$5,000 to win at Wartburg Speedway April 26th

Wartburg, TN (4-19-08) The Advance Auto Parts Thunder Series returns to the site where it all began back on March 28th, 2005 at Wartburg Speedway in Wartburg, Tennessee. Only this time a lot has changed for both the series and the race track.

The series, racing under the banner of Tennessee Thunder DirtCar Series at the time, has since brought in a Major Title sponsor with the signing of Advance Auto Parts back in the spring of 2006 and a host of other major associate sponsorships which have enabled the series to increase it’s season-ending points fund from a humble $15,000 in cash awards and approximately $5,000 in contingency awards in 2005 to nearly $30,000 in cash and $20,000 in contingency awards offered in 2008.

The track has made a full circle since 2005, having gone through a few different promoters, nearly a full season of sitting idle, survived vandals efforts to destroy the tracks concession - scoring and media tower, to finally returning to the original owners of Scott Greene and Jot Raymond in 2007. The facilities has since enjoyed several new improvements, mainly to it’s concessions stands featuring two new state of the art buildings and equipment, improvements to the track surface and retaining walls and an overall general clean-up of the grounds. The officiating crew was brought over from Atomic Speedway following its closure at the end of 2006. The track has added Raceivers for 2008 (a one-way radio ear piece) that are required by the drivers which gives the race director in the tower direct communication to the drivers to let them know of caution flags and to help speed up the process of field re-alignment following cautions.

Anthony White of Clinton, TN won that first series race among thirty-one entries from five states back in 2005 and has since garnered three additional series wins and countless weekly and other special events at what he calls his home track in addition to his three straight series titles. There have been two other series winners at “The Burg” including Stacy Boles (May ’05) and Tommy Kerr (August ’06) making Saturday night April 26th the seventh over-all series visit to the 3/8 mile speed plant.

Drivers expected for the $5,000 to win event include three-time Thunder Series Champion Anthony White of Clinton, along with 2008 series contenders Rick Rogers of Knoxville, Tommy Kerr of Maryville, Billy Ogle Jr. of Knoxville, David Payne of Murphy, NC, Dan Tipton of Kingston, Richard Smith of Science Hill, KY, Mike Weeks of Friendsville, Stacy Boles of Claxton, Jeff Wolfenbarger of Clinton, Jeff Maupin of Greenville, Mark Douglas of Knoxville, April Farmer of Livingston, and Jeff Neubert of Knoxville along with a host of local and regional drivers as well.

While the track operates weekly on Friday nights this $5,000 to win event, dubbed “Saturday Night Super Late Model Special” will be held on Saturday night April 26th and will offer a $21,000 total purse for Super Late Models and a full racing program including Sportsman, Pure Street, Mini Stock and Front Wheel Drive divisions.

Pit gates will open at 3pm, Grandstands and Tier parking at 5pm and hot laps will go off around 7pm. Adult General Admission is set at $20, Kids age 7 to 12 is $10, Adult Tier Parking is $25, Kids age 7-12 is $15. Pit passes will be $35.

Wartburg Speedway is located at 205 Heidel Road in Wartburg, Tennessee. The track phone is (423) 346-6750 and the track website is located at www.WartburgSpeedway.net.