ST: Sunset Speedway announces 2015 Tentative Schedule

This past weekend at the banquet, Sunset Speedway (Innisfil, Ontario) track officials released their 2015 Tentative Schedule so that way drivers can begin to play ahead for next year.

Looking over the schedule, here are a couple things to keep in mind:

“Super Series”: Going off of the success of 2014, Sunset Speedway will once again feature an 11- race schedule en route to crowning their track champions, known as the “Super Series”.

Most tracks continue to run on a every week basis with expecting drivers to continuously show. However, as a cost saving tool and allowing drivers time away from the track, Sunset went to the shorter schedule last year. The results were successful as some drivers enjoyed having a shorter schedule to take family time and found it less stressful on their pocket. Other drivers, who look to race on every weekend, took the off-weeks as an opportunity to try another track in the area for a change. For the fans, it brought forth diverse action on other weeks, which still welcomed them out to the track.

Without a doubt bargaining off of last year’s success and talk of driver’s returning in 2015 already, this was definitely a smart move by track management then, and now.

Spring Velocity: Rather than having an invitational weekend kick off the season, track officials have moved the spring invitational to the third week (May 16/17) of the schedule on Victoria Day weekend, gave it a new name (Spring Velocity versus Spring Derby) and expanded upon the concept with last year’s success.

The Spring Derby this past season featured a 100 lap Late Model feature, 60 lap Super Stock and 35 lap Mini Stock – all qualified and ran on the Saturday night.

Now with the new format, it goes across two days and has been expanded to include other divisions. Saturday May 16th will feature qualifying and features for the OSCAAR Hanover Holiday Modifieds, OSCAAR Midgets and TQ Midgets, as well as qualifying for the OSCAAR Super Late Models. Then on Sunday May 17th, the Super Lates will run their 50 lap feature, while Late Models, Super Stock and Mini Stock qualify and run their features. The Late Models will run 75 laps, with Super Stock running 50 and Mini Stock running 35.

The argument could be made that speedway officials are looking to “open their season, close their season the same way” as it matches up very closely to the format that has been used for the year-end Velocity 250 the past three years.

OSCAAR: OSCAAR will once again make multiple trips to Sunset Speedway in 2014. The OSCAAR Super Late Models will start their season off with the 3rd annual Lucie Alywin Memorial 50 as part of the Spring Velocity weekend. That weekend also marks the first date of the year for both the OSCAAR Hanover Holiday Modifieds and OSCAAR Midgets.

Heading into June, rather than having a double-day format for the Don Biederman Memorial at the end of the month, OSCAAR will feature a pair of trips to the Speedway with the first coming on June 6th, followed by the second on June 27th. Both trips will feature the Super Lates, Modifieds and Midgets. Speculation leads belief that the Don Biederman Memorial will be on June 27th, as the ame with the past two seasons, but nothing has officially announced yet by OSCAAR.

The OSCAAR Midgets will make a trip to Sunset Speedway on July 11th, though will join the Legends and TQ Midgets instead of the other two OSCAAR divisions.

The OSCAAR Super Late Models and Modifieds will make their annual August trip to Sunset Speedway once again, scheduled for August 22nd. The 2014 trip saw the Super Lates run the first annual Bruce Gowland Memorial with Dwayne Baker picking up the victory.

While not official on the schedule, you can also expect the OSCAAR Super Lates, Modifieds and Midgets to make an apperance as part of Velocity weekend on September 26th and 27th.

United Late Model Ontario Tour: One of the biggest announcements to hit the Ontario short tracks in the past month has been the formation of a unified Pro Late Model/Limited Late Model tour that will travel across the province called the “United Late Model Ontario Tour”. Featuring eight dates, the tour is being put together by Luke Ramsay of APC Auto Parts, as well as other people in the stock car racing community. The tour will hit Sunset Speedway twice in it’s inaugural season, with dates scheduled for May 23rd and July 26th. The May date will see the APC Pro Late 100 ran alongside the Canadian Vintage Modifieds and Mini Stocks, while the second date will feature a Super Stock and Mini Stock invitational to go with the Late Model 100-lapper.

Sauble-Sunset: For the third straight year in a row, Sunset Speedway and Sauble Speedway have partnered up for a “Home-to-Home” series. As it has played out the past two years, Sunset Speedway drivers will go to Sauble one night, with Sauble drivers coming to Sunset another night. Drivers are put in the position to make sure they attend both events as attendance gives you “show-up points”. The 2015 verse will see Sunset Speedway drivers go to Sauble Speedway on July 11th, with Sauble drivers coming to Sunset on July 25th.

Pro Challenge: The Ontario Pro Challenge Series will return to Sunset Speedway once again in 2015 with three shows, scheduled on May 9th, July 11th and August 15th.

Legends: The Legends will return to Sunset Speedway twice in 2015 with two shows, scheduled July 11th and August 8th.

TQ Midgets: The TQ Midgets will return to Sunset Speedway once again in 2015 with three shows, scheduled on May 16th,  July 11th and August 15th.

Canadian Vintage Modified: The Canadian Vintage Modifieds will make a trip to Sunset Speedway on July 18th, as they’re joined by the Super Stocks and Mini Stocks that night.

Canadian Nationals 250: This past season, Sunset Speedway ran a special show on a Thursday night called the “Canadian Nationals”. The event was huge with 53 mini stocks coming out for the “Frequent Flyer 50 presented by SL Promotions”, which saw fans, drivers and companies in the sport put up bonus money for the drivers on top of what the speedway was set to pay them. On top of that, the Limited Late Models ran their biggest event of the year – a 125 lap feature – that saw a full field in attendance with action all the way thoroughout the race.

With the success of the event, Sunset has once again placed it on the 2015 schedule – but as Sunday show, in hopes to grow the car attendance that much more. On top of that, they have also added a 75 lap feature for the Super Stocks as part of the show so they can join in the fun.

Velocity 250: The Grand Slam of the season, the Velocity 250 has grown mightily over the years with over 300 cars in attendance over the course of the two day show last year. Featuring OSCAAR Super Lates, OSCAAR Modifieds, Hurricane Midgets, Pro Challenge, Late Models, Super Stocks and Mini Stocks, the action is top notch and has the fans on the edge of their seat. The details for 2015 as to exactly how the weekend will be ran have yet to be announced, but it is scheduled for September 26th and 27th.

Without a doubt, the 2015 season looks to be action packed full from top to bottom so make sure you plan your summer so that way you can come out and see it for yourself.