ARDC HITS THE ROAD SOUTH THIS WEEKEND
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ARDC
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Contact - Deb Smith
phone (610) 972-6176
email dsfotog@aol.com
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The American Racing Drivers Club (ARDC) heads south this weekend for their first of two nights of racing at Maryland's Potomac Speedway and Virginia's Winchester Speedway.
On Friday night, the midgets will make their first of two appearances of the 2012 season at the Potomac Speedway in Mechanicsville, MD. The fans at the 3/8 mile Potomac Speedway will be introduced to open wheel racing ARDC style as the midgets join a program of Limited Late Models, Street Stocks, Hobbystocks and Strictly Stock divisions. It will mark the return of the ARDC Midgets to the Potomac facility after an absence of nearly ten years.
Friday, May 18th is also Put on the Purple Day - a special day created by the Lupus Foundation to promote awareness of this debilitating diseases. May is Lupus Awareness month and ARDC competitor, Bruce Buckwalter Jr. has asked that his fellow competitors and fans show their support by wearing purple throughout the day on Friday.
Ryan Watt of Boyertown, PA will make his first ARDC appearance of the 2012 season at Potomac. Watt, who competes with ARDC as his Modified schedule allows, will return to the cockpit of the Fred Schell owned #75 for this event. Watt combined forces with ARDC team owner, Donnie Hoffman for the 2011 season and will continue to pilot the green and white #17 later this season.
Saturday night, ARDC travels west to Winchester, VA for a second night of racing on another 3/8 mile track. When ARDC competed at Winchester last season, it was Ryan Smith in the Jerry & Karen Steward owned #33 who went to Victory Lane.
Will the first repeat winner of the 2012 season finds his way to Victory Lane on one of the 3/8 mile clay tracks at either Potomac or Winchester? Tim Buckwalter, Brenden Bright and Steve Buckwalter have each won one of the first three events of the 2012 season and could be the first repeat winner but their are a host of drivers looking for their first wins of the season that will have something to say about the outcome on Friday and Saturday.
ARDC officials have announced that rookie drivers, Brett Wanner of Shoemakersville, PA and Jimmy Glenn of Branchburg, NJ have been cleared to be handicapped for the first time this season. ARDC rookies are started at the rear of the field for their heats and features for at least their first three events or until club officials feel that they are ready to be handicapped based on points. Both Wanner and Glenn have a tenth place finish to their credit this season, coming from the rear of the field to pick up a top ten finish.
ARDC is also pleased to announce the addition of three shows to their schedule at the Big Diamond Speedway in Minersville, PA. ARDC had eight shows remaining at the Schuylkill County speedway when Big Diamond was forced to discontinue their Saturday night schedule. Big Diamond Speedway management and ARDC worked together to adjust their schedules to include the midgets in the existing 2012 Big Diamond Speedway calendar.
ARDC will be added to the schedule of events at Big Diamond for Friday night racing on July 13th and 27th. ARDC was already on the Friday night schedule for July 6th when Big Diamond presents their annual Georgie Stevenson Memorial Race. The midgets of ARDC have also been added to the biggest event of the Big Diamond season when they will join the Station House 358 Modifeds on Sunday, September 2 for the running of the Coalcracker 72.
As always, ARDC racing is all about wheel to wheel competition. "Where three wide and side-by-side is standard."
