World of Outlaws Case Late Model Series
Weather delaying debut of first-time WoO ovals
By Kevin Kovac
World of Outlaws Late Model SeriesThis weekend’s entire World of Outlaws Late Model Series tripleheader scheduled for I-30 Speedway in Little Rock, Ark., Whynot Motorsports Park in Meridian, Miss., and Duck River Raceway Park in Wheel, Tenn. has been postponed by uncertain weather forecasts throughout the Mid-South, track and series officials announced Wednesday.
With all three tracks facing weather conditions that could either dull or completely doom the racing programs, the speedway operators collaborated with series director Tim Christman and unanimously agreed that the best action for all parties involved was to preemptively reschedule the events to dates later in the spring.
Duck River’s inaugural WoO show has been rescheduled for Sunday, April 28, as the anchor leg of a three-race weekend in the Volunteer State. The other tracks will remain back-to-back on the schedule, with I-30 Speedway running its first-ever World of Outlaws event on Friday, May 10, and Whynot hosting the national tour for the first time on Saturday, May 11.
“It’s always difficult to make the decision to call off a race weekend early in the week because of possible bad weather,” Christman said. “But in this case, after talking with the three track promoters — Tracey Clay at I-30, Rodney Wing at Whynot and Bob Harris at Duck River — we all came to the conclusion that rescheduling the events would be in the best interests of the fans, the race teams and the promoters.
“Considering that I-30, Whynot and Duck River are three of the most highly anticipated races on the 2013 World of Outlaws Late Model Series season, we want the best conditions possible for the fans and racers to come out to the tracks and enjoy themselves. Mother Nature apparently doesn’t want to let that happen this weekend with wet and unseasonably cool weather forecast for I-30 and Duck River and a stormy pattern developing at Whynot, so hopefully by rescheduling the events we’ll get the type of weather that’s a hit with everyone.”
The postponement of the weekend was well received by the WoO LMS regulars. With the World of Outlaws travelers looking at round-trip hauls to this weekend’s tripleheader ranging in length from about 1,000 miles to over 3,000 miles, they were relieved to avoid the prospect of having races canceled after they burned hundreds of gallons of diesel fuel in their haulers to get to the tracks.
With the rescheduled events, the WoO will spend four consecutive spring weekends in states across the Southeast. The stretch of competition includes Fayetteville (N.C.) Motor Speedway on April 19 and 311 Motor Speedway in Pine Hall, N.C., on April 20; Smoky Mountain Speedway in Maryville, Tenn., on April 26, Tazewell (Tenn.) Speedway on April 27 and Duck River Raceway Park on April 28; Lavonia (Ga.) Speedway on May 3 and Swainsboro (Ga.) Raceway on May 4; and I-30 Speedway on May 10 and Whynot Motorsports Park on May 11.
The next scheduled WoO event is the $20,000-to-win Illini 100 on April 5-6 at Farmer City (Ill.) Raceway.
