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POWRi Debuts This Weekend at Valley and Lucas Oil Speedways in Missouri MILLSTADT, Ill. (May 12) – O’Reilly POWRi National Midget Series, presented by Lucas Oil, races Friday at Valley Speedway in Grain Valley, Mo. and Saturday at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Mo. These races will feature the series’ debuts at two third-mile tracks in The Show Me State. Valley Speedway and Lucas Oil Speedway kicks off the POWRi Toyota/TRD Challenge this weekend. Along with the races at Junction Motor Speedway and the season ending Gold Crown race at Tri-City Speedway, POWRi competitors will accumulate points toward the $5000 Toyota/TRD payout. You do not have to have Toyota power to participate in the Challenge. At Valley Speedway, officials from POWRi and Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Mo. will announce details about a two-race swing – part of POWRi’s “Indoor Winter Nationals” – on a temporary indoor dirt track in December. The following night at Lucas Oil Speedway, Lucas Oil’s film crew will be on hand to shoot the race. Clips from the race will be used to promote the 2009 Lucas Oil Chili Bowl in Tulsa, Okla., at which many POWRi drivers and teams compete. Lucas Oil is in its first season as a presenting sponsor of POWRi. While the Kemper Arena announcement and Lucas Oil film crew dominate POWRi’s off track news, competitors in the fourth-year series hope to make on-track news with victories at the two tracks. It will mark the first time in nearly three weeks POWRi competitors will race, inclement weather forced cancellation of two races – at Belle-Clair and Tri-City Speedways in Illinois – over the weekend. Three of four POWRi races have been affected by rain this season. Valley Speedway has been a victim of rain itself, but hopes to open its 2008 schedule with POWRi. The black gumbo track is a third mile. Lucas Oil – known as “The Diamond of Dirt Tracks” – is also a third-mile track in southwestern Missouri. The track was completed in 2006 and has hosted Midgets in other series previously, in addition to late models and modifieds. Brett Anderson (Belleville, Ill.) is the Midget Series point leader after winning at Macon (Ill.) Speedway on April 26. Anderson leads Gary “Bubba” Altig, Davey Ray, Danny Stratton and Zach Daum in points. All five – as well as Missouri native and defending series champion Brad Loyet (Sunset Hills, Mo.) and drivers from Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Illinois – are expected to participate in the two-race swing. The POWRi 600cc Micro Sprints, meanwhile, have the weekend off. |