By DJ Johnson / Special to the Post-Gazette
The UNOH All Star Circuit of Champion Sprint Car series made its most recent appearance at Pittsburgh’s Pennsylvania Motor Speedway 16 years ago, long before racers like Danny Holtgraver and Cody Darrah even began racing sprint cars.
While the now-defunct Renegade Sprint Series (now part of the UNOH All Stars) appeared in September at PPMS, the new UNOH All Stars will make its first appearance of the season at 7 p.m. Saturday on the Monster-Half Mile near Imperial.
The new UNOH All Stars were created when NASCAR star Tony Stewart acquired and combined both traveling series to bring some stability to the regional sprint car scene.
“What Tony Stewart has been able to do with our series in the two months that he has had it has been tremendous,” said Darrah, 25, of Red Lion, Pa. “The competition is very tough and way the All Stars are shaping up, it’s only going to get tougher.”
Darrah is in his first year with the All Stars. He is racing on the family-owned team after competing with the World of Outlaws for former sprint car racer Kasey Kahne, who now drives in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series.
Dale Blaney is the series’ points leader over Darrah by 35 entering Saturday’s event at PPMS.
Holtgraver, of Pittsburgh, has two wins at PPMS. He is ranked sixth in points, 29 ahead of Tim Shaffer of Aliquippa.
“We’ve been struggling,” Holtgraver said. “We’re looking forward to be racing back home and hopefully having a good weekend.”
Shaffer, who also occasionally competes in the Crate Late Model Division at PPMS, is attempting to qualify in the Dream 100, a Super Late Model event which began Thursday at Stewart’s Eldora Speedway, driving a car owned by Bucky Johnson of Imperial.
“We’ll see how it goes,” Shaffer said Thursday as he was preparing to qualify for the Dream 100. “There are a lot of cars here, and we have to qualify then finish high enough in the overall points to make the field.”
The Dream 100 XXI pays $100,000 to the winner, a tough opportunity to turn down should he qualify for the event.
No current driver has more sprint car wins than Ed Lynch Jr. of Apollo. The Apollo Rocket has 12 wins at PPMS, and he looks forward to competing with the UNOH All Stars at PPMS.
“You still have to race the race track,” Lynch said on competing against the All Stars. “Pittsburgh is such a big, wide track. With the level of the competition, it will be tough.”
The UNOH All Stars will also compete Sunday at Bedford Speedway.
Funny Car Fury at PRP
Earth Shaking Entertainment brings its unique format to Pittsburgh Raceway Park Saturday with eight alcohol-burning Funny Cars. The field will consist of four modern models along with four nostalgic bodied muscle cars from the 1970s. See speeds of more than 200 mph on the PRP quarter-mile from these plastic fantastics. Also on the schedule to appear are the Tri-State Stock-Super Stock Series, along with showman Benny the Bomb. The 73-year-old stuntman has a one-of-a-kind thrill show where he blows up a car while inside. Benny once was employed by a company that worked in the space program.
Racing starts Saturday at 3 p.m. with the first round of the show beginning at 7 p.m.
Click on www.pittsburghracewaypark.com for more details.
Lugnuts
Lernerville Speedway has Fab4 racing today and part of the annual Summer Vacation event is Tuesday with School Bus racing, along with an Enduro and a trailer race. …Motordrome Speedway in Smithton is back in action today with Second Wins the Race Night and Spectator Drags.
DJ Johnson can be reached at dj1360rpm@aol.com.