Williams Grove To Host USAC Silver Crown Race Friday June 10

Posted by: Steve Barrick – December 8, 2015

TRENTON, NJ – Continuing a late autumn trend that has seen aggressive scheduling by many race tracks, Williams Grove Speedway announced this past week that it will host a USAC Silver Crown race next year.

The date Williams Grove has chosen is Friday, June 10. The race will be a 100-lap feature, bringing back a popular USAC Silver Crown event that was run annually from 1947 through 1974, continuously and most recently in 1981.

Joining the USAC Silver Crown Series drivers for an all wingless night will be the American Racing Drivers Club (ARDC) Midgets.

The USAC Silver Crown race will be known as the Ted Horn – Bill Schindler Memorial, the title of previous Williams Grove USAC events. It honors the memories of open cockpit icons Ted Horn and Bill Schindler who raced across the nation while concentrating their efforts on the northeast. Horn died in 1948 and Schindler in 1952 in a AAA Championship Car and Big Car races respectively.

Although calls to Williams Grove Speedway’s office were not immediately returned, ARDC Midget President Wayne Lesher confirmed his organization’s signing of an agreement to race on June 10 with the USAC Silver Crown Cars at Williams Grove.

“We always look forward to racing with USAC and our teams love racing at the historic Williams Grove Speedway,”

Lesher said. “I’m happy it is finally a done deal. It has been in the works for at least the past six weeks.”

Lesher said that the ARDC contingent would race in a 20- lap feature. The Grove ARDC date is one of what Lesher expects will be a 24-24 race schedule. Though the official ARDC docket will not be released until after the first of the new year, Lesher offered some glimpses as to what the schedule might look like.

“Half of our races will be either at Linda’s or Susquehanna,” Lesher said.

Lesher further indicated that his second car, that had been run sparingly in 2015 and that was at one time going to be put up for sale, will be kept.

“Mark Smith will be driving it when his schedule allows it,” Lesher revealed.

While ARDC is set to race at Williams Grove on June 10 along with the USAC Silver Crown cars, the 410 Sprints, the usual Williams Grove Friday night attraction, will be in action an hour to the north, at Selinsgrove Speedway.

Selinsgrove will present a special “Friday Night Lights” racing program featuring the popular 410 Sprint Cars at 7:30p.m. Friday, June 10. The first Friday night 410 Sprint Car race in 10 years will be highlighted by a 25-lap main event.

TJ Stutts of Liverpool, Pa., the speedway’s defending Mach 1 Chassis 360 Sprint Car champion, was the last driver to win a Friday night 410 Sprint Car race at Selinsgrove on March 24, 2006. In fact, Stutts won back-to-back Friday night 410 Sprint Car events that year with a win the previous week on March 17 while driving Gary and Patti Beam’s No. 88.

The June 10 race will be the first of two special events at the historic Snyder County oval over the early June weekend.

Selinsgrove will also host the finale to the Appalachian Mountain Late Model Speedweek Series on Sunday, June 12. There will be no racing on Saturday, June 11.

Other 410 Sprint Car dates at Selinsgrove in 2016 will include the All Star Circuit of Champions Sunday, April 24; PA Speedweek Finale Sunday, July 3; and the Jim Nace Memorial National Open Saturday, Sept. 17.

Williams Grove’s 2016 schedule remains rock solid as far as the 410 Sprint class, with thirty three races scheduled, beginning with the season opener on March 18 which will also feature Super-Late Models.

A total of seven World Of Outlaws races are planned – May 20 and 21, July 22 and 23 and Sept. 29 and 30, culminating with the Grove National Open on Saturday, Oct. 1.

A 410 Sprint series of races, featuring handicap formatted events and named the Yellow Breeches 500, will consist of five races each paying $500 start. Dates are April 1, April 15, May 6, July 8 and August 26.

Special 410 races during the year include the April 22 Tommy Hinnershitz Memorial, the Jack Gunn Memorial on Aug. 19 featuring the All Star Sprint Cars, the Gary Beam Tribute Race on Sept. 2, the Billy Kimmel Memorial event of Sept. 4.

URC’s 360 Sprints will be showcased on five occasions and 358 Sprints are inked eleven times.

The season finale is set for Oct. 7 with a ‘Run What You Brung’ open competition format.