USA International Hosts USAR Hooters ProCup Opener
By Jack Smith
Saturday night the engines will roar across Polk County in Central Florida when the drivers of the USAR ProCup get strapped in for the first of 30 races on the 2006 schedule.
The series, billed by KARNAC in 1998 as "America's most exciting short track series", continues to live up the that billing as more and more top drivers come to the series that is for many a stepping stone to the the big time.
This year Shane Huffman, 2003 series champion and rookie of the year and perennial front runner, returns to take the helm of the JR Motorsports ride. Evidence of the ProCup's success, last year's JR Motorsports driver Mark McFarland has moved on to the NASCAR Busch Series along with the entire ProCup team that finished second behind Huffman in the ProCup Southern Division in 2005.
Huffman, overjoyed at the prospects said ""This is the opportunity of a lifetime, to be able to join an organization like JR Motorsports is a dream come true, and I can’t thank them enough. Mark and I had a lot of fun racing each other last year, and I was able to see first hand that this is a top-notch race team. I look forward to becoming his teammate and winning races."
Florida race fans will see a familiar face in the pre-race autograph sessions with the return of Derrick Kelley, this year in the Velocity Motorsports #17 machine. Kelley was a fixture on the national tour for many years and on a recent Short Track America interview with Velocity's Bob Wagoner, "We are all pumped up about this, with the talent these guys have it is going to an awesome thing."
Kelley was the winner of the FASCAR Late Model title during speedweeks and he will be joined at Velocity with Dana White, a racer with Busch and Craftsman Truck experience.
When the ASA short track series folded a few years back one of the top veteran racers in the country made the switch to the ProCup, that being Gary St Amant. St Amant completed a very successful season last year, ending up fifth in the overall
Championship Series Points Race. There was some concern that St Amant may not return this year, but last week it was announced that he would indeed be back, driving with the Tatman Motorsports team; a team that he has major control over building for the future. "I get to put a complete team together, and that’s what really excited me about this offer," said St. Amant, who will drive the No. 61n JEGS.com/HTS Mulch Chevrolet for Tatman Motorsports in 2006. "It’s going to be a lot of work, but I’m looking forward to it. Our goal is to be a championship team in the future. We’ll have to take baby steps at first, but I think we can grow into a championship team."
One of the longest-running sponsor/driver relationships in all of racing, the partnership between Fireside Hearth & Home and Mike Herman will see a return full time to the ProCup in 2006. The Kannapolis, N.C., driver and his family owned team MHR, Inc. has been working with Fireside for 12 years. Herman, a finalist in the Roush Gong-Show is a veteran of the early ProCup championship chases.
Of course veteran ProCup Champions such as Bobby Gill, Benny Gordon and Clay Rogers will be at the head of the list of possible repeat winners in the 2006 ProCup campaign.
"At just 19 years old, Michelle Theriault is an All-American teenage beauty, with roots in strong family values. Seeing her potential and realizing Michelle’s dream, Michelle’s family has made her racing career a priority and their support has been extremely instrumental in her success" a recent press release describes one of the Hooters series most popular drivers. We talked with Michele on her debut with the ProCup in early 2004 and while she has not had stellar success, she continues to improve and as we discovered in that very first interview, she has no quit.
This year she opens with a new sponsor and a renewed spirit, "“Its very exciting. GLOCK will be my first major sponsor. What’s great about GLOCK is that shooting is something everyone can enjoy and learning firearms safety is something I think is very important. I am very happy to be a part of their team,” says Michelle, smiling. GLOCK of course is a major producer of firearms.
"To know that you can go to either one of our races in the Northern or Southern Division and have at least, at the bare minimum, 10 to 12 to even 15 cars with the right circumstances can win a race, that says a lot for the competition level of our series." So says Tim Southers, ProCup Public Relations Manager, and he is right on the money.
Last year young Joey Logano, racing selected races in the ProCup won at the 1/2 mile speedway in Mansfield Ohio. Logano, too young for NASCAR, and a Mark Martin protege, started 6th en route to a stunning trip to Victory Lane that included a call to the celebrating driver in the winners circle from Martin.
Logano will race the full Southern Division this year. As Tim Southers said recently in a Short Track America interview, "when Joey turns 18 we are going to have to tell him bye, because he is just too good".
Rewarding car owners is at the top of the Hooters ProCup list with over $200,000 in prizes for car owners in 2006 and cost cutting measures for teams, as the economy is always an important factor in the success of a traveling series such as the ProCup. Teams will be limited to 5 tests beginning this year, as some teams were able, in the past, to spend as much on testing as some teams spend on racing.
USA International should be an interesting test for the Southern Division drivers, and veteran ProCup observer and KARNAC ProCup Report Editor Skip Wall said, "There will be a lot of inexperience at this race, and there will be some tempers flaring up, there is usually some egos distorted at Lakeland because there are some nice race card that have been built over the year and somehow they get tore up. Some of it comes from inexperience and some of it comes from good tough competition. What a great place to start it out at."
We couldn't agree more. As always, since 1997 KARNAC will bring you all the news stories, winners, losers, photos and interviews from the winners circle, and again this year live updates from the speedway in Lakeland Florida. For directions to the track visit the USA International Speedway web site www.usaspeedway.com
Championship Series Points Race. There was some concern that St Amant may not return this year, but last week it was announced that he would indeed be back, driving with the Tatman Motorsports team; a team that he has major control over building for the future. "I get to put a complete team together, and that’s what really excited me about this offer," said St. Amant, who will drive the No. 61n JEGS.com/HTS Mulch Chevrolet for Tatman Motorsports in 2006. "It’s going to be a lot of work, but I’m looking forward to it. Our goal is to be a championship team in the future. We’ll have to take baby steps at first, but I think we can grow into a championship team."
"At just 19 years old, Michelle Theriault is an All-American teenage beauty, with roots in strong family values. Seeing her potential and realizing Michelle’s dream, Michelle’s family has made her racing career a priority and their support has been extremely instrumental in her success" a recent press release describes one of the Hooters series most popular drivers. We talked with Michele on her debut with the ProCup in early 2004 and while she has not had stellar success, she continues to improve and as we discovered in that very first interview, she has no quit. 
