Thursday, August 31, 2000

Checkered Flag
Sprint cars to meet in challenge at Abilene Speedway
By Al Pickett

What is faster, a V-8 Sprint car or a V-6 Sprint car?

Fans at Abilene Speedway will find out Saturday night.

The winged sprints return Saturday for the final night of the 2000 racing season at Abilene Speedway. A special challenge race will be held between Russ Fletcher of Abilene and his V-8 sprint car, and Elmer Morgan of Dallas and his V-6 sprint car.

In addition to the winged sprint cars, there will be a full night of racing featuring I.M.C.A. Modifieds, Super Stocks, Street Stocks, Mini Modifieds and Pure Stocks.

A kids’ box car race will be held during intermission.

Gates open at 6 p.m. and races start at 8 p.m. General admission is $8 for adults and $3 for kids ages 6-12. For more information, call (915) 692-8800 or 698-4029.

After 28 weeks of racing, the point champions will also be determined in most classes this weekend. Point leaders include Russ Fletcher of Abilene in the Sprints, Vince Ogle of Lubbock in the Modifieds, Michael Sams of Brownwood in the Stock Cars, Everett Keel of Brownwood in the Pure Stocks, Dennis Tipler of Tye in the Limited Late Models, Terry Owen of Merkel in the Mini Modifieds, and Cory Colyer of Hawley in the Hobby Stocks.

Road racing

The Grand Prix of Texas, which is part of the American LeMans Series, will be held this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway north of Fort Worth. Practice, qualifying and races will be held Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

It’s the first time in five years that professional road racing has been held in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.

The races will conclude Sunday with the Women’s Global GT Series Race at 10 a.m., the Star Mazda Race at 11:15 a.m., the Speedvision World Challenge Race at 1 p.m. and the BF Goodrich Trans-Am Series race at 2:30 p.m.

Grand Prix of Texas tickets are available at the Speedway ticket office or by calling (817) 215-8500.

Truck race

Drivers in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck series race at Texas Motor Speedway on Oct. 13 will have farther to go to reach the finish line.

The O’Reilly 300 has become the O’Reilly 400.

New name

The Indy Racing Northern Light Series championship race, scheduled for Oct. 15 at Texas Motor Speedway is getting a new name.

Excite@Home.com will now sponsor the event to be called the Excite 500.

Contact sports editor Al Pickett at 676-6772 or picketta@abinews.com. We are on the Web at sports.texnews.com.