Home Pro 100 Rescheduled for August 15

(Joplin, MO-June 18, 2000) A stalled front bringing flooding rains has completely washed out the weekend’s events for the United Dirt Track Racing Association Hav-A-Tampa Dirt Late Model Home Pro 100 at Joplin 66 Speedway. UDTRA and track officials have rescheduled the event as a one-day $10,000-to-win race on August 15.

The Home Pro 100 was to be the second race of the Hav-A-Tampa six-race Midwest Tour, which at this point could be renamed the Mid-Wet Tour.

The first event of the tour in Davenport, IA was postponed one day to Thursday night due to rain. After Steve Francis of Ashland, KY won the Davenport race, the HAT teams made a mad eight-hour dash for Joplin.

Friday night’s preliminary events for the Home Pro 100 were washed out, so UDTRA and track officials adjusted Saturday night’s action as a one-day $10,000-to-win 75-lapper in front of the Speedvision television cameras. However, Mother Nature did not cooperate, as the weather system bringing the rain stalled over the area late Friday night.

The August 15 rescheduled date for the Joplin 66 Speedway HAT event will fit very nicely into the HAT teams’ travel schedule. They will compete in the Hav-A-Tampa Supernationals at West Plains Motor Speedway in West Plains, MO on August 11-12, and after the Joplin race travel to Batesville, AR on August 18-19 for the unsanctioned Topless 100.

The HAT teams and UDTRA officials will now hopefully leave the wet weather behind in Joplin, and head north ten hours to Huron, SD for a one-day $10,000-to-win 60-lap event at the Dakota State Fairgrounds Speedway.

Going into the first-ever race for HAT in Huron, SD, Rick Eckert of York, PA leads Wendell Wallace of Batesville, AR by 32 points in the HAT point standings.

The Davenport win for Francis moved him up to the third spot in the points chase, just 43 points out of first place. Scott Bloomquist is fourth, 55 points behind Eckert, and the 1996 HAT Champion Freddy Smith of Knoxville, TN is fifth, 162 behind the point leader.

The Midwest Tour will be in New Richmond, WI for the 2nd Annual Masters 100 at Cedar Lake Speedway on June 23-24. There will be a 60-lap $10,000-to-win main event on June 23, with the $35,000-to-win 2nd Annual Masters 100 on June 24 in front of the Speedvision television cameras. Wallace is the defending Masters 100 Champion.

Historic Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville, IA will host the finale of the Midwest Tour on June 27 with a 60-lap $10,000-to-win main event that will be taped by the Speedvision Network for airing later this summer.

(Photo by Ron Skinner)