Five Mile Point’s New Futures Crate Sportsman Division Makes Debut This Saturday
Story By: FIVE MILE POINT SPEEDWAY – KIRKWOOD, NY – Five Mile Point Speedway will start a new chapter of racing this Saturday night with the debut of the Crate Sportsman Futures division.
The class will be for driver’s that are looking for more experience before jumping into the weekly ranks of the Insinger Performance Crate Sportsman class. Racing this Saturday begins at 7:15 p.m.
The Futures Crate Sportsman class isn’t a rookie class per say. It is open to any driver that may be starting their racing dream later in life or someone that doesn’t have the confidence yet to run with the weekly Insinger Performance Crate Sportsman. The weekly class has been ultra-competitive this season. There has yet to be a repeat winner in the headline Sportsman class and the racing has been in intense. Todd Titus, Ray Leonard, Gary Smith, Blaine Klinger and Russell Benke have all captured victories to date in 2020. Last Saturday thirty-six Insigner Performance Crate Sportsman teams were in competition.
Five Mile Point Speedway Owner Andrew Harpell stated, “We wanted to give everyone an opportunity to gain experience and better their racing experience.” He added, “If a new team comes to the track and runs a heat race and a consolation event and doesn’t make the feature they aren’t getting enough track time to improve. We all know that time in the seat is the most important factor along with confidence. The new Futures class will give teams time to learn the ropes before jumping in to such a highly competitive weekly division like our regular Insinger Performance Crate Sportsman.”
The Futures Crate Sportsman will get normal heat racing along with a 20 lap feature and a Victory Lane award and presentation. The feature will pay the top three $100, $50 and $50. In addition, this Saturday a bonus “Non-qualifiers” event has been scheduled for the teams that did not make the feature last week. That too will pay $100, $50 and $50 to the top three and will be 10 to 12 laps in distance pending on how many teams return for it.
The racing in 2020 has been outstanding at Five Mile Point Speedway albeit different. The spectator grandstand has been closed all season long. For the first time in 70 years spectators are not permitted into the grandstand area.
Pit gates open at 4:30 p.m. this Saturday night with practice set to begin at 6:15 p.m. Racing begins at 7:15 p.m. The Insinger Performance Crate Sportsman will be joined by a special Modified Dash for Cash presented by Binghamton Truck & Tire Center. The winner of the Modified Dash will get a guaranteed spot in the feature re-draw for the Mike Colsten Remembered 51 lap race on Monday. The Factory Stocks, 600 Modifieds, FWD Four Cylinder Expert and Novice will be joined by the Juniors and new Futures Crate Sportsman class.
