BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — August 21, 2014 — The views in northwestern Canada are pretty amazing, especially at sunrise and sunset. The Northern Lights are often visible and make for a breathtaking sight. For sprint car fans in the northern reaches of Canada, the annual Oil City Cup at Castrol Raceway in Edmonton are sights and sounds they most look forward to all year long , as the World of Outlaws STP Sprint Car Series invades town. Kraig Kinser will make his seventh consecutive trip to the Great White North for the two-night event this weekend.
The Oil City Cup at Castrol Raceway will take to the track on Friday, August 22 and Saturday, August 23. A full night of racing is set for each night, beginning with hot laps, followed by heat races, a dash, B-main and A-Feature event.
“We’ve had a great last couple of weeks and can’t wait to get back to the track this weekend,” said Kinser. “When you are running well you want to race every night. Being fast right off the truck each night has certainly been a big help as we can then focus on other things and make small changes to be ready for the feature. Getting in the dash lately has also been very important and hopefully we can continue that trend as well.”
Last season at Castrol Raceway, Kinser finished 10th in the opener of the two-night event aboard the Mesilla Valley Transportation/Casey’s General Store/King Racing Products Maxim and was 11th in the finale. On the first night, the third-generation driver timed in third-fastest of the 24 entries. He finished fourth in the third heat race, which put him in the dash, where he started second and came home fourth. The final night of the 2013 Oil City Cup saw Kinser clock in seventh-quickest in time trials. He started on the front row of the first heat race and ended up fifth.
In his career at the three-eighths-mile, Kinser has three top-10 finishes. He crossed the line a career-best sixth at Castrol Raceway in 2011. He raced for the first time at the venue in 2008, which was the second year the World of Outlaws STP Car Series visited Castrol Raceway.
“Edmonton usually has a couple of grooves and you can really move around there,” he said. “We had some bad luck in the Canadian races last month and look to make up for that this week. The fans up there really support the event and that is great to see. It’s definitely a long trip from Minot (North Dakota) to Edmonton, but we have a great time and get to see a lot of people, who we only get to see once a year.”
Kinser heads to Castrol Raceway carrying momentum from seven straight top-10 finishes with the World of Outlaws STP Sprint Car Series, including three consecutive top-five efforts. He finished third at Junction Motor Speedway in Nebraska on August 12, and followed that up with a fourth-place showing at River Cities Speedway in North Dakota on August 15, and was fifth at Nodak Speedway on August 17.
The native of Bloomington, Indiana, is currently ninth in the World of Outlaws STP Sprint Car Series championship standings. Kinser has recorded 26 top-10 finishes thus far in 2014, with six of those being top-five performances.
Kraig Kinser Racing would like to thank Casey’s General Stores, Mesilla Valley Transportation, King Racing Products, Maxim, Aerodine Composites, Sander Engineering, Integra Shocks,All Star Performance, FK Rod Ends, Brown & Miller Racing Solutions, Bell, KSE Racing Products, ButlerBuilt, Schoenfeld Headers, Donovan Engineering, Fel-Pro, Brodix, Wilwood,Dyer’s, Barnes Systems, Ringer Gloves, Jakes Custom Golf Carts, and Ben Cook Racing Limited for their continued support.
Kraig Kinser By the Numbers: Castrol Raceway
0.375– Miles around Castrol Raceway
3– Career top-10 finishes at the three-eighths-mile
4- Tracks in Canada that the World of Outlaws STP Sprint Car Series race at this year
5– Nights of racing in Canada this season for the series
6– Finishing position in 2011 at Castrol Raceway to mark a career-best
9- Current position in points
12– Career main event starts at Castrol Raceway
12.561- Track record at Castrol Raceway
13.4– Average finish in 12 career main event starts at Castrol Raceway
14.3– Average finish in three starts in Canada this season
26– Top-10 finishes this season through Aug. 17
731- Miles from Nodak Speedway in Minot, North Dakota where the World of Outlaws raced on Aug. 17 to Castrol Raceway in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
2008- Year of first start at Castrol Raceway
7751– Points earned this season through Aug. 17
Keep up with all the action
For the latest news on Kraig Kinser, visit http://www.kraigkinser.com, and follow Kraig on Twitter at http://twitter.com/
Tune in
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