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UARA Rookie of the Race George Miedecke
Drew Hierwarter Photo
UARA-STARS, Renegades and Carolina Vintage Racers to Breathe Life Into Tri-County Motor Speedway
Hendersonville, N.C. –(7/25/11) The UARA-STARS will breathe life into Tri-County Motor Speedway once again on Friday, July 29. Also appearing with the UARA will be the Carolina Vintage Racers and the Tri-County Renegades for an old-fashioned Friday night short-track slugfest.
The Tri County race is the eighth race of 2011 and will conclude the first half of the season. This will be the tours 13th event at the Hudson, N.C, facility. Over the course of the ten-year history of the series, ten different drivers have visited victory lane at the Caldwell County speedplant. The only repeat winner at the track is two-time UARA-STARS Champion Matt McCall.
Last April, Brennan Poole captured his first UARA career win and nearly pulled off a season sweep in the summer. Matt Kurzejewski, however, took home his first and only career win at the July 16, 2010 event. Poole, with ten career wins, is quickly closing in on the all-time career win lead held by late model stock car legend Jamey Caudill at 13.
“Tri-County is probably my absolute favorite racetrack and we’ve run really, really good there in the past,” said Poole, a native of Texas whose shop is now minutes from the Hudson area. “You can run right on the bottom or way up top, and I love running way up next to the wall there. It’s sort of a comfort thing for me and I feel comfortable up there.”
A host of other drivers are looking to continue Tri-County’s history of unique winners. One such driver is Kaleb Pressley. “I started my racing career there in the super stock class and won a bunch of races,” said Kaleb Pressley, who is still searching for his first career UARA win. “We’ve been getting a lot of seat time and putting together some really good runs this year. I think we’re going to figure it out and might have a shot to pull it off.”
Other contenders with Poole and Pressley will be Andy Mercer, Randy Hawkins, Ronnie Bassett Jr., Clay Alexander, Adam Long, George Miedecke, Robert Johnson, David Roberts, Jimmy Simmons, Joey Herques, Kyle Grissom, Scott Turlington, R.A. Brown, Alex Yontz, Candace Muzny and Brad Cox who have all pre-entered the event.
One of the most unique partnerships in racing is that of the UARA with the Carolina Vintage Racing club. Fans are able to see today’s state-of-the-art late model stock cars and visit yesteryear with cars from decades gone by during the same night of racing multiple times on the UARA schedule. During the club’s last race with the UARA-STARS at Hickory, Ed Ritchey won the V8 division in his 1965 Chevrolet Impala and Joe Evans claimed the straight line six-cylinder trophy after a side-by-side battle for the class win that lasted the last five laps of the race. More of the Carolina Vintage drivers expected to be at Tri County Motor Speedway are Oscar Poplin, Wayne Hearne, Bruce Bishop, Danny Toney, Rick Earnhardt, Randy Robertson and Don Moore.
Along with the STARS and Carolina Vintage cars, the local Renegades will be part of Friday night’s show. A number of local heroes will attempt to win what most likely is the final Renegade event of the year at Tri-County. Earlier this month, Dillon Crouch drove from the tail of the field during the July 4th weekend event to claim another win on his resume and a number of challengers will be aiming to dethrone the No. 5 this Friday night. Among those challengers will be Carroll McKinney, Eddie Russ, Darren Dickinson, Kenneth Roberts and Tim Childers to name a few. Several others were waiting to see how their work schedules work out and getting their cars prepared.
Spectator gates open at 5pm for the Tri-County event with UARA qualifying taking the track at 5:30. An on-track autograph session begins at 7:15 with racing beginning promptly at 8:00pm. For information on tickets for the Tri-County event, fans can visit www.uara-stars.com or call (828) 692-3833.
