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| 2007 USAC Silver Crown Series Season Preview |
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FEBRUARY 11, 2007 - The second season of the revamped USAC Silver Crown Series presented by K&N Engineering will see new twists and turns on the schedule, in the driver’s seat, and from the team owner aspect. The new generation pavement Silver Crown car received considerable attention from parties across the country, including veterans of the series such as champion Bud Kaeding and the Team 6-R Racing team, which scored second in the team owner point standings in 2006 with series driver runner-up Brian Tyler. Each is expected to return in 2007 to fight for the title again. But adding more exposure to the team are those who are getting behind the series from a different perspective. Since the first race of 2006, Indy Racing League car owners PDM Racing, A.J. Foyt and Hemelgarn Racing have competed. Foyt and Hemelgarn are each expected to supplement their programs with a second car in 2007. PDM Racing helped driver Aaron Pierce to finish third in the point standings in 2006. In addition, Penske Racing, which has won 14 Indianapolis 500s, including the 2006 version, is expected to join the series full throttle with Western Speed Racing and USAC veteran Billy Wease behind the wheel. Wease, a Penske development driver, will be a rookie in the series after several seasons in the USAC National Midget Car Series. NASCAR Nextel Cup Series driver Carl Edwards owned a car and drove it at O’Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis last August, but a decision had not been made at press time who would drive the car for 2007. Other NASCAR teams were expected to purchase a car soon (at press time) for their driver development programs. Returning to the series is RW Motorsports, which fielded a car driven by three drivers last year. Among those three were series Rookie of the Year Mat Neely, expected to compete fulltime in 2007 in a new C&R Chassis. Teaming up with Neely is Jerry Coons Jr., who raced on and off with R.E. Technologies over the last few years. Neely and Coons will also compete on the dirt fulltime. The cars will be tuned at Benic Enterprises of Marion, Ind. Hoffman Auto Racing of Loveland, Ohio will provide sponsorship support to the Sam Pierce Racing team in 2007, which houses a car for Aaron Pierce, who won twice in 2006, both on NASCAR Nextel Cup Series weekends. Wayne Reutimann Jr., another first-time winner in 2006, will return in his team-owned car, as will car owner Ken Pierson and his driver, Tim Barber, who finished third on two occasions in 2006. Pierce and Reutimann are expected to compete on the dirt as well. Jay Drake, who drove for Jim Paternoster in the No. 41 pavement entry and Bill Biddle in the No. 52 on dirt, will make a decision on his racing career. On the dirt side, Tony Stewart Racing has hotshoes Levi Jones and Tracy Hines driving. Hines, competing for the first time with Stewart, won twice in 2006, both times on dirt-one mile tracks. Jones nearly won the other before finishing second after leading on the last lap. The Silver Crown Series season will begin and end in the same place in 2007, as 13 events comprise the calendar. The series begins this weekend in Phoenix, Ariz., the same city it normally begins the season, only this time the location shifts to the dirt track of Manzanita Speedway. Manzanita will become the first track other than Phoenix International Raceway – the season finale Nov. 8 during the NASCAR Nextel Cup weekend – to host the season opener since a 2000 event at Walt Disney World Speedway in Florida. Other than those changes, the schedule follows a format similar to the 2006 season. Dates with the Indy Racing League and Grand-Am at Homestead-Miami Speedway in March and the IRL at Richmond International Raceway in June remain, while four of the five annual dirt races – Indiana, Illinois and DuQuoin State Fairgrounds – return to their respective weekends. The exception is the Terre Haute (Ind.) Action Track, which returns to the first weekend of June, as it did in 2004 and 2005. The Silver Crown race at Iowa Speedway, which will be held in conjunction with the National Sprint and Midget Car Series, moves to the beginning of May, while the races run in conjunction with NASCAR weekends – at Chicagoland and Kansas Speedways and O'Reilly Raceway Park – will continue to follow suit with the NASCAR races. The Kansas and Phoenix races held with NASCAR occur during the Chase for the Nextel Cup, allowing additional exposure in front of national media. Other pavement races are expected to be announced soon. “We’re very excited about the 2007 Silver Crown Series schedule,” Helmling said. “We’ll continue to run several pavement races in conjunction with the Indy Racing League and NASCAR, and we’re obviously excited that two of those will be during the Chase for the Nextel Cup. The addition of the Manzanita opener shows how important the dirt continues to be in this series.” The mandatory use of a head-and-neck restraint was issued in 2006, and other safety issues will follow in 2007. The use of radial tires will be apparent at all pavement tracks, as in 2006 they were only run on the larger tracks. The 2007 season will also allow for more research and development for the USAC Silver Crown Series presented by K&N Engineering. Testing will continue to take place at new and potential tracks, including two-mile facilities. C&R Racing, Riley Technologies and DRC Chassis, which provided the championship-winning team its car, have all issued their support to provide cars in 2007. |
