Patriot Sprint Tour America Championship to be Decided Friday at Black Rock

By Rich Vleck (Rochester, NY) | This Friday will not only be the running of one of the biggest traditional races on the Patriot Sprint Tour schedule, the 2015 PST America Championship will be decided.

This Friday, August 7, the Patriot Sprint Tour America will make their 39^th appearance at the fast 4/10-mile oval. This will mark the 12^th consecutive year the series has run there on the second weekend in August, but this will be only the second time where it will the final full-point race, deciding a championship.

Sammy Reakes IV comes in to the event with a 61-point advantage over Kyle Drum. Drum has been closing in over the last few races, but with Reakes finishing every full point race in the top 10 this season, the gap has remained. The key for Reakes will be starting from feature, if he can do that it will all but guarantee “The Honeybadger” as the seventh different PST America Champion.

Since 2004, the Patriots have sanctioned an event on the second weekend in August at BRS, with that sprint show going back even further. The winners of this show are a “who’s who” of area sprint car racing and beyond, including four PST America Champions, a URC Champion and a Sprint Cup Champion. This year, the race is sponsored by M&W Aluminum Products and surely will not disappoint.

Jared Zimbardi, the defending PST Champion and current series point leader of Bradford, PA, dominated the only other sprint show at the 4/10-mile oval in May and is hoping to get back in to Victory Lane for the first time as a father and for the fifth time on a Friday night in 2015.

Bryan Howland is the defending winner of this event and will be back in search of a repeat. Howland has had a terrific season but has not won since May so to say the least, the four-time champion is overdue. Another past winner ready planning to attend is Justin Barger.

Steve Collins, Dave Just and Scott Just each started their sprint car careers at Black Rock and will battle it out on the track for the third spot in the PST America standings. Collins holds a slim seven point lead over Dave Just, who is just two points ahead of his son Scott, who is coming off a career-best fourth place finish last Friday at his hometown Ransomville Speedway.

A PST event at Black Rock would not be complete without George Suprick. The 2004 Track Champion has six PST wins at BRS, which does not include his two Bully Hill Nationals wins. Suprick’s most recently series win was at Black Rock and he would love nothing more than to rekindle that glory on Friday.

Among those ready to Rock on Friday are Darryl and Alysha Ruggles, Jonathan Preston, Josh Azzi, Jake Muench, Joe Trenca, Dave Wickham, Tyler Graves, Paul Habeck, Will Glover, Pete Richardson, Jimmy Stitzel,

Racing action will kick off early at 7:00 P.M. on Friday. For more information, visit www.PatriotSprintTour.com.

Patriot Sprint Tour History at Black Rock

Races: 38

9/6/2003- Scott Bonnell

4/24/2004- Rich Swarthout

5/22/2004- Lance Yonge

6/5/2004- George Suprick

6/12/2004- George Suprick

6/19/2004- George Suprick

6/26/2004- Bobby Breen

7/2/2004- Rick Wilson