Outlaw Sprinters Launch Final Ascot Park Season

Featured by the return of Steve Kinser of Bloomington, Ind, the all-time leading money winner in sprint car racing, the recently unified World of Outlaws and their winged machines will provide a stellar kickoff to the final season of competition at Ascot Park Friday and Saturday nights, Feb. 23-24.

With the expiration of Ascot’s 15-year lease set for Dec. 31, 1990, the appearance is a significant one for the touring group which also appears at Bakersfield Speed in Oildale (Feb. 16-17), Kings Speedway in Handord (Feb. 28, San Jose Fairgrounds (March 2-3), Placerville Speedway (March 4) and Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico (March 9-10) on the California swing which opens the 1990 World of Outlaws tour.

The Ascot races will match Kinser, a nine-time World of Outlaws champion, against 1989 champion Bobby Davis Jr. of Memphis, Tenn., and a pair of California champions, Ron Shuman of Tempe, Ariz., and Brent Kaeding of Campbell, Calif.

Shuman, who for several years traveled with the Outlaws, will put wings back on his car after back-to-back titles in the wingless California Racing Assn. Kaeding, the defending Northern California Auto Club champion, defeated the Outlaws on two occasions last season.

The dissolution of the United Sprint Assn. of which Kinser was an invester last season, not only brought him back the the Outlaws, but also his cousin, Mark Kinser, the 1987 Ascot Midwinter champion, and talented Dave Blaney of Hartford, Ohio.

The unification process also is bringing at least a half dozen of the famed Pennsylvania Posse to Ascot. Leading the group is teen-ager Stevie Smith of New Oxford, the 1989 Fram/Autolite National Open Champion, and Keith Kauffman of Mifflintown, the Outlaw winner at San Jose last fall. Other Pennsylvanians entered include Frankie Kerr of Selinsgrove, Donnie Kreitz, Jr. of Mechanicsburg, Steve Siegel of New Oxford as well as Cris Eash of Woodbine, Md.

The Midwest entrants include 1989 Rookie of the Year Joe Gaerte of Rochester, Ind.; Andy Hillenburg of Broken Arrow, Okla.; Danny Smith of Danville, Ind. and Danny Lasoski of Lexington, Mo., the 1989 Knoxville, Iowa, track champion.

In addition to Kaeding, the Northern California group also includes Time Green and Chuck Miller of San Jose, Jimmy Sills of Placerville and Darrell Hanestad of San Leandro, who also were winners against the Outlaws last season.

Two other well-known Westerners entered are Lealand McSpadden of Tempe, Ariz., and Johnny Herrera of Albuquerque, N.M. McSpadden, who competes most of the time with CRA like Shuman, will have a wing on the 1990 Ford-powered ride. The $55,000 program calls for main events on both Friday and Saturday nights. A 20-lapper tops Friday’s program while the main event is for 30 laps on Saturday night.