2017 USAC Silver Crown Schedule Released
From USACRacing.com |
Phoenix International Raceway, a venue synonymous with USAC Silver Crown racing for more than two decades, returns to the 2017 schedule after an eight-year absence.
The highly-anticipated return of the big cars to the mile in Arizona’s Valley of the Sun arrives on Saturday, April 29 on the same bill as the IndyCar Series race later that night.
The roar of champ car engines fell silent at PIR after Cole Whitt’s victory in 2009 on the racy, triangular-shaped paved track, but the series is back this season as it embarks on its 47th season of competition with a schedule as balanced as it’s ever been. Six dirt and five pavement events are on tap for the 11-race docket for 2017.
The series opens on the dirt at Indiana’s Terre Haute Action Track on Apr. 2 for the “Sumar Classic.” On May 25, the 63rd running of the “Hoosier Hundred” makes it traditional stop at the Indiana State Fairgrounds mile. In June, amidst the “Eastern Storm” series for the USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Cars, the Silver Crown cars take on Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania’s Williams Grove Speedway on June 16.
The series closes out the 2017 calendar with three-straight races on the dirt, beginning with a pair of events on the two legendary mile tracks in Illinois. The “Bettenhausen 100” at Springfield’s Illinois State Fairgrounds on Aug. 19 is the longest-running of all Silver Crown events with roots dating back to 1934.
The Du Quoin State Fairgrounds, host of the Sept. 3 “Ted Horn 100,” is one of just three racetracks on the series’ 2017 schedule to have been on the schedule in every single year of USAC’s existence since 1956 (Indiana and Illinois State Fairgrounds).
The season closes with the Sept. 23 “4-Crown Nationals” at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio – the only event in which one can witness all three of USAC’s National Divisions (Silver Crown, National Sprint and National Midget) at the same track on a single night.
The pavement portion of the schedule is an array of flat and high-banked surfaces ranging in size from a half-mile to a full-mile. Phoenix serves as the pavement season opener as well as the series’ sole visit to the west on Apr. 29.
Lucas Oil Raceway in Brownsburg, Indiana is the lone track scheduled to host multiple Silver Crown events this season with the “Carb Night Classic: The Race Before the 500” on the Friday of Memorial Day weekend on May 26 and the “Rich Vogler/Hall of Fame Classic” on July 20.
The final two races hit the high banks of two of the Midwest’s most history-rich racetracks in Ohio’s Toledo Speedway and Indiana’s Salem Speedway Fueled by the Hoosier Lottery. Toledo’s July 28event honors the city’s greatest racing hero and 1973 USAC National Sprint Car champ with the Hemelgarn Racing/Super Fitness “Rollie Beale Classic.”
The Silver Crown cars return to Salem for the final round of pavement for the season one year after making their first stop at the .555-mile, high-banked oval since 1988. As it has since 1958, the event honors the lives of National Sprint Car Hall of Famers and Indianapolis 500 veterans Joe James and Pat O’Connor.
PRI NOTES: Sachs Has Indy 500 Dreams
by Adam Fenwick
INDIANAPOLIS – If everything goes as planned, the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway could feature a car fielded by Eddie Sachs Racing.
Eddie Sachs Jr., the son two-time Indianapolis 500 polesitter Eddie Sachs, told SPEED SPORT on Thursday during the PRI Trade Show at the Indiana Convention Center that he is working on putting together a Verizon IndyCar Series program for the Indianapolis 500 next May.
“In 2016 it is the 100th anniversary of the Indy 500. We had sat down, oh, a couple of years ago to try and put a program together in honor of my dad to run the 500 in his 50th anniversary. Of course it all comes down to funding and putting everything together and it took some time,” Sachs said. “A great idea that was brought up to me was don’t go back in time, move forward. Why not take the 100th anniversary and start that as a new legacy or a new tradition and Eddie Sachs Racing could be involved as a 500 participant.”
Sachs, who fields teams’ at all three levels of USAC national competition, said he has had positive discussions with current Verizon IndyCar Series teams about becoming involved as a team owner. Sachs declined to say what teams he has spoken to or what drivers he may or may not be considering should the program come to fruition.
“I’ve negotiated with a couple different people, your top teams that have extra cars available are interested and are always interested,” Sachs said. “We’re trying to stay away from leasing cars. I’d like to really try to own the car because of the business side of it. Dallara has been very helpful at trying to establish chassis’ that they have available.”
Sachs said in order for the program to come together, he needs to locate additional partnerships to put the final pieces in place for the 100th Indianapolis 500.
“All the logistics are figured out. Right now if the funding was available I guess we could say we could move ahead. I’m cautiously saying that because I know how it is heart breaking and they put deals together and they don’t always work,” Sachs said.
Sachs said he would also like to try and put together and Indy Lights program for the Freedom 100 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He said should that work out, he hopes to put open-wheel dirt racer Davey Ray, who drives for Sachs in the USAC Silver Crown Series, in the seat for that event.
“I’d like to give him an opportunity in the Indy Lights car this year at the Freedom 100. We’re working on that,” Sachs said.
– John Force was on hand for a meet and greet at the Chevrolet Performance booth Thursday morning and was, as usual, in rare form. He recalled one particular story about recently retired NASCAR Sprint Cup Series star Jeff Gordon, whom he paid tribute to at zMAX Dragway in Concord, N.C., in September with a special one-off paint scheme.
“A lot of people asked me why did you do the tribute to Jeff Gordon. I knew Jeff when he was this tall,” Force said while using his hands to show Gordon’s height when he was just a young boy. “He goes to me, ‘Why are you always on fire?’ I said I don’t know, it’s just the way it goes. He said well you ‘ought to flame the car. So when we went to do the tribute of the 24 car and we ran it at Charlotte it was a way to flame a car for Jeff Gordon.”
– Matthew Brabham, who was recently named the driver of the PIRTEK Team Murray No. 61 Indy car for the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500, has dabbled in multiple forms of motor sport during the 2015 season.
He raced in handful of Indy Lights events, tested an asphalt late model owned by David Gilliland and raced in Robby Gordon’s Formula Off-Road stadium truck series, but one thing he said he wants to do and hasn’t done yet is try his hand at sports car racing.
“I’d love to get into some of the sports car stuff and do some endurance racing,” Brabham said. “My dad (Geoff Brabham) had some great success in that and I’ve listened to his stories and obviously my uncles stories at Le Mans too. I think that is a pretty cool thing as well.
“Right now I’m going to try and focus on Indy cars and if everything goes well then maybe I can start looking at doing some sports car stuff. There are just so many racing series out there and you want to drive everything and do everything, but you just kind of have to pick and choose and just kind of focus on what you want to do.”
– Bobby Rahal was on hand Thursday to announce that Steak & Shake would continue as a partner on the Rahal Letterman Lanigan (RLL) Racing Indy car driven by Graham Rahal in the Verizon IndyCar Series. Steak & Shake was a late addition to the RLL Racing sponsorship roster this year and the company was so pleased with the investment that they have expanded their support of the team to include five races as primary sponsor in 2016.
“It was frankly about February or March when we got together with them. It happened very late,” Bobby Rahal said. “I think they (Steak & Shake) brought us luck because once they came on the car we started doing some very good things. We’re very pleased to have them back.”
– Expect Venturini Motorsports to announce the signing of a young driver for a part-time ARCA Racing Series schedule sometime in the next few days. In other ARCA Racing Series news, Chase Briscoe will join Cunningham Motorsports for the full ARCA Racing Series schedule driving the No. 77 previously driven by Tom Hessert.
– Some of those spotted walking the PRI Trade Show floor on Thursday were defending Chili Bowl winner Rico Abreu, National Sprint League champion Danny Lasoski, new JR Motorsports NASCAR XFINTIY Series driver Justin Allgaier, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series veteran Johnny Sauter, Indy Lights champion Spencer Pigot, sprint car driver Sam Hafertepe Jr., Wayne Taylor Racing sports car driver Jordan Taylor, ARCA Racing Series champion Grant Enfinger, ARCA team owner ‘Big’ Bill Venturini and former Truck Series race winner Justin Lofton, among others.