$10,000 To Win Williams Grove
Speedweek Mitch Smith Memorial Is Friday
305 sprints also in action
6/26/16
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Mechanicsburg
–Williams
Grove Speedway will host the biggest event of the 26th
Pennsylvania Speedweek series this Friday, July 1 at 8 pm when it hosts the
28th annual Mitch Smith Memorial for sprint cars at 8 pm, paying
a hefty $10,000 to win out of a purse worth over $30,000.
Friday’s Mitch Smith Memorial
will use time trials to set the field as do all speedweek events and the
feature will be 30 laps in distance.
The entire 2016 speedweek series is sponsored by Always
Racing, a pastoral organization that ministers to the motorsports community
during times of trauma and also in spiritual need.
A special holiday fireworks
display is also slated during this Friday’s program.
The PASS/IMCA 305 sprints
will also be on the holiday racing card.
The Mitch Smith Memorial began in honor of the late star in 1989.
Known affectionately to most as the “Linglestown
Leadfoot,” Smith was one of the most electric sprint car stars to ever grace
the Cumberland County oval and the Central PA region with his talents.
Perhaps his biggest claim to fame was his trumping of
the world-renowned USAC sprint car stars when they came east to Williams
Grove Speedway in 1971.
For comparison
purposes, USAC was in 1971 what the World of Outlaws is to sprint car racing
today.
They just simply
didn’t get beat.
Except by Mitch Smith in Central Pa in 1971.
The USAC’ers were furious.
The PA drivers and fans were famous.
At the end of his four-decade career in 1978, Mitch
Smith had amassed 179 overall total career feature wins including 27 in a
sprint car and nine in a super modified at Williams Grove alone.
Smith drove for owners like Mary Flack in the
Flying Tiger, John Regester, Gary Wasson and Al Hamilton in the famed No.
77.
After being felled
by a massive heart attack in 1988, Smith was posthumously inducted into the
National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in 1995.
Fred Rahmer and Lance Dewease have done the best in the
Smith Memorial over the years, each owning four victories.
Doug Esh is the defending Smith Memorial champion.
Friday’s event will again
be part of the 2016 Hoosier Diamond Series at the oval.
The Williams Grove portion of the 50/50 on the night will be donated the 4 Diamonds Fund.
The 4 Diamonds Fund is
an organization set up through the Penn State Children's Hospital in Hershey
to help fight childhood cancer.
Adult general admission
for the show is $20 with youth ages 13 – 20 admitted for $10.
Kids ages 12 and under are always admitted free at Williams Grove Speedway!
Keep up to date on all the latest
speedway news and information by visiting the oval’s official website at
www.williamsgrove.com or by keeping up with the oval on Facebook
or Twitter.