JEGS/CRA All-Stars Tour Ready to Close out the 2018 Season at Winchester Speedway Friday
Four Drivers Set to Battle for 2018 Championship
Salem, IN. (October 8, 2018) – The JEGS/CRA All-Stars Tour Presented by Chevrolet Performance will close out their eighth season of competition this Friday on the famous High Banks of Winchester Speedway, helping kickoff the big 47th Annual Winchester 400 Weekend Presented by Vore’s Welding & Steel. A talented field of 25 teams are currently entered to compete in the JEGS/CRA All-Stars Tour Winchester 100 Presented by JEGS.com on Friday evening. That event will be the tenth point’s event of the 2018 season for the series after losing one event to weather and one event that was cancelled.
2018 was the second season CRA has Chase for the Championship format to crown their Champions in all four of its series. Five drivers were locked into the final four JEGS/CRA All-Stars Tour Champion Chase events. The first Chase event at Owosso Speedway was canceled because of weather. That left two Chase events to eliminate one driver. Tyler Hufford was eliminated after the Lucas Oil Raceway Chase event, giving four drivers a shot to win the 2018 series Championship. The four includes DGR-CROSLEY Rookie of the Year Points leader Mason Keller, 2017 series Champion Jack Dossey III, Michael Clancy Jr. and Mandy Chick, the driver finishing the highest in Friday’s Winchester 100 will be crowned the 2018 Champion.
Keller looks to make series history on Friday. No driver has ever won both the JEGS/CRA All-Stars Tour Championship and the DGR-CROSLEY Rookie of the Year Award in the same season. Keller has already locked up the DGR-CROSLEY Rookie of the Year Award going into Friday night. The rookie driver won the series event at Winchester Speedway on Labor Day Weekend, locking himself into the final four to compete for the Championship. Keller was the only final four driver to win an event during the 2018 season.
Dossey III is the defending JEGS/CRA All-Stars Tour Champion, winning the championship in the first year the series used the Chase for the Championship format. Dossey III has had another great season with the series, getting two season high third place finishes. Dossey III had a straight away lead in the Winchester Labor Day Weekend event until a tire went down on lap 71 resulting in hard contact with the outside retaining wall ending his night. The team came back and were the Lisa-Thomas Fast Qualifier Award winners at the series last at the Fall Brawl at Lucas Oil Raceway and came away with a seventh place finish, second highest of the Chase contenders.
15 year old Clancy Jr. had a rough start to his 2018 season, with three straight DNF’s, including battling for the lead in the Bristol Motor Speedway event, when another drivers contact took him out. Clancy Jr. tuned his bad luck around starting at Baer Field Raceway with a hard fought fifth place finish, then a third place finish at Auto City Speedway, another fifth place finish at Berlin Raceway and a sixth place finish at the Fall Brawl event, highest of the Chase drivers.
Chick has had an up and down season with some terrible luck, but put things together in the late season to come back and get in the Chase first, then fought off Chad Pendleton over the last several laps at Fall Brawl to race her way into the final four to race for the series Championship on Friday. Chick got a ninth place finish at Berlin that helped lock her into the Chase, then got a sixth place finish, her season best, at Winchester on Labor Day Weekend, which turned out to be the tie breaker that got her into the final four to race for the series Championship this Friday.
Four time event winner Travis Barden is entered. Braden won this event in 2011, 2014, 2016 and again in 2017. The 2016 Winchester 400 winner has six total series wins and is the only driver to win this event more than one time.
Besides the four Championship contenders and Braden, other top drivers entered include 2017 series Rookie of the Year and 2017 Winchester Labor Day winner Carson Hocevar, Jack Smith winner of this event in 2015, 2013 event winner Corey Deuser, 2017 Southern Super Series Champion Stephen Nasse who led 21 laps of this event last year and former ASA Racing Series competitor Robbie Pyle.
Things begin for the Winchester 400 Weekend with an optional load in, hauler parking and pit pass purchases on Thursday, October 11th from 3 to 7pm. Pits open on Friday, October 12th at 10:30am with rotating practice for all divisions beginning at 2:30pm. Second round practice and Group Qualifying for the Vore’s Touring Compacts and the Vore’s Welding CRA Late Model Sportsman Series and Lawrence Towing CRA Street Stocks New Star events will start at 4:15pm. The JEGS/CRA All-Stars Tour Lisa Thomas Salon qualifying will start at 6pm. Racing action will begin at 7pm with 8 lap heat races for the Vores Touring Compacts. The JEGS/CRA All-Stars Tour Season Championship Winchester 100 Presented by JEGS.com will be up next. The Vores Touring Compacts 25 lap feature will follow that. The CRA Late Model Sportsman and CRA Street Stocks 25 lap New Star features will cap off the nights racing action.
Pits open on Saturday, October 13th at 8am, rotating practice for all divisions will begin at 10:45am. Second round practice and Group Qualifying for the CRA Late Model Sportsman Series and CRA Street Stocks will begin at 1:15pm. Qualifying for the ICAR Modifieds Run for the Gun will start at 3:30pm, EDCO Welding Pole Qualifying for the 47th Annual Winchester 400 for the ARCA/CRA Super Series will begin at 4pm. The race program will begin at 5pm on Saturday with the ICAR Modifieds Last Chance race if needed. The 50 lap CRA Late Model Sportsman Series Season Championship event will be up next. The ICAR Modifieds 50 lap Run for the Gun will follow. The 20 lap Thunder Roadsters will be next. The 50 lap CRA Street Stocks Season Championship event will cap off this huge night of racing. The Annual Winchester 400 Party in the Pavilion will start in immediately following the races with live music.
On Sunday, October 14th pits will open at 9am. There will be an on track autograph session with all the 47th Annual Winchester 400 drivers starting at 12:30. Opening ceremonies will begin at 1:30 pm with the 47th Annual Winchester 400 taking the green flag at 2pm.
For those fans that cannot attend the Winchester 400 Weekend events, 51 TV Pay-Per-View will broadcast all the racing events on Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the Winchester 400 Weekend. Purchase the live Winchester 400 Weekend broadcast now at Speed51.com.
Winchester 400 Weekend will be featured in a National TV Broadcast on MAV TV thanks to the support of Vore’s Welding & Steel, VanDoorn Racing Development and Hamner Racing Engines. The event as a whole will air as part of Speed51’s Short Track America program. The focus of the production will be centered on the ARCA/CRA Super Series Powered by JEGS Winchester 400. Other series racing that weekend will also receive recognition and exposure in the broadcast, as well as the winners from each of those events leading up to the running of the main event…the 47th Annual Winchester 400.
Additional track and event information can be found at www.winchesterspeedway.com.
More information on all the CRA series is available at www.cra-racing.com.
