Bristol Motor Speedway
Notebook: SWDRA makes return to Manzy
From staff and series reports
The series return to Manzanita Speedway and three big season-ending weekends highlight the 2008 schedule on the Southwest Dirt Racing Association. The eighth season for the Arizona-based Dirt Late Model tour begins March 8 at Canyon Speedway Park in Peoria, Ariz.
The 22-race season will take SWDRA competitors to five different tracks, including four races at Canyon, four races at USA Race Park in Tucson, three races at Manzanita, two races at Prescott Valley Raceway and three events at Central Arizona Raceway in Casa Grande. Only the first 16 events will count toward the points championships and races will pay winning purses of $1,000 or $2,000.
Manzanita, which hosted seven events during the 2003-04 seasons, returns to the schedule and offers drivers a chance to run on the Phoenix track's half-mile circuit or third-mile oval, depending on the event.
An Oct. 11 event at Central Arizona wraps up the points season, but three non-points weekends will take drivers to Tucson, Manzanita and Canyon for action in November.
Lonnie Parker Jr. of El Mirage, Ariz., is the four-time and reigning series champion. — From series reports
VEGAS DOUBLEHEADER COMING UP: The Western Allstars Late Model Series will open its season with a tripleheader on Feb. 28-March 1, including a pair of $3,000-to-win events at Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway's dirt track. It will mark the first series events without former series director Chris Kearns, who lost the job after the series was sold. Jimmy Mars, driving a Jess Anderson-owned car, won both races last year. USAC-CRA sprint cars are also in action at Vegas. The Western Allstars wrap up the weekend with a $3,000-to-win event at Bakersfield (Calif.) Speedway Park. — From track and staff reports
RENO-FERNLEY HALTS DIRT ACTION: The Reno-Fernley Raceway near Reno, Nev., which has hosted occasional Late Model specials in recent years, is closing its dirt oval for the 2008 season to concentrate on facility improvements to draw national sanctioning bodies to the complex, according to the track website. The focus will be on the road course and an expansion of the current asphalt oval. Track officials plans to consider moving the dirt oval to another site on the complex. The facility aims to complete improvements by early 2009 and reopen the asphalt oval shortly thereafter. — From track reports
NEW MEXICO DATES SET: Hollywood Hills Speedway in San Felipe Pueblo, N.M., has scheduled nine dates for the Rio Grande Super Late Models in 2008. The organization expects to add three more Late Models to its regular program, prompting the track to make the Late Model the premier division (over modifieds or sprint cars) for four of the nine programs. Race dates are set for: May 10, May 24, June 7, June 21, July 5, July 26, Aug. 9, Aug. 23 and Sept. 13. — Ruth Brooks
