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2020 Sprint Car Bandits points and results are now updated through July 10th at the series website - and here's a direct link to the page: https://www.sprintcarbandits.com/results.html

65 different teams have raced with the Sprint Car Bandits series through our July 10th event. The series has averaged 27.2 cars nightly in 2020.

We are now in our scheduled summer break and our next scheduled event is at KENNEDALE SPEEDWAY PARK on Saturday, September 26th.

However, be watching for more Series news along the way, as we're negotiating some additional event dates plus we've already got some big news we're going to unveil over the off-season later this year!

Congratulations to Channin Tankersley Racing for taking the Sprint Car Bandits series win this past Friday night at HOT Speedway and to Michael Day for leading points going into the summer break!

Click www.SprintCarBandits.com for video clips, pictures and much more...and until we see you again this fall, be safe out there and enjoy yourselves, family and friends!

ICYMI, here's the Race Rewind from HOT on 7/10:

Tankersley Wrestles His Way from Sixth to Thrilling $2,000 'Bandits Victory at HOT!

Elm Mott, TX (7/11/20) by DarinShort.com. A 23-car Sprint Car Bandits series field loaded with talent would assemble on a hot summer night at HOT Speedway located at the north side of Waco Texas for the running of the Muscling Up The Dirt MDA Night. 6th place starter Channin Tankersley Racing would wrestle his way to the lead after a lap 16 restart and hold off a very hard charging Casey Burkham and Claud Estes III to take the $2,000 winners share back to the northern Houston suburbs. Tankersley would cross the checkers with a scant one car length to spare.

Earlier in the evening, tons of racing would take place in the
Air Performance Heating and Air Conditioning qualifying heat races. 7th place heat race #2 starter Dale Wester would race his way past several drivers to garner the top qualifying spot for the feature event. The second highest points-getter was Preston Perlmutter after starting heat race #1 in the 6th position. Casey Burkham would collect the 3rd highest passing points after starting 8th behind Perlmutter in the same heat race. The fourth highest points-getter was Claud Estes III after winning heat #2 from his third starting spot. Tankersley would win his heat race from the pole - setting a dizzying pace of 11.69 seconds around the Heart O' Texas dirt oval...yet he only garnered enough points to start the feature event in 6th - as there were so many drivers that loaded up in passing points in their heats.

Daniel Estes would become the night's only non-starter after he developed engine woes while leading his heat race.

The 22-car starting field would get all of the Heart 'O Texas Speedway fans on their feet during the 4-wide salute parade lap and when the green flag flew, the first 16 laps whizzed right by with frenetic 3- and even 4-wide racing from the bottom to the top of track promoter Selby Holder's Heart O' Texas Speedway. Selby and the HOT track prep crew had the track prepped for full-tilt all night long, which was a real feat with the hot and blustery weather conditions.

Up until that point Dale Wester was blasting his way through lapped traffic (from lap 6 to 16) with Burkham, Estes and Tankersley each in close pursuit while trading sliders for position while they all continued to negotiate lapped traffic. It was full-scale pandemonium out there!

On the restart, Wester would slide slightly high entering corner one with the trio of Tankersley, Estes and Burkham blasting by on the bottom side, with Tankersley taking the lead, and as soon as that took place Estes would take command of the lead - only to be overtaken by Tankersley in the next corner! It was a wild sequence of events that only lasted the span of about 5 seconds - as the SCB teams were still setting a blistering pace atop the Heart O' Texas banked oval.

After the event's 2nd and final caution on lap 19 for a quick spin out, Tankersley would vault out to lead the field but when the field encountered lapped traffic on the final lap Burkham and Estes III would close the gap to one car length at Tankersley would reach the checkers first.

This event continues the streak of every single 2020 season Sprint Car Bandits feature events containing at least one lead change - which is a real feat with the quality of teams assembled for our events this year. And it's a real testament to the SCB series rules that continue to prove that a more sustainable way of racing sprint cars is possible - and without costing the racers added expense along the way. As a matter of fact, our 'one rear tire rule all night long' paired with our 20° wing angle rule has saved SCB series racers each thousands of dollars along the way - and we're really proud of that fact. It also has resulted in faster cars being able to pass easier - as evidenced once again last night.

EXTRA SPECIAL THANKS to Kathy Graham who sung a cappella in the SCB pit meeting "I'm Proud to Be an American" - which was a fitting and beautiful testament of the difficult times our nation is currently facing. Please take a moment to watch the video here:

https://www.facebook.com/michael.merrell.64/videos/3088360844578886/

Also, THANK YOU to www.facebook.com/Charliedoneitcreations for building a beautiful SCB feature winner award and for his work with the Central Texas MDA.

On that note, we enter our scheduled SCB Summer Break, which allows our teams and fans that like to travel around (specifically up north) the opportunity of doing so, without missing a beat down here - and gives time for the hot weather season to pass down here.

Our next scheduled SCB event will be at KENNEDALE SPEEDWAY PARK on Saturday, September 26th. Also be watching for more Series news, as we are also in the process of negotiating addition Fall 2020 SCB series events.

THANK YOU once again for everyone's support at this point in the season! Be safe out there and we look forward to seeing everyone soon when the Fall 2020 SCB season fires back up at KSP!

Click www.SprintCarBandits.com for more news and info.

A-feature results, Heart O' Texas Speedway Sprint Car Bandits 7/10/20:

1- Channin Tankersley (from 6th)
2- Casey Burkham (from 3rd)
3- Claud Estes III (from 4th)
4- John Ricketts (from 9th)
5- Marcus Thomas
6- Michael Day
7- Dale Wester
8- Colby Estes
9- Preston Perlmutter
10- Rodney Henderson (in his SCB series debut)
11- Austin Saunders
12- Kodey Keimig
13- Jerrad Warhurst (Davis Drug & Alcohol Testing Hard Charger Winner)
14- Todd Lovett (in his SCB series debut)
15- Mark Zoeller
16- Chance McCrary
17- Cody Stacy
18- Blake Mallory
19- Christian Kinnison
20- Junior Jenkins
21- Michael Merrell
22- Austin Burkham
23- Daniel Estes (DNS)

Nice job

Nice work. Those cars look great with the 20 degree wing angle. 

Jim and Michael,

I wish you guys could see one of our events down here.

When you see these easy to apply SCB series rules (that literally cost nothing added to the drivers, and takes two crew guys maybe a 1/2 hour to perform) and the effect it has on the race-ability of the cars and the decreased consumables cost, it will really leave you scratching your heads as to why more areas haven't adopted these rules. (There are a growing number of series in MN and MI that are/have been utilizing them, with similar results to ours, and we've been in communication with them over the past several seasons.)

And what is really incredible is how this rules package creates an equalizer effect on teams of different budget sizes. That has resulted in 23 different winners in the last 37 SCB events. Several nationally known drivers have raced with us and blended right in with no issues at all.

In this day and age, sustainability has never been a bigger issue, and our rules have saved each of our teams thousands of dollars - while not diminishing any of the racing. If anything it's increased the quality of racing, as we have tons of passing. If you look back on our past events, the vast majority of the top qualifiers come from the 3rd, 4th or 5th row of their heat races (last weekend, the top 4 qualifiers started 6th, 7th, 8th and 3rd in their heats). Yet the feature winners rarely come from the pole (last week was from 6th).

It is also great for the tracks as we've been able to maintain good car counts. We've averaged 27.2 per night this season.

On the other side of the fence, we have developed a very vocally supportive fan base. Our tracks follow simple social distancing guidelines so the fans feel comfortable and once they get in their seats they can forget all the worries of the world and have a semblance of normalcy - if even just for a few hours.  

This is probably the 138th post like this I've written on this subject over the past 4 1/2 years (since SCB series inception) and I literally dare other tracks and series to try this rules package for one night or for a weekend.

I guarantee they will see the same results (if enforced) and the fans will leave the track saying: "oh ya, this is what I remember sprint car racing used to be like."

And I'm sure to catch flack over that last paragraph, but in all seriousness, it's time for people that are in a position to do so to wake up and affect change in this sport.

We've proven it can be done year-in, year-out. The economics of the sport have been off the rails for over 15 years and this is an easy and effective way to help curb racer costs, increase car count stability and give race fans what they want: more actual racing.

We haven't even had 1 tire blowout due to overwear. So it can be done. Some tracks and series have already been enforcing a 1-rear tire all night rule, which is great. We had 1 race two years ago that it was 106° at 6:15 for hot laps (track was under a curfew) and it rubbered up, so we allowed teams to change tires on that night - but that was the only time we had to contend with a situation like that.

To the series and track operators out there: what do you have to lose? Just go to the rules page at www.SprintCarBandits.com and try it. I dare you. You will most likely find your local sustainability solution sitting right there.

We've proven you can have happy fans, happy tracks and happy drivers that race with what they have without being forced to have a litany of prescribed engine rules...because these rules have proven to equalize what's under the hood from one car to another in the vast majority of cases.

"Change" happens in this sport at a glacial pace. And if your local track or series actually has the guts to try this rules package, please let us know. And if your track or series is toying with the idea, let us know, as we'd be glad to help with guidance.  This isn't propaganda. We have 4 1/2 years of proof in the results.

We, as a group, just want to see Sprint Car Racing continue into the future as strong as possible...not just wait around until it's too late...and all we're left with is sitting around talking about the good 'ol days.

Life is short. Make a difference if you can.   

Here are a handful of action shots of the www.SprintCarBandits.com 2020 season:

KSP:

Monarch:

Monarch:

Here's one from KSP that has a 305 on the topside and a carbureted 360 on the bottom (who I believe ended up being the hard charger in the feature that night):

The next two are from 82 Speedway:

SpeedShift TV is supposed to be publishing the link to last weekend's Sprint Car Bandits event any moment now, so I'll share it here when it becomes available.

But all talking aside, here's how our cars race under this rules package...this is from a highly technical ultra-slick surface at Monarch Motor Speedway this May (and the 5 car that comes into play later on in the event started 17th...and the j2 started 12th).

I appreciate your efforts to curb the continioulsy escalating and outrageous cost to participate in this sport. Unfortunately, this particular message board is a culmination of people who really only care about "big time" sprint car racing. Going to a race where the fastest car starts up front and wins the heat is more important than seeing good competition throughout a racing program. To each their own. I'm good friends with Ron from the UMSS and I support his brand of racing and so do the drivers, promoters and fans. I can get in the gate for 15 bucks and I feel I got my moneys worth. Drivers can run the same tires for many races and the tracks can afford to promote a sprint car show. 

When fields dwindle to one heat and a feature in other areas maybe people will take a look and see what you have done and why you are succeeding. Until then, keep fighting and keep pushing your message.