_________________________________________________________
Championship
Duel Motors into Hoosier State for Twin 50s at Salem Speedway
Statesville,
North Carolina (July 20, 2021) – Following the most recent
Super Cup Stock Car Series event at Jennerstown Speedway, somewhat
of a rivalry has emerged among competitors who have each won in the
past at the next facility on the calendar.
Saturday, July 24th will mark the return to the high-banks of
Salem Speedway.
During the only
previous visit to the fast 0.555-mile oval, current point leader Ben
Ebeling swept the night. The
Hickory, North Carolina driver, likely to no one’s surprise based
on those results, enjoys going to this particular racetrack.
“It’s a lot of
fun to go up there,” Ebeling commented following a win and a
second place finish last time out in Pennsylvania less than two
weeks ago. “As far as
our chances go, I went (in 2019) not knowing anything and we had the
chance to do what we did. Hopefully
we can repeat on that. We’ve
got a pretty good baseline setup, but I know there are going to be
some really tough cars. We’ll
go with both barrels loaded and see what we can do.”
One
of those to contend with will be Bob Schacht, who is certainly set
on closing a 75-point gap after a tough ending to the most recent
weekend. The
Mooresville, North Carolina veteran racer has set two new track
records as part of his various 2021 accomplishments and won more
than 30 years ago at Salem, a track in which Ebeling currently holds
the series qualifying record, in an arduous 500-lap ARCA Racing
Series event.
“At one time we
went down two or three laps because we had a flat tire and we just
kept working our way back around, but up there in (turns) three and
four I put the rear bumper against the wall and just stood on the
gas pedal and let the bumper ride around the wall,” Schacht
recounted about that triumphant day during a previous interview.
“I had ground off about six inches of the bumper by the
time the race was over.”
Ebeling
and Schacht will not be the only previous winners on-hand this
weekend. Will Kimmel,
most recently a track champion in 2019 in the Great American Stocks
(which will also be running a 50-lap feature on Saturday along with
Legends and Crown Vics in action), intends to make his first SCSCS
start in 2021. The
Sellersburg, Indiana family team synonymous with success in the
region looks to rebound from a practice mishap during the first
visit for the series two years back that sidelined them for the
remainder of the evening right after setting the fastest lap time.
Multiple drivers
that contended the first time will return for the first of two
visits to Southern Indiana for 2021.
Walnutport, Pennsylvania’s Kevin Kromer registered a pair
of consistent top five runs on his way to the 2019 championship and
searches for his first victory of 2021.
Lauren Butler, from West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, will be on
the hunt to recover from overheating issues last time out at
Jennerstown and capture another solid showing.
Joe Cooksey makes his 2021 debut at a track in which the
Centralia, Illinois driver has numerous laps.
Uniontown, Pennsylvania’s Bill Ashton also has a decent
amount of experience and wants to improve upon a best sixth place
finish from 2019’s twin races.
There will
additionally be some Salem first-timers in the field.
Current SCSCS top rookie Jason Kitzmiller seeks another
impressive performance at a facility he sees for an initial
occasion. The Maysville,
West Virginia racer has finished in the top five in his debut at
multiple tracks elsewhere. Kitzmiller’s
CR7 Motorsports teammate Doug George has decades of knowledge both
as a crew chief and behind the wheel, but the driver originally from
Atwater, California and a former NASCAR West
Series and
Southwest Tour champion has not taken a green flag at Salem before. Another
rookie Dusty Silvers, from Elizabethton, Tennessee, will tackle the
33-degree banked corners after mechanical issues cut his series
debut short a couple weeks back.
Even more will be
expected for the mid-summer evening of excitement, which will
include a backpack giveaway organized by Indiana Racing for Autism
Awareness, a classic car cruise-in, burnout contest, and dollar
beers. Gates open on
race day at 2:00 p.m. with racing starting at 5:00 p.m.
Live streaming of
the entire night will be produced by Dirt2Media, a member of the
Speed Sport TV Network, and will be available for purchase at SalemSpeedway.tv.
There will be an
optional practice on Friday evening that is free of charge and will
consist of one car on the track at a time.
More information
can be found on the Super Cup Stock Car Series official web site supercupstockcarseries.com
with interactive updates throughout race day available on Facebook
(search Super Cup Stock Car Series), Twitter (@SCSCSRacing), and
Instagram (SCSCS_Racing).
_________________________________________________________
