Swindell retains Ratbag Games Cup lead

Swindell Retains Ratbag Games Cup Lead
By JD Kramer MARION, IN (September 26) -- Steve Kinser may "hypothetically" have the 2000 Pennzoil World of Outlaws Series championship in his grasp, but arch-rival Sammy Swindell is on his way to claiming the inaugural Ratbag Games Cup. Swindell charged through the field from his 14th starting position at I-80 Speedway during Saturday's Circuit City Shootout telecast on TNN to finish fourth among his fellow top-10 1999 drivers -- the only drivers eligible for the Ratbag Games Cup. Despite having a opening preliminary night, the CHANNELLOCK pilot was able to add seven points to his tally, finishing behind Danny Lasoski, Mark Kinser and Andy Hillenburg. The Ratbag Games Cup standings are based on finishing position of those 1999 top-10 drivers in only the TNN telecast events for "the greatest show on dirt," with the first-place finisher of these drivers receiving 10 points for their TNN Sports performance, nine points for second best, eight for third, etc. Danny Lasoski held off Mark Kinser for the I-80 victory, giving the Beef Packers hot-shoe 10 points for the event, while the Kinser/ Mopar team received nine. With only one televised event remaining (Las Vegas), Swindell has only a four-point advantage over Lasoski. Steve Kinser and Andy Hillenburg are tied for third, only five points behind. Steve may have the Pennzoil World of Outlaws Series title in his grasp, but the Ratbag Cup is yet to be claimed. Las Vegas should be exciting! Ratbag, the developer of the much-anticipated Dirt Track Racing: Sprint Cars, the official video game of the Pennzoil World of Outlaws Series, is one of Australia's most successful game producers. Dirt Track Racing: Sprint Cars, the first installment of World of Outlaws-licensed video games, will be available for CD-Rom for Personal Computers (PC) in October. Ratbag, founded as Emergent Software in 1993, is based in Adelaide, South Australia. Ratbag's first title -- Powerslide -- was released in 1998 and was a worldwide hit. From there, the company has grown to more than 30 employees and is now considered by many to be the one of the world's premier PC racing game developers. Ratbag's titles are driven by the company's proprietary difference engine. This was the first PC engine in the world to support unlimited textures and 60-frame per second high resolution graphics. Both Powerslide and Ratbag's most recent release, Dirt Track Racing, receive consistently high reviews, and both were awarded Racing Game of the Year by sections of the gaming media. Ratbag's present focus is spread between PC and PlayStation 2. For more information, please visit http://www.RatbagRacing.com or http://www.RatbagGames.com.

<pre> 2000 Ratbag Cup Point Standings Rank No. Driver Pts. 1. 1 Sammy Swindell 41 2. 83 Danny Lasoski 37 3. 11 Steve Kinser (tie) 2 Andy Hillenburg 36 5. 5M Mark Kinser 32 6. 20 Johnny Herrera 26 7. 15 Donny Schatz 25 8. 19 Stevie Smith 20 9. 11H Tim Shaffer 17 10. 104 Jeff Swindell 5