$10,000 To Win Williams Grove Speedweek Mitch Smith Memorial This Week
Fireworks help celebrate Independence Day racing program
6/30/13
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Mechanicsburg – Williams Grove Speedway will host the biggest event of the 23rd Pennsylvania Speedweek series this Friday, July 5 at 7:30 pm when it hosts the 25th annual Mitch Smith Memorial for sprint cars, paying a whopping $10,000 to win out of a purse worth over $30,000.
The Mitch Smith Memorial will be the second 2013 speedweek date slated for the track after Williams Grove kicked off this year’s speedweek on June 28 when Greg Hodnett took the victory worth $5,000.
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.
A beautiful fireworks display is also slated during the program.
The Williams Grove Saturday Series is in action at the track on July 6 when the Firecracker 40 for super sportsman will be presented also featuring a fireworks display.
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.
Stevie Smith is the defending event winner. Smith also won the very first race in 1989.
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 visiting the oval on Facebook or via Twitter.
MITCH SMITH MEMORIAL WINNERS
1989 Stevie Smith
1990 Joey Allen
1991 Don Kreitz Jr.
1992 Lance Dewease
1993 Keith Kauffman
1994 Fred Rahmer
1995 Lance Dewease
1996 Keith Kauffman
1997 Lance Dewease
1998 Todd Shaffer
1999 Fred Rahmer
2000 Don Kreitz Jr.
2001 Lance Dewease
2002 Greg Hodnett
2003 Greg Hodnett
2004 Fred Rahmer
2005 Fred Rahmer
2006 Jeff Shepard
2007 Greg Hodnett
2008 Doug Esh
2009 Daryn Pittman
2010 Daryn Pittman
2011 Alan Krimes
2012 Stevie Smith