Media Contact: Trenton Berry
trenton@racindirt.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DES MOINES, IOWA (November 20th, 2015) - Heading into the 28th straight year of racing, Lucas Oil MLRA series officials are pleased to announce the schedule of events for the coming year. Several traditional weekends remain, with a return to some familiar venues and a new track or two thrown in.
"It's always important to lay out a good schedule and to let all of our fans and competitors know as soon as possible," commented Series Director Dan Robinson. "Ernie Leftwich has worked diligently throughout the past year to put this together and has done a great job making all the dates fit. We'd like to thank all of the race tracks for having us at their venues too."
The season gets started at the Kosiski family's I-80 Speedway in Greenwood, Nebraska for the "Spring Meltdown." In all there will be five nights of Lucas Oil MLRA racing at I-80 Speedway this season. The following weekend is the first two of nine total nights of series action at its home track Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Missouri.
A familiar venue, Missouri State Fair Speedway in Sedalia, Missouri waits the following weekend. It has been a fixture of the series in past seasons, but this year marks the series first visit since a 2012 event was cut short.
May begins with a trio of events all lost to rain in 2014. Lee County Speedway in Donnellson, Iowa, Davenport Speedway in Davenport, Iowa and Scotland County Speedway in Memphis, Missouri. New ground will again be marked by the series the following weekend, with a May 14 stop at the Queensland Family's Deer Creek Speedway in Spring Valley, Minnesota.
Officials are currently still in negotiations on a stop the night before Deer Creek Speedway. This will mark the first time the Lucas Oil MLRA has ever raced in the Viking state.
The month concludes in grand fashion with the "Third Annual Cowboy Classic" honoring the longtime MLRA Series owner Allen "Cowboy" Chancellor and the "24th Annual Show Me 100" at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Missouri.
Firing off in the first weekend in June is a return trip to Iowa. Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa, Iowa, Lee County Speedway in Donnellson, Iowa and Randolph County Speedway in Moberly, Missouri make up the three stops. The Oskaloosa and Moberly visits were also lost to rain last year, so anticipation is higher than ever for those shows.
The "Alphabet Soup" race at I-80 Speedway and "Liberty 50" at Adams County Speedway wrap up the month.
July is always one of the tour's busiest months, and this year is no exception, with seven confirmed nights and possibly two more on tap. The Salina Highbanks Speedway has built their "Freedom Classic" around Super Late Model racing, and for the third year in a row the series is excited to head back to the Sooner State.
A rare Thursday evening tilt is on tap in Sedalia, Missouri on July 7. The "Diamond Nationals" returns the following weekend, and the "Silver Dollar Nationals" rounds out the month. It marks the biggest paying race on the series schedule with $40,000 to the winner.
Junction Motor Speedway returns for its traditional two-day "King of the Hill" special event. This year the event increases in purse with $3,000 and $5,000 on the line respectively. The final night of the 2016 Missouri State Fair will also find the series back in Sedalia, Missouri running alongside the Lucas Oil ASCS.
Labor Day weekend will be the same as last year, with a Friday stop at Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City, Kansas and the "Larry Phillips Memorial" the following evening at Lucas Oil Speedway. Those two dates are the only action scheduled for September.
Saturday, October 1, marks the fourth and final visit to the Missouri State Fair Speedway. The final weekend of the year is the following weekend at Lucas Oil Speedway. The "Third Annual Fall Nationals" winds down the season.
The series will sit idle for competitors to take in the Bad Boy 98 and Topless 100 at Batesville Motor Speedway in Batesville, Arkansas, The Dream and World 100 at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio and the Knoxville Late Model Nationals in Knoxville, Iowa.
Copies of the schedule will also be available at the Lucas Oil MLRA/Lucas Oil Speedway booth at the Heartland Auto Racing Show in Des Moines, Iowa on Friday-Saturday, Nov. 20-21. For more info about the show, please visit www.HeartlandAutoRacingShow.com.
For all of the latest news and information fans are encouraged to visit the series website at
www.MLRARacing.com.
