WKA: Pit Board 2009-06-23

WKA's Pit Board - 06.23.2009

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Big Money And Prizes Up For Grabs This Weekend At Dexter Dirt Grand Nationals

06.23.2009 -- The Jimmy Rivers Performance Works Grand Nationals for the WKA Briggs & Stratton Speedway Dirt Series is slated to go off this weekend at Dexter Raceway in Georgia. The event marks the most prestigious race on the 2009 Speedway Dirt tour, and teams attending will be vying for some terrific prizes.

Of course, with the event being a Grand National, the celebrated Eagle trophies will be up for grabs for the winners of the 23 national classes that will be run over Saturday and Sunday.

While the Grand National Eagles provide an outstanding commemorative for race winners, they won't be the only awards on the line this weekend at Dexter's one-fifth-mile clay oval. Briggs & Stratton, Firestone, Shadow Karts and Ultramax Racing Chassis have come together with WKA to offer a $1,700-to-win Briggs Animal Heavy Money Race on Saturday night. Payout will also include the second- through fourth-place finishers.

In addition to the generous payout, Firestone is offering a $500 bonus for the best finishing driver on Firestone tires, while TS Racing and Vega Tires are offering a $500 bonus of their own if the winner of the Money Race is on Vega rubber. This means some racers will have the opportunity to pocket a cool $2,200 on Saturday night.

To put this into perspective, many headlining racecar divisions at speedways and touring series barely offer half that much to win a night's feature event.

But Saturday night's big Money Race is just the beginning. Sunday will feature the "Sunday 7" Money Classes for the Briggs Sportsman 1 Heavy, Sportsman 2 Heavy, Junior Heavy, Medium, Super Heavy, Jr Champ Heavy and Champ Heavy classes. In addition to the coveted Eagle and the other race awards, the top-three finishers in each of the aforementioned classes will receive payout. The feature winner will net $300, while second and third will receive $150 and $75 for their efforts.

And before any of the racing action begins, Saturday morning's drivers meeting will make a few racers' weekends before they even hit the track. This is because four power washers and one generator, courtesy of Briggs & Stratton, will be given away to five lucky racers. Winners at the Speedway Dirt opener at Margarettsville, N.C., were Dee Paschal, Tyler Gauthier, Jacob Owens, Alex Reece and Bradley Hauser.

TS Racing gift certificates will also be awarded to any feature winner running Vega Tires.

With these awards and payouts, the competition at Dexter is sure to be fierce and the racing top notch. Parking opens Friday at noon with pre-entry pickup and pre-tech open from 4 to 6 p.m. Gates and registration open at 7 a.m. Saturday with practice beginning at 9 a.m. Qualifying is scheduled to go off at 1:15 p.m. Saturday; races to follow.

For more information on the Jimmy Rivers Performance Works Grand Nationals, visit www.worldkarting.com/pg/series/ds/ds-main.html.

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RaceFanRadio And SpeedcastTV Return For Live Webcast Of CKI Round 2 At N.J.

06.23.2009 (Indianapolis) -- President and CEO Charlie Brown confirmed that the Indianapolis-based RaceFanRadio will partner with SpeedcastTV.com for a live video webcast of the second Championship Karting International (CKI) event at New Jersey Motorsports Park this weekend.

"With over 10,000 live and on-demand tune-ins from our first event, we want to continue to elevate the platform that Championship Karting International is bringing to the sport of karting," says Kevin Williams, CKI Competition and Operations Director.

The second webcast in a series of multiple broadcasts will continue to incorporate "network TV-type production" with enhanced graphics, a live timing and scoring crawler and pre-produced video packages amongst numerous other broadcast elements. The video production company collaborating on the project is Michigan-based SpeedcastTV.com, a veteran of numerous road racing and karting projects over the last three years.

SpeedcastTV President Clark Cambern said, "SpeedcastTV is on the cutting-edge of online racing video, and I'm very excited to be partnering with a karting series and radio team that continues to push the envelope. Karting offers some of the best racing around and we're going to keep giving the sport the kind of coverage it really deserves."

A complete broadcast schedule will be made available on RaceFanRadio.com and SpeedcastTV.com as fans can tune in for the live radio call of Friday's qualifying and Saturday's three rounds of heats. A 60-minute trackside video program, "Bench Racing Live" will air at 6 p.m. EST Saturday evening complete with the weekend's activities and comments from those making the headlines.

Sunday's live video cast will air all Pre-Final and Finals plus a post-race "F1 style debrief" of all classes represented in this new "top-shelf" karting series which features some of the best sprint racers in North America and teams entered from the United Kingdom as well.

Sponsor recognition on this broadcast will be a high priority with a limited number of extremely lucrative advertising packages now available. Please contact Ray Verhelst at 702.750.7757 or RayVerhelst@RaceFanRadio.com

For full details, log on to www.RaceFanRadio.com or www.SpeedcastTV.com.

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BBC Worldwide Casting For New Television Karting Series

06.22.2009 -- BBC Worldwide and the World Karting Association are casting for a 10-part documentary series set in the world of teen karting. We are looking for dedicated racing families with racing children between the ages of 8 to 15. If racing is a family passion and you've arranged your life around it, we'd like to speak with you about possibly being involved in our series.

We're planning on being at Elkhart Lake, Wis., for the Zoom Zoom Nationals at Road America on July 10 and 11 to interview perspective families and shoot some "day in the life" type footage on and off the track.

Once a cast is in place, the series will be shot over several months in late 2009, early 2010 and follow the families on the road as they compete. Casting is open to all families regardless of income, skill level and depth of experience. Perspective families must travel regularly for competitions and racing must be a true family priority. Families must be available to be interviewed on July 10 and 11 at Road America.

BBC Worldwide is a division of the BBC. We produce Dancing With the Stars, The Great American Road Trip, What Not To Wear, Moving Up and other hit shows in the U.S. and abroad.

For more information on the series, families can contact BBC Executive Producer Joe Livecchi at 212-974-9050 or fax us at 212-974-9323. You can also contact WKA Executive Director Van Gilder at 229-339-4414 or fax him at 704-455-1609.

We look forward to seeing you on the track!

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Upcoming Nationals:

Briggs & Stratton Speedway Dirt Series
Jimmy Rivers Performance Works Nationals
June 26-28, 2009
Dexter Raceway, Dexter, GA -- GN

Bully Clutches Gold Cup Series
Spallco R.V. Sales Nationals
July 3-5, 2009
G and J Kartway, Camden, OH

Upcoming Divisionals:

Maryland Speedway Pavement
Saturday, June 27 and Sunday, June 28
Sandy Hook Speedway in Street, Md.

Carolina Asphalt Summer Series
Saturday, June 27
OCR Action Sports Park in Rougemont, N.C.

Northeast Sprint Series (WKANESS)
Friday, June 26 and Saturday, June 27
Oswego Speedway in Oswego, N.Y.

Midwest Sprint Series
Saturday, June 27 and Sunday, June 28
Briggs & Stratton Motorplex at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis.

-credit: wka