - 1110
8) Scott James (Lawrenceburg, IN) - 1095
9) Billy Drake (Bloomington, IL) - 1025
10) Wayne Chinn (Bradford, OH) - 965
11) Don O'Neal (Martinsville, IN) - 870
12) John Mason (Millersburg, OH) - 825
13) Freddy Smith (Seymour, TN) - 820
14) Damon Eller (Crumpler, NC) - 735
15) Scott Bloomquist (Mooresburg, TN) - 630
1) Terry Casey (New London, WI) - 1305
2) Wayne Chinn (Bradford, OH) - 965
3) John Blankenship (Williamson, WV) - 360
4) Eric Jacobsen (Sea Cliff Beach, CA) -75
5) Tony Knowles (Tyrone, GA) - 75
Contact: World Racing Group
Kevin Kovac, World of Outlaws Late Model Series P.R. Director
704-254-7929 • kkovac@dirtcar.com
Missouri’s Terry Phillips Chasing History As World of Outlaws Late Model Series Visits His Backyard This Weekend
Show-Me State Star Looking To Join His Legendary Father As A World of Outlaws Winner During Doubleheader At Lebanon I-44 & Monett Speedways
CONCORD, NC – April 30, 2008 – Ask Show-Me State star Terry Phillips what winning one of the World of Outlaws Late Model Series events being run in his Missouri backyard this weekend would mean to him, and you get a typical hard-nosed racer’s reply.
“It would be a great accomplishment,” Phillips said matter-of-factly. “You always want to win against the better cars and drivers.”
Remind Phillips, though, that a WoO LMS victory this Saturday night (May 3) at Lebanon I-44 Speedway or Sunday night (May 4) at Monett Speedway would forge him a historic common bond with his legendary late father Larry Phillips, and his tough exterior softens a bit.
“I didn’t even think about my dad having a World of Outlaws win,” said Phillips, a 41-year-old racing veteran from Springfield, Mo. “That would make winning one pretty cool for me.”
How cool? Consider this: Larry and Terry Phillips would become the first father-and-son tandem to win WoO LMS events in the six-plus seasons (1988-89, 2004-present) of the tour’s existence.
Larry Phillips, a Midwestern mega-talent who passed away in September 2004 at the age of 62 after a four-year battle with lung cancer, won just a single WoO LMS event during his memorable dirt and asphalt Late Model career, but it was an important one. He captured the first WoO LMS A-Main ever contested, on April 22, 1988, at Williams Grove Speedway in Mechanicsburg, Pa.
The elder Phillips’s triumph launched the short-lived first incarnation of the WoO LMS, which was directed by late Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series founder Ted Johnson. The full-bodied off-shoot of the established WoO Sprint Car Series lasted just two seasons before it was discontinued by Johnson, but its results are part of the history of the WoO LMS, which was rekindled in 2004 under the World Racing Group banner and is now in the fifth season of its modern era.
The ‘original’ WoO LMS didn’t travel as far-and-wide or boast as many events as the current version, but it was “a pretty tough series,” said Terry Phillips. He knows this first-hand because he actually followed the inaugural schedule in 1988.
Phillips became a dirt Late Model driver in ’88, at the age of 21, and got an education by going on the WoO LMS road with his father. He showed some flashes of his future brilliance during that rookie campaign, registering four top-five finishes – including third-place runs at Badlands Raceway in Yates Center, Kans., and Colorado National Speedway in Denver (two) – and finishing a respectable seventh in the points standings. (Larry Phillips finished third in the ’88 points race.)
Both Phillips and his father were part-timers with the WoO LMS in 1989 (Larry and Terry placed 11th and 14th, respectively, in the points standings), and the younger Phillips has entered only selected tour events since its resumption in 2004. In eight A-Main appearances during the WoO LMS ‘modern-era’ Phillips has a top finish of third, on July 22, 2005, at Tri-State Speedway in Pocola, Okla., but he’s had a couple legitimate shots at victory ripped from him by bad luck, including last year at Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City, Kans. (a broken brake caliper sent him into the wall while running fourth and gaining ground) and Lebanon I-44 Speedway (he was in the top five when he got a flat tire).
A three-time champion of the O’Reilly MARS DIRTcar Series that is co-sanctioning the WoO LMS events at Lebanon I-44 and Monett, Phillips enters this weekend’s doubleheader with plenty of confidence. He’s only run two dirt Late Model shows since making a January trip to Arizona – the testy spring weather has scuttled most of his planned starts with his Andy’s Frozen Custard GRT No. 75 – but he’s in racing shape thanks to the half-dozen open-wheel Modified appearances he’s made in recent weeks.
And of course, Phillips knows the Lebanon I-44 and Monett ovals as well as anyone.
With plenty of laps around both tracks under his belt over two decades behind the wheel, Phillips has enjoyed spectacular success in regional-series competition at the speedways. He’s won seven MARS and two O’Reilly MLRA series features at Lebanon I-44, and he owns six MARS and eight MLRA triumphs at Monett.
Considering that most of this weekend’s invading national stars have only limited experience at Lebanon I-44 (Saturday will mark the fourth WoO LMS visit to the track) and next to none at Monett (Sunday is the tour’s first-ever stop there), Phillips would appear to have a technical edge. He’s not counting on his knowledge of the distinctly different three-eighths-mile ovals to carry him, however.
“I guess we’ll have a little experience advantage,” said Phillips, who will also field a car from his stable this weekend for his 21-year-old protégé Jeremy Payne, a native of Arizona who now calls Springfield, Mo., home. “But these guys coming in are so good, it doesn’t take them long to figure a track out.
“And the tire-rule deal (the UMP DIRTcar Hoosier tire mandate will be in effect at both tracks) hurts us a little because we’re not used to running the softer tire, but I feel like I should still be able to pick the right compound. I’ve been doing this long enough so I should know what to do.”
Saturday’s program at Lebanon I-44 Speedway will feature a 40-lap WoO LMS A-Main paying $10,000 to win, and Sunday’s card 100 miles to the southwest at Monett will be headlined by a 40-lap A-Main with a $7,000 top prize.
At both tracks, gates open at 4:30 p.m. and on-track action is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m.
For more information on the events, visit www.lebanoni44speedway.net or www.monettspeedway.net.
Additional info on the WoO LMS is available by logging on to www.worldofoutlaws.com.