The stars and cars of the Buckeye Machine BOSS sprint tour will return to action this Saturday night, June 21st at Pittsburgh Pennsylvania Motor Speedway. The traditional sprinters have not seen a repeat winner in the six races contested so far in 2014 and another wide open field is expected for this event. Known as the "Monster Half Mile", the track actually measures closer to five-eighths of a mile out near the guardrail, where the fast groove often winds up at feature time.
Pennsylvania race fans can expect to see another full field of wingless sprint cars. The BOSS tour is proud to have 15 cars who have signed in for competition at every event this season and as always, a handful of local cars will be in the pits along with a few wild card entrants.
Leading the field of BOSS entrants will be series points leader Mike Miller of Wapakoneta, Ohio who holds a slim 14 point margin over Michael Fischesser of Cincinnati, Ohio. Miller is fresh off a win at Raceway 7 in late May and Fischesser is in search of his first tour victory. Local superstar Brandon Spithaler of Evans City, Pennsylvania sits 3rd in the tour standings and will have the support of many of the PPMS faithful. Past BOSS champions Tony Beaber of Gibsonburg, Ohio and Dustin Smith of Russiaville, Indiana are both on the prowl to become the first ever repeat champions and both have had great runs on the Monster Half Mile with the June show a year ago being the site of Beaber's lone victory in his championship season defeating a fine field of 22 main event starters.
The potent father/son team of Chuck and Chad Wilson are 2 tour regulars representing the Buckeye state along with Aaron Middaugh, Derek Hastings, Andy Fike, and the ageless veteran Johnny Beaber. Spithaler is not the only local driver campaigning on the tour this season as Pennsylvania fans will also see Adam Miller, Bob McMillin, and Joe Butera representing the Keystone state.
The wild card for this event would have to be Joe Ligouri of Tampa, Florida who has confirmed his entry. Ligouri ran his first BOSS race of the season last week scoring an impressive 3rd place in a stout 39 car field in Lawrenceburg, Indiana. The interesting side note is that Joe is the grandson of Ralph Ligouri who may be better known as "Ralphie the Racer" and who ran many NASCAR Grand National and USAC Championship events from the 1950's through the 90's. Ralph will be in attendance this Saturday at PPMS which is now home to the bleachers and lights from the old Heidelberg Speedway. Ironically, Ralph Ligouri was in the field for the 1951 NASCAR race at Heidelberg in front of the same fixtures his grandson will race before almost 63 years later.
Pit gates will be open early for drivers traveling long distances. Pits will be officially opened at 4 pm. For teams, mufflers are not required but the red transponders are required along with raceceivers. This event will pay the standard BOSS purse of $1500 to win but start money has been increased to $300 to start the main event.
For more information on this or other events, check out the series website at www.buckeyesprints.com or phone 740-703-3768.
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