By Brad Brickel
Tue, Jun 8, 2010
Forest Hill, MD - The 410 Sprint cars of the All-Star Circuit of Champions will be at Big Diamond Raceway in Minersville, PA to run the rained out show from Sunday, May 2nd. As a show of support for The RAACE Foundation, the customary 50/50 drawing will benefit The RAACE Foundation.
The RAACE Foundation (Race Against Abuse of Children Everywhere), a Maryland based 501(c)3 non-profit organization is dedicated to fighting the epidemic of child sexual abuse through Public Awareness campaigns and the distribution of educational materials. The only way to protect children from the horrors of child abuse is awareness. It is the stance of The RAACE Foundation that the fundamental objective of eliminating child abuse from ever occurring to any child should find acceptance within the belief system of every member of our society.
The RAACE Foundations TeamRAACE drivers Stevie Smith, Brian Leppo, Kyle Weiss, JR Schott and more are planning to sign the collectible TeamRAACE poster in honor of the occasion. Our TeamRAACE membership program provides the opportunities needed to explain the nature of the problem. An open door to communication is the first step. Because your interests and activities have the power to expose the hidden epidemic of child sexual abuse, The RAACE Foundation can educate adults so no child has to suffer the same silent fate.
The All Star Circuit of Champions is one of the premier sprint car sanctioning bodies in the USA and is now in their 28th year of operation. Several All-Stars drivers will be signing with TeamRAACE in support of The RAACE Foundation. The All Stars take pride in their reputation of providing highly competitive, fair, exciting racing for outlaw sprint cars with many different winners in a year. About 400 drivers participate annually in front of an average of 5,000 spectators per event. Currently 40+ races are scheduled in numerous states, such as Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Michigan, Tennessee, Nebraska, West Virginia, and Kansas. TeamRAACE driver Stevie Smith is tied with sprint car legends Rick Ferkel and Fred Linder at 35th all-time with 12 wins. Kenny Jacobs is the all-time winner in the series with 98 victories.
Sunday June 13 marks the first ever appearance of the All-Stars to Big Diamond Raceway, and its presented by the RAACE Foundation. Tim Shaffer of Aliquippa, PA, driver of the potent CH Motorsports #83, is the current point's leader followed by Greg Wilson of Benton, OH. Each of those stars will face a very prominent force in Sprint-car competition - The famed PA posse, which plans on defending their home turf.
Before becoming hall of fame stars on the Sprint-car circuit and helping to define the legend of the PA Posse, Fred Rahmer of Salfordville, PA and Don Kreitz Jr. of Sinking Spring were each successful in the Big Diamond Modified division. Rahmer scored 22 feature victories and three track championships (1982, 1983, 1985), while a young Kreitz scored his first win as a teenager at Big Diamond back in 1979.
A familiar face to TeamRAACE will be seen in the pit area that night, as John Zemaitis, of ZEMCO Speed Equipment, fields the #1 TeamRAACE Sprint car for The RAACE Foundation's Family of Drivers member Stevie Smith, who was a seven-time feature winner with the team last season and has over 70 career victories. Many fans may not be aware that Zemaitis himself was a weekly Small Block Modified (referred to as Sportsman during that time) driver at Big Diamond Raceway. Zemaitis, of Tower City, PA drove car #99 during the mid-70s. Ironically, John's only career victory was attained on May 7, 1976, nearly 34 years prior to his appearance as a car owner in this event.
As an added attraction, a special home track challenge race will take place for the always exciting Roadrunner class. The Big Diamond Raceway Roadrunners (utilizing their track rules) will challenge the Selinsgrove Speedway Roadrunners (must be Selinsgrove legal). The feature is 20-laps, and pays $300 to win.
For this Sunday June 13, gates open at 5:00PM and racing begins at 7:00PM. Adult grandstand admission is $25, and a kid's ticket will cost $5. A Friday June 11 adult admission ticket is worth a $5 discount at the window this Sunday. Big Diamond Raceway located in the coal regions of Central Pennsylvania has been crowning champions since 1973. What originally started out as a strip mining operation for coal turned into one of the finest dirt track racing facilities on the east coast. It has hosted all types of race cars from midgets and sprint cars to late models and the mighty modifieds.
Today Big Diamond hosts weekly three division shows of 358 Modifieds, Sportsman Modifieds and Street Stocks. They also host special events with such touring series as USAC, ARDC, The All-Star Circuit of Champions and the ROC Dirt Modified Tour. It has a rich history of racers calling The mecca of mud in Minersville home. The all-time win list reads like a who's who in northeast racing history, from all-time winner Craig VonDohren to names like Kenny Brightbill, Billy Pauch, Fred Rahmer, Duane Howard, Jeff Strunk, Brett Hearn, Alan Johnson, Frank Cozze, and Bobby Gerhart, Jr. In winged sprint car competition, Greg Hodnett has owned this facility winning features in 1999, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005.
For more information on The RAACE Foundation please visit www.raace.org or contact us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . For information on racing action at Big Diamond Raceway please visit www.bigdiamondraceway.com and Williams Grove Speedway is at www.williamsgrove.com. The All-Star Circuit of Champions is located on the web at www.allstarsprint.com and The ARDC is at www.ardcmidgets.com. We look forward to seeing you at the races!
