USAC

Series returns to Charlotte LMS

After a 20-Year Absence, USAC Sprint Cars Return to North Carolina For Oct. 8 Charlotte Dirt Doubleheader Nationals CONCORD, N.C. (Oct. 1, 2003) - The Oct. 8 Charlotte Dirt Doubleheader Nationals at The Dirt Track at Lowe's Motor Speedway ...

Published: Oct 3, 2003, 8:57 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

After a 20-Year Absence, USAC Sprint Cars Return to North Carolina For Oct. 8 Charlotte Dirt Doubleheader Nationals

CONCORD, N.C. (Oct. 1, 2003) - The Oct. 8 Charlotte Dirt Doubleheader Nationals at The Dirt Track at Lowe's Motor Speedway will be the United States Auto Club's first sprint car race in the Tar Heel state since Oct. 17, 1982.

Founded in 1956 and based just down the street from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, USAC has long been one of the nation's premier open-wheel sanctioning bodies, but has made only sporadic visits to North Carolina.

The state's first USAC-sanctioned race was a stock car event at Concord Speedway. The event was organized and promoted by Lowe's Motor Speedway Chairman Bruton Smith, who owned and operated the half-mile dirt oval at the time. Don White drove a Ford to victory in that 100-mile event on April 2, 1961.

The USAC stock cars then returned to Concord Speedway on March 3, 1963, with Bill Cheesbourg claiming the trophy.

The USAC midget series visited Asheville Speedway in 1968 and the sprint cars made their first and only appearance for a tripleheader at 311 Speedway, a dirt track in Madison, on Oct. 16-17, 1982. Ken Schrader, who would eventually move to the NASCAR Winston Cup Series, won the first 20-lap feature that weekend with the late Sheldon Kinser claiming the final two 20-lappers.

While the USAC sprint cars have not returned to the state since that race, the sanctioning body's Formula 2000 and midget series have visited during recent years.

The USAC midget series ran an indoor event at the old Charlotte Coliseum in 1990 and the Formula 2000 cars did double duty at Lowe's Motor Speedway in conjunction with an Indy Racing League event in 1997.

NASCAR Winston Cup champion Tony Stewart won the state's most recent USAC event, topping a 50-lap midget event on the frontstretch quarter-mile oval at Lowe's Motor Speedway on July 24, 1998.

Once considered a stepping stone to Indy car racing, the United States Auto Club now serves as training ground for NASCAR Winston Cup stars. Stewart, Jeff Gordon and Ryan Newman are among those who first rose to national prominence driving USAC sprint cars and midgets.

The Charlotte Dirt Doubleheader Nationals, which also includes the late model stock cars of the O'Reilly Southern All Star Racing Series, is part of UAW-GM Quality 500 Week that culminates with the inaugural nighttime running of the UAW-GM Quality 500 NASCAR Winston Cup event on Saturday night, Oct. 11, at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

Tickets for the Charlotte Dirt Doubleheader Nationals on Wednesday night, Oct. 8, start at just $15 and can be obtained online at www.lowesmotorspeedway.com or by calling 1-800-455-FANS.

-lms-

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article British Ringwood race notes 2003-09-27

Next article Hockenheimring II: Opel preview

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

FIA expects F1 races in Qatar and Abu Dhabi to continue as planned

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

United States GP

1 h

FIA expects F1 races in Qatar and Abu Dhabi to continue as planned

TDS Racing doubles down on IMSA program with two-car LMP2 return

IMSA

IMSA IMSA 1 h

TDS Racing doubles down on IMSA program with two-car LMP2 return

Why Isack Hadjar doesn’t like F1 sprints anymore

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Singapore GP

1 h

Why Isack Hadjar doesn’t like F1 sprints anymore

Ross Chastain and Shane van Gisbergen to race for JR Motorsports again in 2027

NASCAR O'Reilly

NOAP NASCAR O'Reilly

Phoenix II

2 h

Ross Chastain and Shane van Gisbergen to race for JR Motorsports again in 2027

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts