Home » Uncategorized » Jimmy Mars gears up for World of Outlaws show at Shawano Speedway

Jimmy Mars gears up for World of Outlaws show at Shawano Speedway

It’s only a couple of days until the World of Outlaws Late Model Show hits Shawano Speedway. I’ve been In contact with Kevin Kovac, public relations director for the World of Outlaws Late Model Series over the last week. He informed me that haulers should start arriving in the middle of the night on Tuesday. He also forwarded me a press release regarding Wisconsin’s Jimmy Mars gunning for the win on Wednesday. I have pasted the press release below…..

newwoolm

Contact: World Racing Group
Kevin Kovac, World of Outlaws Late Model Series P.R. Director
704-254-7929 • [email protected]

Mars Guns For Another Home-State Triumph When World of Outlaws Late Model Series Invades Shawano Speedway On Wednesday (Aug. 4)

SHAWANO, WI – Aug. 1, 2010 – When the World of Outlaws Late Model Series last visited Wisconsin one month ago, Jimmy Mars made his home-state fans proud with a powerful victory.

Can the superstar racer from Menomonie, Wis., shoot down the traveling invaders again when the national tour returns to the Badger State on Wednesday night (Aug. 4) for a much-anticipated 50-lap, $10,000-to-win event at Shawano Speedway? Mars sure hopes so.

“Anytime you can win a race it’s exciting, but if you can win a big one in your home state it’s more special,” said Mars, who dominated the first-ever WoO LMS show at Superior (Wis.) Speedway on July 8. “Winning in front of the people who know you a little more is pretty cool.”

Mars, 38, drew a loud ovation from Superior’s crowd when he downed the Outlaws last month and he’ll certainly earn a similar reaction if he’s triumphant at Shawano. But he conceded that he’ll have to work extra hard to go two-for-two in Wisconsin WoO LMS action this season because he’s not quite as familiar with Shawano’s sprawling half-mile oval as he is with Superior’s tighter three-eighths-mile layout.

“I’ve never had a chance to run at that place much in my career,” Mars said of Shawano, a venerable fairgrounds track located about 170 miles east of his home. “I’ve run at Superior at least once or twice a year for quite awhile so I had a pretty good idea of what I needed for the Outlaw show there and used that to my advantage, but I’ve only been to Shawano maybe two or three times.”

Mars made his last start at Shawano on May 17, 2008 – and it was a good one. With his then three-month-old son Taylor in the hospital battling a serious case of bacterial meningitis, Mars stayed close to home for a WISSOTA Rumble Series special at Shawano and road off with a convincing $10,000 victory.

“We had a pretty good car that night,” said Mars, who also remembers finishing fifth in a Hav-A-Tampa/UDTRA Series event in 2001 at Shawano. “I like racing on half-miles and the stuff we do with our (MB Custom) cars on half-miles has been working pretty well, so hopefully we can have another good night there. I’m looking forward to it.”

Mars will be well rested and his equipment fresh when he enters Wednesday night’s action at Shawano, which hosts the WoO LMS for the first time since the World Racing Group restarted the tour in 2004 after a 15-year hiatus. The series did visit Shawano during its short-lived first-incarnation (1988-1989) under late WoO Sprint Car Series founder Ted Johnson, running an event on June 5, 1989, that was won by Minnesota’s Rick Egersdorf.

Since Mars won two of the four A-Mains that made up last month’s WoO LMS ‘Wild West Tour’ (he followed his Superior victory with a score on July 10 at Dakota State Fair Speedway in Huron, S.D.), he has competed in just three events. He last raced on July 23, finishing second in a weekly program at his hometown Red Cedar Speedway.

Mars has spent his off time gearing up for Shawano and the 23rd annual USA Nationals on Aug. 5-7 at Cedar Lake Speedway in New Richmond, Wis., a $50,000-to-win spectacular that is sanctioned this season by the WoO LMS. He’s also enjoyed going racing with his six-year-old son Sam, who registered the best finish of his young career with a second-place run in a winged caged go-kart race on Saturday night (July 31).

“We stripped our cars completely down and went through them with a fine-tooth comb over the last two weeks,” said Mars, who has five top-five and six top-10 finishes in nine WoO LMS starts this season. “We want to make sure we’re ready to be game-on for Shawano and Cedar Lake. It’s going to be a big weekend of dirt Late Model racing in my home state and I’m excited about it.”

Mars, who is the defending champion of the USA Nationals, will face off on Wednesday night with arguably the most talented field of dirt Late Model drivers ever to grace Shawano Speedway. His rivals will include former WoO LMS champions Steve Francis of Ashland, Ky., who competed in the tour’s 1989 event at Shawano as an up-and-coming young driver and returned for the 2001 Hav-A-Tampa-UDTRA show, Josh Richards of Shinnston, W.Va., Tim McCreadie of Watertown, N.Y., and Darrell Lanigan of Union, Ky.

The roster of Outlaw regulars also features Rick Eckert of York, Pa. (an entrant in Shawano’s ’01 Hav-A-Tampa/UDTRA event), Shane Clanton of Fayetteville, Ga., Chub Frank of Bear Lake, Pa., Tim Fuller of Watertown, N.Y., Clint Smith of Senoia, Ga., Russell King of Bristolville, Ohio, rookie sensation Austin Hubbard of Seaford, Del., Brent Robinson of Smithfield, Va., and rookie Jill George of Cedar Falls, Iowa.

Other well-known drivers expected to enter Wednesday’s program include three-time WoO LMS champion Billy Moyer of Batesville, Ark., who set fast time for Shawano’s 1989 WoO event but ran into problems in the A-Main, Brian Birkhofer of Muscatine, Iowa, Brady Smith of Solon Springs, Wis., Dennis Erb Jr. of Carpentersville, Ill., and Jeep VanWormer of Pinconning, Mich., as well as locals such as Nick Anvelink, A.J. Diemel and Pete Parker.

Wednesday’s program, which also includes a $2,000-to-win feature for the IMCA Modifieds, is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.

Tickets are $25 for ages 12-and-over, with children 11-and-under admitted free of charge. Seats can be reserved in advance by calling Shawano Speedway at 715-526-7069. Pit passes will be $40.

Shawano Speedway is located about 45 minutes northwest of Green Bay and three-and-a-half hours east of Cedar Lake Speedway, where the WoO LMS heads for the USA Nationals immediately after Wednesday night’s final checkered flag.

Additional information about Shawano Speedway is available by visiting www.shawanospeedway.net.

For more information on the WoO LMS, visit www.worldofoutlaws.com.

The World of Outlaws Late Model Series is brought to fans across the country by many important sponsors and partners, including Arizona Sport Shirts (Official Apparel Company), Armor All (Official Car Care Products), Hoosier Racing Tires (Official Racing Tires), STP (Official Fuel Treatment), SuperClean (Official Cleaner-Degreaser), VP Racing (Official Racing Fuel), DirtonDirt.com (Hard Charger Award) and Chizmark Larson Insurance; in addition to contingency sponsors Eibach Springs, MSD Ignition, Ohlins Shocks, Pink Carburetors, Pro Power Engines, Quartermaster, Rocket Chassis, R2C Performance and Wrisco Aluminum.

Scroll to Top