Land Of Legends Gearing Up For First New York Nationals 360 Sprint Showdown

Story By: TOM SKIBINSKI / LAND OF LEGENDS RACEWAY – CANANDAIGUA, NY – The most lucrative weekend for wingmen in the history of Land Of Legends Raceway is less than a month away as the first-ever New York Nationals 360 Sprint Car Championship goes green Sept. 6-7.

Showcasing some of the best sprint car teams in the Northeast, top wheelmen will be sharing over $35,000 in the two-day NY Nationals extravaganza.

“We’re expecting a lot of sprint fans as well as many out of state teams with so much riding on the line,” remarked LOLR promoter Paul Cole, nearing the end of his second term promoting the historic Ontario Co. Fairgrounds oval which is enjoying its 56th year of motorsports activity. “There’s always a lot of big high-dollar season-ending shows for the Modifieds so this one gives our area sprinters top billing.”

Friday will be highlighted by Triple 15-lap qualifying races each boasting $1,000-to-win ($125-to-start), with six drivers (2 from each) advancing into Saturday’s A-Main. The Saturday championship slate will include heats, consolations and dashes to fill the remainder of the field for the $5,000-to-win, $400-to-start 360 Sprint Car finale geared up for 30 laps around the fast fairgrounds half-miler.

The New York Nationals also culminates the five-race Land of Legends 360 Championship Series, with winners of the four previous Patriot Sprint Tour and Empire Super Sprint events locked into the Sept. 7 A-Main. Chuck Hebing (May 4), Davie Franek (June 22) and Paulie Colagiovanni (July 4, Aug. 3) have already secured guaranteed spots, with show-up points awarded to all PST teams in competition.

“Interest continues to grow as I’m fielding more phone calls everyday requesting information about the weekend,” Cole added. “I know this (event) is something that needs to grow, can’t expect 60 sprint cars right off the bat. Yet with a number of drivers from Pennsylvania and Canada helping to cross-promote I’m confident we’ll get closer to 50 come September.”

The first full weekend of the month includes DIRTcar Sportsman, Street Stock and CRSA 305 Sprint Car action.

Round four of the 2nd Annual Land of Legends 305 CRSA Crown Series will be contested Friday with $750 on line for the 20-lap feature winner. Friday night also marks the return of the “Les Whyte Top Gun Shootout” for Street Stocks, with a $1,000 top prize up for grabs in the 75-lap full-fender frenzy. Filling the docket on Saturday are a 50-lap, $1,500-to-win Sportsman special plus the fifth and final segment of the LOLR 305 CRSA Crown Series paying $1,000 to the 25-lap winner.

The adult grandstand general admission ticket price is $22 on Friday, $20 for seniors (65 yrs. plus) while children 6-16 yrs. are $5 with a paid adult. On Saturday an adult GA ticket is $29, seniors are $27 and kids 16 & under are still $5. Reserved grandstand seating tickets are extra while a 2-day GA pass will be offered for $45.

Advance sale tickets remain available for purchase online by logging into www.LandOfLegendsRaceway.com, hitting the red “Buy Tickets” button on the homepage, then making a selection from the list of date(s)/event(s) provided.

On both days pit gates swing open at 4 p.m., grandstand seating starts at 5 o’clock and racing follows hot laps at 7.