SILVER CROWN SLATED FOR A DOZEN RACES IN GOLDEN 50TH YEAR
By: Richie Murray - USAC Media
Speedway, Indiana (December 12, 2019)………The 50th season of USAC Silver Crown racing features the versatile talent in the series tackling both dirt and pavement throughout its 12 race docket during the 2020 campaign, which includes a first-time venue in Pennsylvania’s Selinsgrove Speedway dirt half-mile and a return visit to the ultra-fast paved 1.25-mile World Wide Technology Raceway in southern Illinois for the first time in four years.
The series gets underway May 3 on the pavement with the debut at Tennessee's Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway before moving onto the dirt for the 19th running of the Sumar Classic at the Terre Haute (Ind.) Action Track on May 21, the second of two consecutive nights of USAC racing at the western Indiana half-mile dirt oval following the May 20 Tony Hulman Classic for the AMSOIL National Sprint Cars.
One night following the Sumar, the series hits the pavement of Brownsburg, Indiana’s Lucas Oil Raceway for the Dave Steele Carb Night Classic on May 22. The event will mark just the seventh time the series has competed on back-to-back nights.
Williams Grove Speedway welcomes the series on June 12 to the famed half-mile whose history with the champ cars dates to the AAA era in 1946. The race falls on the Friday amidst the five-night Eastern Storm series for the AMSOIL National Sprint Cars through Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York. It’s back to the pavement exactly one week later on June 19 for the third running of the Dairyland 100 at Madison International Speedway in Oregon, Wisc.
World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison, Ill. returns to the series fold for the first time since 2016 when the track formerly known as Gateway Motorsports Park brings the series to the largest track on the schedule at 1.25 miles in length.
August 9 will mark the first occasion since 1983 that the Keystone state of Pennsylvania will serve as host to two Silver Crown events within the same season. That night arrives at the tail end of the previous five nights of USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget action August 4-8 during Eastern Midget Week. For Silver Crown, it will mark its debut at the half-mile dirt oval of Selinsgrove Speedway, which will also be USAC’s first trip to the track since Mitch Smith’s National Sprint Car victory there in 1971.
The Joe James/Pat O’Connor Memorial has been a staple of Salem (Ind.) Speedway’s event calendar for nearly seven decades. The venerable paved .555-mile high banks bring the big cars to the hills on August 15. The following weekend, on August 22, features another classic of the Silver Crown schedule, the Bettenhausen 100 at the Illinois State Fairgrounds dirt mile in Springfield.
The second of the two remaining dirt miles resides in southern Illinois on the Magic Mile of the Du Quoin State Fairgrounds where the Silver Crown series treks to on its traditional Labor Day weekend date on September 6 for the Ted Horn 100. The month of September winds down with one of the most highly anticipated events of the year, the 39th 4-Crown Nationals at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio.
Ohio’s Toledo Speedway will serve as the season finale for 2020, just as it was in both 2010 and 2011, on October 4 for the Rollie Beale Classic, honoring the 1973 USAC National Sprint Car champ, USAC official and National Sprint Car Hall of Fame inductee who hailed from the Glass City.
2020 USAC SILVER CROWN SCHEDULE
May 3: (P) Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway (Nashville, TN)
May 21: (D) Terre Haute Action Track (Terre Haute, IN)
May 22: (P) Lucas Oil Raceway (Brownsburg, IN)
Jun 12: (D) Williams Grove Speedway (Mechanicsburg, PA)
Jun 19: (P) Madison International Speedway (Oregon, WI)
Aug 2: (P#) World Wide Technology Raceway (Madison, IL)
Aug 9: (D) Selinsgrove Speedway (Selinsgrove, PA)
Aug 15: (P) Salem Speedway (Salem, IN)
Aug 22: (D#) Illinois State Fairgrounds (Springfield, IL)
Sep 6: (D) Du Quoin State Fairgrounds (Du Quoin, IL)
Sep 25-26: (D) Eldora Speedway (Rossburg, OH)
Oct 4: (P#) Toledo Speedway (Toledo, OH)
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(P) = Pavement Race
(D) = Dirt Race
# = Daytime Race