Knoxville ToC adds ESS to entry list

Empire Super Sprints to Brodix Tournament of Champions.

KNOXVILLE, IOWA (January 21, 2003) - Empire Super Sprints (ESS), the leader in sanctioning quality 360-cubic-inch sprint car racing in New York and the surrounding states and provinces, has officially become the fifteenth and final affiliate for the August 9-10 Brodix Tournament of Champions invitational at the Knoxville Raceway. According to Knoxville director of racing Ralph Capitani, "We truly appreciate Dick Carbery and the ESS board of directors making an effort to place the ToC on their schedule this year, as we realize that their teams need to be at Lin Hough's Black Rock Speedway on that Friday night, August 8, during the Watkins Glen NASCAR Winston Cup weekend."

The Empire Super Sprints organization has participated in every one of the previous four Tournament of Champions events, as it was a founding partner with the Knoxville Raceway Hard Chargers and the United Racing Club (URC) in the inaugural show on the Marion County Fairgrounds in 1997. Mike Woodring, the eight-time ESS champion, finished fourth that year. In 1998, at Eldora Speedway, Mike advanced a record 21 positions to finish eighth, while friendly ESS rival Lance Yonge finished ninth.

In '99, Woodring copped fourth at the Limaland Motorsports Park, whereas hard-charging Bill Coffey finished sixth and Lance Yonge seventh, respectively. Last season, when the Brodix Tournament of Champions moved back to Knoxville, Ryan Coniam set a brand-new track record in winning his heat race and the young Canadian finished the best of the ESS gang in twelfth place in the feature. However, Lance Yonge also made the ESS family proud that day by advancing twelve positions in the 30-car field. Yonge drives for six-time ESS champion and past Knoxville Nationals competitor Mal Lane.

The following fifteen sanctioning affiliates have agreed to participate in the fifth-ever Brodix ToC: American Outlaw Action Series (AOAS), American Sprint Car Series (ASCS), ASCS Gulf South Regional Series (ASCS-Gulf South), ASCS Rocky Mountain Regional Series (ASCS-Rocky Mountain), ASCS Sooner Regional Series (ASCS-Sooner), Eagle Sprint Touring Series (ESTS), Empire Super Sprints (ESS), Knoxville Hard Chargers (KNOX), Montana Sprint Tour (MST), Northern Sprint Tour (NST), Sprint Invaders (SI), Sprints On Dirt (SOD), United Racing Club (URC), WISSOTA Promoters Association (WISSOTA), and Winged Outlaw Warriors (WOW).

Said tournament director Tom Schmeh, "We're expecting 72 of the best '360' racers in the country to be invited to this year's Brodix Tournament of Champions, which will again be run under one common set of technical rules utilizing the ASCS Brodix spec head. Each participating team will need to run 60% of its sanction's races by the end of July in order to be eligible to compete in the $4,000-to-win, pre-Knoxville-Nationals event. I am hopeful that a few of the top ESS racers will make the tow from Dundee, New York, to Knoxville, Iowa, for the big show this year, as it just wouldn't seem right to host a national '360' tournament without them!"

For more information on the August 9-10 Brodix Tournament of Champions, fans are urged to visit the following web-sites: www.knoxvilleraceway.com, www.empiresupersprints.com, or www.aoasprints.com. The Casey's Night Before the Tournament, Aug. 9, and the Brodix Tournament of Champions, Aug. 10, will once again be part of the Southern Iowa SprintWeek championship, crowning "Mr. Sprint Car" after eight consecutive nights of sprint car racing between the Oskaloosa and Knoxville dirt tracks.

-sprintcarof-