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 UNION,
KY (April 9) -- Kentucky's Steve Francis captured the season-opening
Battle of the Bluegrass DirtCar Series race at Florence Speedway on
Friday night. Francis was one of 81 cars on hand battling it out for
the $3,000-to-win prize. Of the 81 hopefuls, 68 elected to compete
using Hoosier racing tires. The Battle of the Bluegrass DirtCar Series
allows any of three different tire brands to be used in its
competition. Hoosier Late Model Dirt Product Manager Shanon Rush
attended the race to monitor some recently released tire compounds and
constructions.
Rush commented, "Spencer Wilson and his group
have created a very competitive atmosphere in the series. Even though
we (Hoosier) won the championship last season, we focused a lot of our
off-season development on the continued improvement of our Battle of
the Bluegrass Series tires." Rush added, "It definitely paid
off in the results we enjoyed this weekend."
Bart Hartman set fast time of the event with a lap of
16.321 seconds around the high banks of Florence Speedway's 1/2-mile
clay oval.
All but one of the preliminary heat races were won by
drivers on Hoosier tires with Brian Birkhofer, Steve Francis, Greg
Johnson, Rick Eckert and Earl Pearson, Jr. winning heats
one through five, respectively.
In the 30-lap feature, 20 of the 24 starters rode atop
the Hoosier brand. Steve Francis, using Hoosier's D55 compound on his
right side and the new *D55* compound on his left side, led
flag-to-flag en route to the win over fellow Hoosier-shod driver Earl
Pearson, Jr. Pearson used three *D55* tires and a single D55 on his
right-rear position to capture runner-up honors.
At the finish, seven of the first eight drivers to
cross the finish line rode on Hoosier tires including Brian Birkhofer
in fourth followed by Greg Johnson, Rick Eckert, Billy Moyer and Duke
Wiseant in fifth through eighth, respectively. Darrell Lanigan was the
final Hoosier-shod driver to crack the top ten finishing in tenth.
The race had two cautions and took just 17 minutes to
complete. Billy Moyer won the Hard Charger Award for advancing the
most positions. Moyer passed 12 drivers to finish seventh.
Hoosier Late Model Dirt Product Manager Shanon Rush
summed up the event. "It's always positive to start out the
season with a win." Rush added, "Florence is a very
challenging place when it comes to tires. With the performance of our
new *D55* tires here, we are definitely excited about the prospects
for the remainder of the Battle of the Bluegrass schedule."
For more information on the race you can visit www.naradirtcar.com.
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