Winners
Mother Nature – Port Royal, Kennedale x2, Lincoln
Dayne Kingshott won the 30 lap Maddington Toyota Sprintcar Series feature at Perth Motorplex on Saturday. Callum Williamson, Brad Maiolo, Taylor Milling and Kris Coyle rounded out the top five.
Lachlan McHugh won the Australian Sprintcar Masters at Murray Bridge after passing Jock Goodyer with two laps to go. Goodyer settled for second, and Luke Dillon completed the podium.
Driver/Team News
Kerry Madsen is not done yet. He and car owner Tony Vermeer announced that they would be teaming up to run weekly at Knoxville. The pairing is planning on running 40-50 races at Knoxville and around the Midwest. Madsen won an All Star race last season behind the wheel of the Vermeer. no 55. Chris Windom and his Nos Energy Drink sponsorship took over the no. 55 to run the full High Limit tour, leaving Madsen searching for opportunities. Madsen has had plenty of success at Knoxville, and despite this being an entirely new team, I expect them to be competitive right out of the gate.
In other former driver of the Vermeer no. 55 news, Hunter Schuerenberg has added another HM no. 19 to his resume. It was already announced that Schuerenberg would be teaming up with the Hayward Motorsports no. 19 for about 30 races, primarily competing in Winged Maverick races and other Midwest events. Now, the newly formed Heidbreder Motorsports team announced that Schuerenberg would be their driver for the upcoming season. The Heidbreder’s have been involved in sprint car racing for years, sponsoring Sam Hafertepe’s no. 15H in the past. The new Missouri based team did not release a schedule, but it’s safe to say that we will see Schuerenberg for at least 50-60 races this year between both cars.
Sprint Car fan favorite, Brian Paulus announced that he would be returning to 410 action in 2024. Paulus revealed that he would be teaming up with Mike VanderEcken and is putting a schedule together to run the no. 10 at Knoxville. Paulus made two starts last season with the World of Outlaws, one at Eldora and one at Sharon. You would have to go back to 2019 for the last time Paulus ran more than 10 races in a season. The VanderEcken no. 10 is a good car, so it will be interesting to see how long is takes Paulus to shake some rust off and collect some good finishes.
Cole Macedo will be back behind the wheel of the Tarlton Racing no. 21 in 2024. The pairing will chase the NARC Series title on the West Coast. Macedo, who has recently been running a second car for Kevin Newton, was relatively quiet in the offseason and it was unclear where we would see him racing. With Corey Day going full-time High Limit racing and Dominic Scelzi making plans to travel more, Macedo will immediately be one of the favorites to win the championship. He, along with Justin Sanders, Justyn Cox, Dylan Bloomfield and Bud Kaeding will be a few names competing for the title.
More Racing Politics
On Friday, I posted about the revised ASCS National schedule removing dates at Texas Motor Speedway, Lakeside, Lake Ozark and Lucas Oil. The post got taken out of context a bit on social media, with some immediately attacking World Racing Group for refusing to work with tracks that have a relationship with FloRacing, High Limit or Lucas Oil. Some who know more about what happened, explained that this was not all on WRG, and that some of the tracks made the decision to remove ASCS from their schedule.
Regardless of what happened, the entire purpose of pointing it out was because this is not good for the sport. I have been adamant about letting the streaming services dictate what series can run where. While that may not be the full story here, it still played a role. Maybe the tracks didn’t want to work with WRG/DirtVision because of their established relationships with FloRacing. The point is that these tracks and promoters shouldn’t even have to make decisions like this. It hurts the fans and it hurts the racers.
DirtVision and FloRacing have businesses to run. Us, as fans, are not asking for five year plans and detailed business models. We are just asking for transparency on the matter. There is still time for an acknowledgement from either side, but removing races from a schedule without an explanation is not a good way to conduct business.
Upcoming 410 Races
3/15 – 3/16 | World of Outlaws | Cotton Bowl, TX | DirtVision
3/15 | 410 Sprint Cars | Attica, OH | DirtVision
3/16 | NARC 410 | Silver Dollar, CA | FloRacing
3/16 | FAST Series | PPMS, PA
3/16 | 410 Sprint Cars | Lincoln, PA
3/17 | 410 Sprint Cars | Williams Grove, PA | DirtVision
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