ASCS Midwest Region Ladies Night at McCool Junction on Friday
by: Lonnie Wheatley

McCOOL, NE (June 26) - It will be a Ladies Night of sorts when the American Sprint Car Series Midwest Region takes to the semi-banked, 3/8-mile Junction Motor Speedway dirt oval in McCool Junction, NE, this Friday night.

After all, it is believed to be the first time in the 16-year history of the American Sprint Car Series that a lady racer has sat atop the point charts, as Natalie Sather of Fargo, ND, holds the current ASCS Midwest Region point lead.

And Sather won't be the only talented lady racer in the field, as 19-year-old Trish Dover of Springfield, NE, makes the jump from the 305-ci ranks to make her ASCS debut on Friday night.

The Young Lion Award winner with the ASCS National Tour in 2004, Sather moved atop the ASCS Midwest Region championship points race by advancing from 19th to sixth in the series most recent event at Rising City on June 15.

The 22-year-old backed it up the next night with a strong fourth-place run in ASCS National Tour action at Crawford County Speedway in Denison, IA.

Sather enters Friday's card with a 25-point lead over defending ASCS Northern Plains Region champion Chuck Swenson of Watertown, SD. And currently 58 points off the lead pace is reigning ASCS Midwest Region champion Toby Chapman of nearby Lincoln, NE.

The Lincoln duo of Jason Danley and Don Droud, Jr., round out the current top five entering Friday's card at Junction Motor Speedway.

In four previous ASCS Midwest Region events contested at Junction Motor Speedway, four different drivers have reached victory lane. Danley reached victory lane in the first ASCS Midwest Region card at McCool Junction in 2005, with Jake Peters and Brian Brown splitting honors last year. Garry Lee Maier took the most recent win on May 25.

Past winners Danley and Peters along with defending series champion Chapman and a host of other contenders will try to play the role of spoiler on Ladies Night at Junction Motor Speedway, while Sather tries to maintain the series point lead and Dover makes her debut while competing against younger brother Jack Dover, who was the series runner-up last year.

Friday's action at Junction Motor Speedway gets under way at 7:00 p.m.

Junction Motor Speedway is located in McCool Junction, NE, off I-80 Exit 353, then 5.6 miles south on US 81, then 0.3 miles west on CR 4, then north. For more information, contact the track at 402-724-3100 or 402-773-5538.

The ASCS Midwest Region 2007 slate consists of eleven events at seven different tracks throughout Nebraska and the immediately surrounding area.

The 2007 season marks the 16th year of sanctioning Sprint Car racing for the American Sprint Car Series, with the series set to sanction approximately 240 nights of racing at more than 100 different race tracks throughout at least 30 different states and Canada.

Additional information regarding the American Sprint Car Series is available at www.ascsracing.com