USCSSo.Thunderlogowsm.jpgMooresville, NC -The United Sprint Car Series (www.uscsracing.com ) honored drivers and teams from six states and Australia during its 4th Annual O'Reilly Auto Parts United Sprint Car Series Champions Awards Banquet held for USCS Southern Thunder regional series Saturday night at Mooresville, North Carolina. A gathering of approximately fifty people honored ten sprint car drivers including Champion Terry Gray from Bartlett, Tennessee. Gray also won the Southern Thunder Tour title.
Along with Gray who received his awards at the USCS Mid-South Thunder and USCS National Championship banquets on January 10th in Memphis, Tennessee the top ten drivers and teams in the final standings from the USCS Southern Thunder region were recognized.
Veteran Cherryville, North Carolina sprint car hot-shoe Johnny Bridges charged to four Southern Thunder feature wins in thirteen events. Bridges claimed the most wins on the season in the regional series besting the three captured by the series Champion, Gray. The four wins and a number of top five finishes powered Bridges to a runner-up spot in the standings in the USCS Southern Thunder regional series.USCSBridgesST2nd2008.jpg
The USCS Southern Thunder regional sprint car series races on both dirt and asphalt surfaces. Two of Bridges 2008 USCS feature wins came on paved surfaces at Dillon Motor Speedway on April 19th and at Greenville-Pickens Speedway on August 28th. Utilizing the same car, he won twice in the series on dirt surfaces at Harris speedway on May 17th and again at Carolina Speedway on June 27th.
Second generation sprint car driver, Matt Linder from Hoschton, Georgia ranked third in the Southern Thunder point final standings. Linder was quite possibly the most improved driver in the standings with a number of top five finishes including a career-first USCS feature win at Travelers Rest Speedway on June 28th. Linder was also honored for his seventh place finish in the O’Reilly USCS National point standings.
USCSMcLainsROYST2008.jpgTalented Rookie driver Jake McLain from Indian Trail, North Carolina used a scorecard that included all top-ten feature race results plus he finished 100% of the main events to finish in fourth place behind the three veterans in the final standings. Another United Sprint Car Series veteran sprint car driver, David Thorman from Greenville, South Carolina completed a decade of competition with the series by finishing fifth in the Southern Thunder regional Championship point standings.
Noted Florida open-wheel racer, Wayne Reutimann, Jr, from Zephyrhills, Florida lead the next group in the standings and finished sixth. Ruetimann was followed by Brad Wickham from Forest City, North Carolina in seventh place. Clint Weiss from Fort Knox, Kentucky who finished in the top ten in the national standings as well collected the eighth place awards in the Southern Thunder standings.
Talented Australian young gun Steven Lines visited long enough during the Summer odf 2008 to win twice in USCS competition at Travelers Rest Speedway on June 28th and again at Crossville Raceway USA on July 18th. He also collected enough points in noted Cherryville, North Carolina car owner’s Jeff McCall’s #23 J&J Auto Racing car to placed ninth in the final Southern Thunder point standings.
Tom Winegardner, Jr. from Pierson, Florida collected a career-first United Sprint Car Series feature win at Sugar Creek Raceway in Blue Ridge, Georgia on May 1st. Winegardner then earned enough points totaled in finishes during a limited schedule that placed him in the tenth position in the final USCS Southern Thunder regional point standings.
Jake McLain garnered the coveted 2008 O’Reilly USCS Southern Thunder Rookie of the Year award after finishing fourth in the regional series final point standings. Jason Day who works with Johnny Bridges on the #07 car driven by Johnny Bridges garnered the 2008 O’Reilly USCS Southern Thunder Crew Chief of the Year honors for his work.USCSDayCCOYST20081.24.09.jpg
The United Sprint Car Series announced that Germantown, Tennessee based national automotive supplier Parts Plus www.partsplus.com will be the new series title sponsor of the United Sprint Car Series for the 2009 season. The Parts Plus United Sprint Car Series Southern Thunder regional series schedule consisting of twenty-two nights of racing was released at the banquet.
The Parts Plus United Sprint Car Series previously released a fifty plus race schedule of National events. The USCS also previously announced a 30 night Parts Plus Mid-South Thunder regional schedule.
The United Sprint Car Series will also contest a 10 race USCS Asphalt Thunder Tour all paved track series in the Southeastern region. Six of those races are already confirmed as part of the Parts Plus USCS Southern Thunder Tour.
For more information on the Parts Plus United Sprint Car Series please visit www.uscsracing.com or call the USCS office at 770-460-7223.
O'Reilly USCS Southern Thunder FINAL 2008 STANDINGS (top 25 drivers)
1 10 Terry Gray 2238
2 07 Johnny Bridges 1738
3 1x Matt Linder 1389
4 67 Jake McLain ® 1287
5 5 David Thorman 1241
6 00j Wayne Reutimann, Jr. 1062
7 6 Brad Wickham 905
8 0x Clint Weiss 901
9 23 Steven Lines 799
10 11T Tom Winegardner, Jr. 759
11 0 Danny Martin, Jr. 701
12 2d Doug Day 674
13 23 Lance Moss 671
14 63 Josh Weller 668
15 26s Jon Stinson ® 641
16 83 Bob Auld 526
17 00t Tom Selhorst ® 525
18 67 Brian Thomas 510
19 24x Nick Bashford 484
20 9Jr Derek Hagar 452
21 28 Coby Adams 442
22 2 Scott Young 411
23 18 Shane Butler 406
24 35 Ron Blair 405
25 14 Mike Partin 404