358's To Close Out The Season This Saturday For $3,000 To Win

Speedway To Be Represented At Selinsgrove Street Fair This Saturday

SELINSGROVE, Pa. – Selinsgrove Speedway will close out the 2009 season with the running of the Ninth Annual Paul Stine Chevrolet National Open for 358 sprint cars at 7 p.m. this Saturday, Sept. 26. The 30-lap A-main will pay $3,000 to win out of a $13,605 purse.

Qualifying for the main event will include time trials, heat races, and a B-main. The race, which will pay $235 to qualify, will start 25 sprint cars, including one provisional for the highest Selinsgrove Speedway points driver who does not qualify through a heat race or the B-main. Selinsgrove Speedway 2009 rules will be in effect.

The roadrunner division will compete in a 12-lap main event paying $200 to win. Rounding out Saturday night’s racing card will be the Tobias SpeedStrs in the division’s second-ever appearance at the track. Gates will open at 5 p.m. No rain date has been set for the Saturday night event.

Pat Cannon of Etters, this year’s leading feature winner with seven victories, is the two-time defending champion of the 358 sprint car Open with wins in 2007 & 2008. TJ Stutts of Liverpool won the inaugural 358 Open at the speedway in 2001 and took the checkers again in 2003. Adrian Shaffer of York was the 358 Open champion in 2002. The 2004 race was won by Nate Snyder of Halifax. Blane Heimbach of Selinsgrove won the event in 2005, with Phil Walter of McClure taking home the trophy in 2006.

Snyder, who clinched his first career track title in the 2009 A&A Auto Stores standings, will be seeking his first win of the season behind the wheel of his trademark black No. 56. He became the sixth different track champion since the 358 sprint car division became the weekly open wheel attraction at Selinsgrove Speedway in 2001.

Prior to Saturday’s race, Snyder is tentatively scheduled to make an appearance along with several other drivers, including Blane Heimbach, Donnie Schick, Phil Walter, Chuck Paige, and Charlie Anderson, as part of a race car display at the 31st Annual Market Street Festival in downtown Selinsgrove. A few Micro Sprints and Go Karts will also be on display. Regarded as one of the region’s most popular street fairs, the Market Street Festival will run from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. Saturday.