Forum: SCRAFAN.COM Forum (go)
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Bandit Sprint Car Series Schedule Announcement

FEBRUARY 8, 2009 --- Due to a Sept 12 conflict at Chowchilla Speedway the event has been moved to May 30. The 2009 Bandit schedule has been revised to include 3 late season events at Chowchilla Speedway. These shows will be all open wheel events. They will be highly advertised which should will help the teams with sponsorship and help grow the series. Chowchilla Speedway will undergo a significant facelift in preparation for the all open wheel events. The Series is eagerly awaiting the addition of Chowchilla and the Tulare Thunderbowl to the list of host tracks this legendary series will compete.

We welcome those not truly familiar with the Bandit Series as well as our long time friends and family. The 2009 Bandit Sprint Car Series is in its 15 th year and has seen great racing over the years with virtually no rule changes since it’s inception. Rules are available on the samtamaraispeedway.com site by clicking on the rules bar.

An overall Bandit Series Champion will be crowned as well as a Champion for the Bandit/VRA Grand Slam Series. The point fund mechanism is in place for 2009 with each track contributing a dedicated 250.00 per race to ensure the yearend payout. The Series also competes at Ventura Raceway Bakersfield Speedway, Thunderbowl Raceway, Chowchilla Speedway and Santa Maria Speedway. The schedule also includes an off weekend each month. The change in the schedule does eliminate the month of Mays break, but is off set later in the season. The Bandit Series will race its full schedule as posted.

The Grand Slam Series has also been tightened up this year with the "Slam" ending on August 8th at Santa Maria. The Bandit season will kick-off on April 4th with the full points Grand Slam at Ventura.

From the SMS Website - SMS always provides excitement even when there are no cars. The situation is clearer than it was 72 hrs ago. Even though we have not been afforded any due process, we have chosen to do this with the professionalism our company and staff has displayed the last 2 years, even though we still have not received any notification. There is no doubt we have a valid contract for the 2009 season and we intend to honor it. Our apologies for how this has been handled by others. At this point we can not say to much more but stay tuned. Thanks for the huge amount of calls for support.
We will obviously keep everyone posted.
C-ya at the races!!!

2009 BANDIT SPRINT CAR SERIES CHAMPIONSHIP SCHEDULE

**APRIL 4 - VENTURA RACEWAY (GRAND SLAM #1)

APRIL 18 - THUNDERBOWL RACEWAY

**APRIL 25 - BAKERSFIELD SPEEDWAY (GRAND SLAM #2)

MAY 2 - SANTA MARIA SPEEDWAY

MAY 9 - BAKERSFIELD SPEEDWAY

MAY 16 - THUNDERBOWL RACEWAY

MAY 23 - SANTA MARIA SPEEDWAY

MAY 30 – CHOWCHILLA SPEEDWAY

JUNE 6 - SANTA MARIA SPEEDWAY
JUNE 20 - SANTA MARIA SPEEDWAY

JUNE 27 - THUNDERBOWL RACEWAY

JULY 11 – CHOWCHILLA SPEEDWAY

JULY 18 - BAKERSFIELD SPEEDWAY

JULY 25 - SANTA MARIA SPEEDWAY

**AUGUST 8 - SANTA MARIA SPEEDWAY (GRAND SLAM #3 FINALE)

AUGUST 15 - SANTA MARIA SPEEDWAY

AUGUST 22 – CHOWCHILLA SPEEDWAY

AUGUST 29 - SANTA MARIA SPEEDWAY

SEPTEMBER 19 -SANTA MARIA SPEEDWAY

OCTOBER 10 - SANTA MARIA SPEEDWAY 2nd ANNUAL BANDIT NATIONALS CHAMPIONSHIP FINALE

** Designates Special 5th Bandit VRA Grand Slam Challenge Series Events

Bandit series has more potential problems than a date conflict. Acording to Chowchilla's official website-speedway closed- with all the effort they are proporting to be doing at the track ,you'd think they'd at least take down the 'closed 'sign...SMS has a new operator[in theory]and as of two days ago they don't have a contract with him so...lose those two venues and the Bandits have 7 races...this press release might be premature...every promter out there claims their efforts are to better racing /for fans and racers alike ..yet push comes to shove, they do whats in their best interest...solve these issues now and let's go rac'in

http://www.racechowchilla.com/

this is the new official web.

The Bandit Series is going to race as scheduled. Refer to the SMS web site www.santamariaspeedway.com . Chowchilla is a great deal and they are trying to make it it work with the Bandit Schedule. The May 30 Tulare USAC date is a drag, but I would guess was the best compremise for other problems encountered in the scheduling.

BTW the first Tulare date is April 11 and not the 18th, sorry for the confusion...has been corrected on the Bandit Site...

The 2008 Season was very successful and one of the best in our history. Great racing and great teams characterized the season. Don't look for too much of that to change. In addition to the 10 SMS shows, the 3 Bakersfield dates and the Ventura opener the Bandit Series added three great dates at Tulare and another trio at Chowchilla.The 2009 Season is going to be great, we are a bit shy of two months before push-off and things should be settled out well before then.

Pete

Pete,

Anyway bandits can re-schedule the May 30th at Chowchilla? I think we're going to run winged races at Chowchilla anyway, but I 'd hate to see the non-wing cars split between the two venues!

82j

I'm not sure the may 30 date matters,,,Bandits 360 c.i.-USAC 410c.i. curious how many360 guys would show at the 410 race anyway.My opinion-Chowchilla car count won't suffer..

That is between the folks at Chowchilla and the Bandit office. I agree with you about the scheduling. We'll see how things shake out. Thanks

That could be, but there are a number of Banditos who have 410's or would just like to run. It seems like USAC needs these guys to make a full show. Chowchilla won't suffer and the Thunderbowl will have a good car count still. But there will be some Bandito's who would be at the USAC show if they were not racing to the North. We like them to have that opportunity to compete with the CRA folks.

Scheduling is a tougher business than we would like like when we consider all of the pushes and pulls. Amendments to the schedule create complications and I know Dave Swindell worked very hard at scheduling the series and trying to meet the needs of everyone concerned. Working around WAS, USAC-CRA, the Late Models, Bakersfield, Ventura, Tulare, Chowchilla and everything else the teams wanted or didn't want we have a darn good schedule. Maybe not quite perfect in some eyes, but given everything, still very good.

Danny Sheridan and the Kittle team are an example of the Bandito graduates to that series. We have a slew of veterans like Pete Murphy and Davey Pombo who make their presence felt there as well as a plethera of young talent that will certainly catch the eyes of USAC-CRA fans. The VanderWeerd brothers, Wes Gutierrez, Albert Pombo, Justyn hamblin, Ricky Kirkbride, Mike Faccinto, Adam Frith-Smith, T.J. Smith and others are to name but a few. So we'll certainly try to work with this glitch for 2010 and make it a bit closer to perfect. We also want to do what we can to support our partnering tracks to help them have the strongest possible programs. That is part of the scheduling juggling act I mentioned above that is atr and science combined.

The May 30th conflict is fixed. The Bandit's will be dark on May 30th and thus free for a well deserved break or to go mix it up at Tulare. The best part is the Bandits will be part of the season end Pumpkin cup which will be the final points race on October 31st.

Pretty awesome. Thanks to those who brought up the conflict and the officials who worked so hard to make this deal work! Mr. Swindell and Mr. Shepherd need a round of applause and this will be another great open wheel show and promotion.

Thanks for listening to the fans as this is good news! The conflicting date is now behind us. As you stated previously Pete, this should add to a great field at Tulare for the May 30, USAC/CRA date.

"Ralphie, Senor, muchas gracias por una mas cerveza"  -
Scott Daloisio @ the PAS