Dirt Oval Route 66 - Opening Day

Wednesday was the opening night for oval racing at the newly reconfigured Dirt Oval Route 66. This is an event I have been anticipating for years, bringing back oval dirt track racing to Route 66. When I say reconfigured, I mean the track was taken from a 1/2 mile oval to a 3/8 mile oval. The night's action involved the POWERi series with the National Midgets, WAR Sprints and the D II midgets. In addition, the UMP Late Model series were also running. I have to admit that I am not as familiar with this type of racing as I probably should be, however I did recognize a few faces, Kenny Wallace, David Stremme and Rico Abreu.

Being unfamiliar with this type of racing, I started wandering around the pits trying to pick up some tidbits and learn.

The format for the night's action began with hot laps, followed by qualifying. After qualifying, each series ran their heat races. The number of heat races per series was based upon the number of entries. They were two or three heats per series. After a track prep the four "A" Main Features were run. Here is action from the night.

In the end, it was Michael Pickens, from Australia, winning the National Midgets.

Next up it was the UMP Late Models, with Allen Weisser taking the checkers.

This was followed by the WAR Sprints. This was a competitive race with Landon Simon, from Troy, Oh., taking the win.

In final race of the evening, the D II Midgets, it was Andy Malpocker of St. Charles, Mo., taking the checker flag.

Having never photographed these types of cars on this track, it was interesting learning experience. I can't wait until the World of Outlaws show up later in the month of June. I want to congratulate all our winners and the Dirt Oval staff for doing a great job of promoting this event. It was gratifying to see the Oval being used for what is was originally designed to be.

To see all the photos from the event, please click here.

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