Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Mars celebrating season with racing trip to Vegas
By Kevin Kovac
DIRTcar Racing
Jimmy Mars has three $50,000 paydays in 2009. (thesportswire.net)
How does Jimmy Mars plan to cap one of the most spectacular seasons any dirt Late Model driver has ever enjoyed? With a racing vacation to Sin City, of course.
Mars, 37, of Menomonie, Wis., is headed to the Dirt Track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Nov. 20-21 for the inaugural Silver State DIRTcar Championships, a two-day meet featuring a 50-lap topless Late Model feature paying $5,000 to the winner.
UMP modifieds are also part of the weekend, contesting a 30-lap headliner with a $2,000 top prize alongside the Late Model feature on Nov. 21. Both divisions will compete in complete preliminary programs on Nov. 20 to kick off the festivities.
After last month becoming the first driver in dirt Late Model racing history to capture three $50,000-to-win events in a single season, Mars certainly brings the highest national profile to a weekend extravaganza that will see him take on the best competitors from DIRTcar Racing's Western Allstars, Northwest I-5 and Southwest Dirt Racing Association series.
“I'm excited to go out there,” Mars said of the gorgeous half-mile oval that's more than a 25-hour drive (1,700-plus miles) from his shop in the Badger State. “That track is so fun to race on, so when I saw the race was scheduled I figured, ‘Let's go out and enjoy ourselves a little.'
“We're looking at the trip as more of a celebration of our season than anything. Obviously we want to win, but this is more about having a little fun in Vegas and going racing at a real top-notch facility too.”
Mars and his wife actually had a getaway to a Mexican resort planned for the weekend before Thanksgiving, but they canceled those reservations and booked flights to Vegas following the announcement of the Silver State DIRTcar Championships. They are flying out to Vegas early with several friends to spend a couple days on the Strip before Mars meets his self-owned race team at the track next Friday.
Yes, Mars is bringing his own potent MB Customs No. 28 to LVMS for the first time. He entered three two-day events at the track over the 2007-2008 seasons — winning four of the six features he started — but all those runs came behind the wheel of a Wyoming-based machine that he showed up to drive with helmet in hand.
“I have a sponsor who will cover the fuel (cost) to travel out there and a couple of guys who help us here said they'd drive the hauler out,” Mars said. “I want to try our new car out there on that big track and see how it goes, and everything worked out for us to make the trip.”
Mars enters the Silver State DIRTcar Championships as arguably the hottest dirt Late Model driver in the country this season. He has 17 wins in 44 overall starts in 2009, including the unprecedented trio of $50,000 scores in the USA Nationals at Cedar Lake Speedway in New Richmond, Wis.; the North-South 100 at Florence Speedway in Union, Ky.; and the Dirt Track World Championship at Lawrenceburg (Ind.) Speedway.
His '09 resume also sports a $30,000-plus victory in the World of Outlaws Late Model Series Firecracker 100 at Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, Pa., and a $10,000 triumph in the UMP-sanctioned Prairie Dirt Classic at Fairbury (Ill.) American Legion Speedway.
What's more, Mars owns a sparkling performance record at the state-of-the-art, half-mile LVMS. He swept a double-feature card sanctioned by the Western Allstars in March 2007; finished first and second in twin Duel in the Desert events in November 2007; and captured a Western Allstars event in February 2008 (a 22nd-place finish in that weekend's other Western Allstars feature is the only blemish on his LVMS ledger).
“I love racing at Vegas,” said Mars, whose career year has come driving cars he designed with his brother Chris and superstar dirt Late Model driver Brian Birkhofer of Muscatine, Iowa. “And with everything else there is to do for fun out there, you can't ask for a better weekend.”
The Silver State DIRTcar Championships will mark the first time in the history of LVMS that Super Late Models will compete without fiberglass roofs, allowing fans a clear view of the drivers wrestling their 800-horsepower machines.
The top-four finishers in Nov. 20 features ($1,000-to-win for Late Models, $400-to-win for modifieds) will transfer directly to Nov. 21 dashes, which will determine starting spots in the weekend's main events.
