unity3

DNK Select 250 a cost-effective way to shoot for the big bucks

Unity, Maine � Posting well over $150,000 in awards for Pro Stock racers should be enough to attract a stellar, star-packed field for the DNK Select 250 at Unity Raceway Sunday, June 13. When the promoters and the sanctioning body, PASS, start writing rules to cap expenses, the richest race in Maine this summer became even more attractive to competitors from throughout the Northeastern United States and eastern Canada.
    Promoter John Crawford, along with DNK Select Used Cars partners Doug White and Charlie Clark, did their homework last year, and learned a lot from Tom Mayberry by following his efforts to put on last year�s biggest short track race in New England, the DNK Big Dawg Challenge 400 at Maine�s Wiscasset Raceway.
    One thing that they learned was that the way the sanctioning Pro All Stars Series and their tire vendor, Northern Race Tires, allows competitors to attempt qualifying for the DNK Select 250 (and all of their other races) to do so with as little as four tires, with teams having the option to have more tires �on hold�, so to speak, for purchase before the main event if they qualify and, in the case of the DNK Select 250, are thusly assured of at least $2000. That is certainly not the case at most other events offering up posted awards in the six-figure range.
   �Racers will be able to change the tires they qualified on before the start of the DNK Select 250,� Pro All Stars Series President Tom Mayberry explained. �They can start the race on four new tires, and have a maximum of six tires in their pit for the duration of the race.� With thes limitations, Mayberry says racers who qualify for the 33-car 250-lapper will be able to cover all of their tire and fuel expenses with their share of the $152,000 racing purse.
   That�s quite a drop from the investment racers make in tires at another $100,00-plus event in Maine, where the tire truck disappears before the main event, after teams have purchased upwards of twenty tires in many cases, with little hope of using them up should they fail to qualify.
   �With the caliber of the PASS officiating team, their level playing ground in the rulebook, and their state-of-the art scoring system, it�s obvious we�d want to be allied with the region�s top Pro Stock touring series for an event of this magnitude,� promoter Crawford says.
   With a halftime break scheduled due to the lack of an infield pit road at Unity Raceway, it�s expected that most frontrunners will be using twelve new tires for qualifying and the event, far less than at most comparable events. While most teams leave other big event with unused, non-returnable tires, any fresh tires a competitor has after the DNK Select 250 will be able to use the rubber in PASS or Unity Raceway events later in the season, thanks to the cooperation from, and hard work by, vendor Northern Race Tires of Ossipee, New Hampshire.
   �We are extremely pleased that Tom Mayberry and the Pro All Stars Series will sanction and officiate the DNK Select 250 at Unity Raceway,� said John Crawford, track promoter. �We were impressed with how Northern Race Tires handled the Big Dawg Challenge and all of the PASS events we�ve had at Unity Raceway, and we�re more than happy with the way we�ve been able to work with them every week at Unity, as well.�
   PASS rules will be in effect for this event, though the usual PASS penalty for the somewhat controversial �downforce� bodies will be reduced to fifty pounds, partly in deference to their weekly legality at Unity Raceway.
   �Any advantage of the downforce body at Unity is negated somewhat by the physical characteristics of the racetrack here at Unity,� Crawford says. �We feel that this body is more advantageous at tracks where they aren�t on and off the throttle as much as they are at Unity. In deference to our Unity Pro Stock regulars, we�ve negotiated with Tom Mayberry of PASS to reduce his usual downforce body penalty for this event.�