Stakes rise for ASCS Frontier; Montana Roundup to pay $10,000 to win
Andrew Kunas, Stagg Motor Sports PR
Montana Roundup poster credit: Lisa Dietz
Harvey Ostermiller/Montana Roundup graphic credit: Big Sky Speedway
GREAT FALLS, Mont. – A huge announcement was made Tuesday afternoon on the Facebook page for the ASCS Frontier Region sprint car tour, as teams learned that instead of one, they’ll actually have two five-figure paydays to race for in the state of Montana in a matter of weeks.
The annual Montana Roundup, the traditional three-day Labor Day weekend event at Electric City Speedway in Great Falls, will pay $10,000 to win the Sunday night finale on September 3rd. The features on Friday and Saturday, September 1st and 2nd, are each paying $3,000 to win. Features all three nights will pay $300 to start.
The Montana Roundup comes the week after the two-day Harvey Ostermiller Memorial at Big Sky Speedway outside Billings, which is paying $12,012 on Saturday, August 26th, believed to be the largest winner’s payday ever for a sprint car race in Montana. The winner on Friday, August 25th will earn $3,000 also.
There are not a lot of 360 sprint car races across the country paying $10,000 or more to win. The ASCS Frontier Region and the state of Montana will have two such races, only eight days apart. Only a few 360 sprint car races in the country pay more to win than the upcoming two events in Montana will.
Before these upcoming races, the largest winner’s payday in ASCS Frontier Region history, going back to the tour’s inception in 2013 and outside of events that were ASCS National Tour races, is believed to be the $2,500 payday at Sheridan Speedway in Wyoming in July 2021. In the ten-day stretch coming up, August 25th to September 3rd, teams will be racing for a minimum $3,000 to win five times.
The extra pay for the 27th edition of the Montana Roundup was in the works for months. There had been, for a time recently, advocation and desire for a larger paying to win race to draw attention and bring more sprint car racers to Montana. The major payout boost for the Harvey Ostermiller Memorial, first competed in 2017, was announced in December and was the major news of the off-season. With the annual Montana Roundup in Great Falls coming the following weekend, the idea eventually came to try and increase the purse for that event as well and create two large pay days in Montana back-to-back. Teams that were already planning to travel for the Harvey Ostermiller Memorial will now have extra incentive to stick around for another week and race in the Montana Roundup.
A few details will be worked out still in the weeks leading up to the Montana Roundup, but plans are for points to be accumulated on Friday and Saturday nights and help determine main event lineups for Sunday’s finale.
As with the Harvey Ostermiller Memorial the weekend before, there will be pre-registration for the Montana Roundup. More information, including format details, pit gate openings and possible hotel arrangements, will be made available in the coming days.
Winners each night of the Montana Roundup in 2022 were Trever Kirkland (who eventually won the ASCS Frontier Region series championship), Tyler Driever and Joe Perry.
Kelly Miller of Lethbridge, Alberta currently leads the ASCS Frontier Region points, four times a winner already this season and holding a 64-point lead over Kirkland in the standings. Five-time Montana sprint car champion Phil Dietz currently sits third in the points over Kory Wermling and Perry.
More information on the Brodix Frontier Region of the American Sprint Car Series, as well as the American Sprint Car Series National Tour and other ASCS regional series can be found online at www.ascsracing.com. Stagg Motor Sports, the promoting company of the ASCS Frontier Region, can be found at www.staggmotorsports.com.
ASCS Frontier – Stagg Motor Sports
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American Sprint Car Series
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