Irwindale, Calif. – – In what many open-wheel fans will happily see as “their kind” of TV Holiday Special … MAVTV will air the Irwindale round of the King of the Wing West Coast Shoot-Out for sprint cars on Christmas Day, Thursday, December 25.
The Irwindale race is the second of three races that were run back to back to back on two nights and one afternoon earlier in the month. The event marked the first time that the rapid winged sprint cars had ever taken to the blended banks of the Irwindale half-mile in competition.
With teams coming west from as far away as Wisconsin, Tennessee, Indiana and Canada, the driver’s list boasted a strong collection of top open-wheel talent, many of whom had never raced at Irwindale before. The series is the creation of well-known Indianapolis 500 driver Davey Hamilton who, along with his son and father, competed in the new series.
Right out of the box the Irwindale event was marked by a “bit of a technical problem”. The track’s timing and scoring system was baffled when, for the first time in the 15-year history of the Speedway, a car broke the magic sub-14 second lap time mark.
JoJo Helberg from Rhonert Park, California had stunned the stadium by turning a 13.791 lap, the very fastest lap ever run, and the track’s timing computer simply refused to recognize it!
As it turned out 14 seconds flat was the quickest lap that the system was set up to compute (and that computation had never needed to be made right up until that incredible lap). The track computer was quickly reprogrammed and reset, and Helberg’s jaw-dropping lap (13.791 seconds – 130.520 mile per hour) was declared official.
By the time that qualifying was over thirteen drivers all had clocked-in faster than the all-time track record of 15.154 which stood for fourteen years that was set by Troy Regier from Dinuba, California driving a supermodified car.
As fans will be able see for themselves (by tuning into to MAVTV on December 25) as the winged sprint cars put on a wonderfully entertaining whirlwind of a show at Irwindale.
The show will air on MAVTV on Thurs. Dec 25th
at 9:30am PST and 12:30pm PST.
MAVTV is a television network with its roots deep in the automotive world. Owned and operated by Lucas Oil Products, Inc., MAVTV is the leading independently owned cable network in the USA and the premier motorsports destination for racing fans and gearheads everywhere. Currently turned on in more than 28 million households, the network is pushing hard to reach 50 million households in the next few years. MAVTV is currently available on Dish Network and DirecTV satellite services and many other cable providers. Visit www.mavtv.com