Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic Qualifier for 2010 World Challenge!
Saturday, August 22, 2009
January 23-24, 2010, Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic to be a Qualifier for
Americans for the 2010 Knoxville World Challenge During 50th Nationals
KNOXVILLE, IOWA (August 21, 2009) - Just days after
sprint car fans witnessed possibly the most exciting World Challenge race in
history, the host Knoxville Raceway is pleased to announce that the Grand
Annual Sprintcar Classic at Premier Speedway's Sungold Stadium in
Warrnambool, Victoria, Australia, will once again serve as a qualifying site
for Americans for the 2010 World Challenge race during the 50th annual
Knoxville Nationals. Said Knoxville director of racing Ralph Capitani, "If
American sprint car drivers want to be eligible for the Friday, August 14,
2010, World Challenge at Knoxville, they need to compete in either the
$30,000-to-win January 23-24 Classic at Warrnambool, or in the
soon-to-be-announced qualifier in New Zealand."
This year's 20-lap $10,000-to-win Digital Delivery Networks
World Challenge featured a record 20 starters from Australia, Canada and the
United States, and it was won by Aussie Lynton Jeffrey over hard-charging
American Shane Stewart and defending champion and Aussie Kerry Madsen,
respectively. Said 'Cappy' this week, "We are proud to be recognized as the
'Sprint Car Capital of the World' and we look forward to the seventeenth
edition of the World Challenge during our fiftieth Knoxville Nationals. The
top American racers now realize that if they want to get some valuable laps
in on the half-mile on the eve of the $150,000-to-win Knoxville Nationals,
they need to race in the World Challenge... and to do that they need to
compete in one of the race's qualifiers Down Under."
International sprint car drivers from Australia, Canada and
New Zealand will continue to be eligible for the Knoxville World Challenge
simply by competing in the Knoxville Nationals. The starting line-up for
the 2010 World Challenge will remain a sixteen-car inversion based upon a
driver's qualifying night points. World of Outlaws (WoO) star Joey Saldana,
who qualified in New Zealand, started sixteenth in this year's 20-car field.
For more information on the Knoxville Raceway and its World Challenge, fans
are urged to visit www.knoxvilleraceway.com.
(Pictured): Brooke Tatnell won the 2009 Grand Annual Classic (Daniel Beard Photo)
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