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ISCARS Makes First Trip to South Carolina

Topics: Florence Motor Speedway

ISCARS Makes First Trip to South Carolina

Tony Stevens/ISCARS PR
August 29, 2006

ORMOND BEACH, FL (August 29, 2006) –ISCARS DASH Touring returns to the Florence Motor Speedway in Timmonsville, SC on Saturday, September 2nd as part of a two day racing extravaganza.. The series last visited the speedway in 1997.

Mike Swaim, Jr., won at Florence Motor Speedway on his way to becoming the 1997 ISCARS Dash Series Champion,. It was the fourth win during his “Miracle Month of May.” Since then, the .400 mile track has seen a new resurfacing that even drivers who were there in 1997 probably won’t recognize. The result? It’s anybody’s race on Saturday night.

“Even though it's only about seventy miles from the house, I've run there maybe two or three times. It's been a long time since the series has visited there,” said Jake Hobgood, who was one of the drivers that competed in the 1997 event and drives the No. 64 Cedar Creek Collision Pontiac in the series this season. “I know the last time we were there it was a very poor surface as far as grip with a lot of rocks sticking up. It's got new pavement from about two years ago and it ought to have decent grip and be a pretty good race.”

Points leader Eric Wilson has won nearly everything in sight recently, missing a trip to victory lane only once in the first half of 2006. The newly constructed Shenandoah Speedway played havoc with Wilson and his team as they were unable to hit the setup for the third event of the year. To add insult to injury, he spun coming to the checkered flag and isn’t as excited about the new pavement at Florence as is Hobgood.

“This isn’t a big enough point lead to be happy about by no means. One mistake by us and we could lose that point lead rather quickly,” said the driver of the No. 4 John Boy & Billy Pontiac Sunfire. “I haven’t been to Florence in ten years and we’re not very good on these newly paved tracks with a lot of grip in them. That kind of showed at Shenandoah. We’ll have to try to get out of there with a top five and go back to Hickory and try to do something there.”

Third place point man Danny Bagwell will also be a threat in his Mercury Cougar. The Ray Paprota-led team won the event at Shenandoah and a win at Florence would vault them even closer to the Alabama driver’s first series title.

Mike Watts, who was coming on strong at Shenandoah on the final lap until spinning, will also be a driver to watch on Saturday night. Watts last won in 2005 at Hickory Motor Speedway and has shown he can compete on tracks similar to Florence.

The highly competitive Peggy Torbert Memorial 150 will highlight the weekend’s activities which includes over 400 laps of racing over two days between the ISCARS Dash Touring Series, Charlie Powell’s Super Trucks, late model stock cars, Allison Legacy Series and more at Florence Motor Speedway.

This will be the first of two scheduled events at the speedway as the sport compact racing series will conclude its 2006 campaign there on October 28th.

“ISCARS Weekend” tickets are still available for both Friday and Saturday by contacting Florence Motor Speedway via the internet at www.florencemotorspeedway.com or by phone at (843) 346-7711.

For more information on ISCARS, visit www.iscarsonline.com and be sure to catch ISCARS Full Throttle, the series’ television magazine, on your local affiliate or online at www.theautochannel.com.