Silver Bullet Returns to Knoxville June 2-3, 2000

COORS LIGHT SILVER BULLET SERIES RETURNS TO KNOXVILLE RACEWAY JUNE 2-3, 2000

The Coors Light Silver Bullet Series, continuing its expansion and growth, returns to the Marion County Fairgrounds in Knoxville, Iowa for the first time in 20 years June 2-3, 2000 when the "Hawkeye Hundred" unfolds on the legendary ½-mile dirt oval. The race, one of 15 or 16 which will comprise the 2000 Coors Light Silver Bullet calendar, will be part of Knoxville's 11th Annual National Sprint Car Hall of Fame "induction weekend," with practice, qualifying and a qualifying race on Friday night, June 2 and the 100-lap feature race on Saturday night, June 3. Drivers will be competing for a share of the $50,300 total purse. In 1981, NSCHoF inductees Rich Vogler and Sheldon Kinser finished 1-2 in the inaugural USAC Silver Bullet race at Knoxville. Vogler drove the Johnny Vance Racing Team entry to the second of his four career Silver Bullet wins, leading all 100 laps. Trailing the top two were Smokey Snellbaker, 1979 Knoxville Nationals winner Ron Shuman and Ken Schrader. Joe Saldana, the 1970 Knoxville Nationals winner, holds the 1-lap track qualifying record of 21.359 seconds, which is sure to be challenged in early-June. The race is scheduled to be part of a busy weekend at the ½-mile oval. The eighth annual "Goodyear Masters Classic" 360-cubic-inch Sprint car race for drivers age-50-plus is also on tap Friday, while Saturday's 100-lap Silver Bullet feature will be preceded by that afternoon's NSCHoF induction banquet and a full program of 410-c.i. winged sprint car racing. Two drivers who competed in the 1981 Knoxville Silver Bullet contest could be starters in the June 3 event. They are Johnny Parsons, who finished sixth, and Jack Hewitt, who completed only 12 laps before a ring and pinion problem forced him out. Hewitt and Parsons rank 1-2 in terms of career series starts, Hewitt with 145 and Parsons 127 (tied with George Snider). Hewitt ranks second in races led with 32 (Chuck Gurney has 33) and third in total laps led.

--USAC--