Williams Grove Hosts Outlaws Tune Up For 410’s Friday; National Open To Play Role In ’19 WoO Title Chase

Story By: SHAWN BROUSE / WILLIAMS GROVE SPEEDWAY – MECHANICSBURG, PA – The Diamond Series World of Outlaws tune up for the Lawrence Chevrolet 410 sprint cars will take center stage this Friday, September 27 at 7:30 pm at Williams Grove Speedway.

Friday’s 30-lap World of Outalws tune up race will pay $8,000 to win as the field uses the event to prepare themselves for the ensuing invasion by the outlaws drivers for the Champion Racing Oil National Open.

The 57th annual Champion Racing Oil National Open weekend is slated for Friday and Saturday, Octdober 4 and 5.

The September 27 show will also be the final event of the season for the HJ Towing & Recovery 358 sprint cars, thus serving to crown the track champion.

Doug Hammaker is the current point leader and he will be trying to claim his first ever Williams Grove Speedway 358 sprint track title.

The event for the 410 sprints will also be the final race in the 2019 Hoosier Diamond Series at the oval.

After the September 20 race at the track, Brian Montieth has stolen the Hoosier Diamond Series point lead away from Danny Dietrich by 65 points.

If he is able to hold on to the lead and claim the series title, it would be Montieth’s first since the series began in 1999.

The 410 sprints will compete in time trials, heats and a dash to set the main event starting lineup.

Gates will open at 5:30 pm.

Adult general admission for the program is set at $17 with youth ages 13 – 20 priced at $10. Kids ages 12 and under are always admitted for FREE at Williams Grove Speedway.

The 57th annual Champion Racing Oil National Open, sanctioned by the World of Outlaws NOS Engery Drink Sprint Cars Series, will close the season at the track on October 4 and 5.

Saturday’s 40-lap Champion Racing Oil National Open will pay $65,000 to the winner and will serve to crown the 2019 Williams Grove Speedway 410 sprint track champion.

In a quest to win his first career Williams Grove track title, Gettysburg’s Danny Dietrich carries a 560 point lead over Freddie Rahmer in the title chase as the pair enters the September 27 racing program.

National Open Plays Big Role In 2019 WoO Title Chase

The final invasion of the season by the World of Outlaws NOS Engergy Drink Sprint Cars Series is coming up in just two weeks at Williams Grove Speedway when the oval hosts the 57th annual Champion Racing Oil National Open on October 4 and 5 at 7:30 pm.

The outlaws stars will hit the track for the two-day show that will close the 2019 season at the oval.

But just who will be leading the traveling band into the stand could be the subject of some debate.

While perennial series champion Donny Schatz currently leads the series point standings, its Brad Sweet who holds the reins as the winningest driver on the tour this year, holding 15 wins to Schatz’s nine. .

In fact, the point lead was Sweets for a good part of the season before Schatz moved ahead.

And that will bring the duo and the rest of the outlaws stars into Williams Grove for a battle of supremacy against the Pennsylvania Posse in two weeks as they race for a $65,000 payday in the Saturday 40-lap Champion Racing Oil National Open.

For North Dakota’s Schatz, the pendulum may be swining in his favor at the track after he won for the first time there in July in more than four years.

Californian Sweet’s fortunes on the other hand are hoped to improve as he seeks to win at Williams Grove Speedway for the first time ever although he certainly has been on the podium, most recently in July.

If any time is the right time for Sweet to score his first win at Williams Grove, this Open will be it.

With its unrivaled depth in the fields of cars that assemble for it, the Williams Grove Champion Racing Oil National Open could prove pivotal to both drivers’ 2019 series title hopes.

Schatz already owns five National Open victories in his career.

Other top series contenders for victory when Open action unfolds in two weeks include David Gravel, who cut his teeth on the oval dirt as he learned the ropes of 410 sprint racing.

Gravel, a two-time Open winner already in his career, is currently third in series points and won at the track in May before pushing his current season win total to eight including the Knoxville Nationals.

Logan Schuchart too has been having a career season with the series in 2019 currently holding at seven wins on the year.

Schuchart’s car owner and grandfather, Bobby Allen, won the 1975 National Open.

Daryn Pittman, who has never won the Open but who has plenty of experience and success at the track and who always runs strong when he races there as an invader, is not to be discounted among top traveling Open contenders this year.

Though not an outlaw, touring driver and All Stars titlist Aaron Reutzel also has to be considered a contender after just picking up two series victories at the track in a month’s time.

The Texan cemented himself as the first ever All Stars driver to win an All Stars event at the oval since the series first raced there in 1970.