Today: Attica Raceway Park, Attica
Saturday: Eldora Speedway, Rossburg
Sunday: Waynesfield Raceway Park, Waynesfield
Monday: Wayne County Speedway, Orrville
Tuesday: Sharon Speedway, Hartford
Wednesday: Atomic Speedway, Chillicothe
Thursday: Fremont Speedway, Fremont
June 26: Limaland Motorsports Park, Lima
June 27: Fremont Speedway, Fremont
Nine days. Nine races. More than 800 miles in travel.
Welcome to Ohio Sprint Speedweek.
The 410-winged sprint car extravaganza — run under the UNOH All Star Circuit of Champions banner — kicks off tonight at Attica Raceway Park, then continues its tour through Ohio visiting eight different tracks. And like the ASCoC drivers have doing all season, they will again be in pursuit of defending Speedweek champion Dale Blaney.
The Fowler, Ohio, driver holds an 81-point lead over Cody Darrah of Red Lion, Pa. Findlay’s Chad Kemenah trails by 158 points in third. All races count in the ASCoC standings.
“An 81-point lead, you can lose that in two nights,” Blaney said. “I feel confident we can run good at every race. Every track has their own characteristics and you just have to conquer them. That’s what’s fun about the whole week. You never know what you’re going to get at each race track.”
Blaney’s three favorite tracks kick off the 33rd annual Speedweek. After Attica, the event visits Eldora Speedway on Saturday and Waynesfield Raceway Park on Sunday.
Eldora’s appeal is its history, Blaney said. As for Waynesfield: “It’s a cool little place. It’s probably one of the racey-ist places we’re going to during the week. It’s a fun place to go.”
Along with the ASCoC regulars, standouts from other series are also expected to contend. USAC sprint car star and two-time Indianapolis 500 qualifier Bryan Clauson and NASCAR veteran Dave Blaney are likely to see seat time during Speedweek.
Who is Blaney keeping an eye on?
“About 40 other guys,” he said, laughing. “Hopefully I’m one of the guys people are looking at and saying, ‘Well I gotta deal with Blaney this week.’ … It’s a momentum week for sure. If you get off to a good start it seems like it can go well. Sometimes the guy who won the first race of the week has absolutely stunk from there on out. You just never know.
“Sometimes it’s grueling, but about 90 percent of the time it’s fun because you’re racing. But it can be tough. Sometimes the weather can play a factor. Sometimes you get out of a track later when you’ve got a little bit of traveling to do. If you can stay away from problems … not having to do serious maintenance on the car … that’s a good week. I’ve gone through weeks where I didn’t have a problem and I’ve gone through weeks where you catch a problem every other night.”
The ASCoC started in 1970 and passed hands several times until Eldora owner Tony Stewart purchased the series in January.
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