March 11, 2016 – Goshen, IN…For the first time in Supermodified Ultimate Pavement Racing Series, (SUPRS), the St. Patrick’s Day Grab O’ the Green supermodified sim race will move north of the border to Mosport Speedway for a 50 lap feature.
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This year’s race will mark the first appearance of the non-wing supermodified class. In yet another first, the racers will go for the gold at the end of the rainbow using the rFactor platform.
While not the first time the race has been run somewhere other than its “home track” this departure of platform, class AND track is a pretty big deal.
“I’m very excited to be running this track,” claimed defending race winner Rob Warren. “We’ve done a lot of testing, seems to be multiple grooves, it’s a little tricky in places and I think that we are all in for a very good time Tuesday.”
Last year when the race was contested at Dover Downs, Warren was the winner of a wild finish, passing Domenic Gioia on the last lap to win.
In the first three years of the race Dover Downs played host to the roaring winged supermodifieds with wins going to Kevin Marine, Randy Ritskes and Kris Heveron.
For the 2007-08 and 2008-09 seasons, after a three-year run on the mile, SUPRS officials decided to move away from the longer tracks other than Phoenix and New Hampshire International Speedway. The St. Patrick’s day event was then moved to Stafford Mountain Speedway and became part of the Empire State Super Series races. Bud Flath and Ray Sand, Jr. picked up the wins at the high banked half mile New York venue.
Continuing with a focus on short tracks, the race moved west of the Mississippi to Buckley Speedway in California, being run prior to the Billy Vukovich III Classic. Canadian Jamie Hartley was victorious in the one and only time the St. Patrick’s Day Grab O’ the Green was raced there.
For the next several years, SUPRS focused on a smaller schedule and the St. Patrick’s Day Grab O’ the Green was dropped due to fact that there were fewer races during the season.
In 2014, after a seven-year absence, the race returned to where it started at Dover Downs and was won by Steve Callahan after he led all 25 laps of the feature. It also kicked off an amazing five race win streak for “Steady” Steve.
This year the race was moved to a new venue when members expressed a wish to race the SUPRS NW V1 rFactor mod, and after extensive testing at Mosport built by track author NegB, league officials decided it was time to book another show in Canada. “We got permission to use the track from NegB, then he wanted to make it better because it hadn’t really been tested much,” said SUPRS co-founder Bob Gangwer. “I can appreciate all the work he’s done to help make, what was already a very cool track, even better for us.”
Practice begins at 8pm and Time Trials will take place at 8:30pm. Racing for the sim supermodifieds will begin with heat races at 8:45pm and the feature will go off around 9:00pm.
Supermodified racing fans and sim racers can learn more about the original online supermodified sim racing sanction by visiting www.SUPRS.net, “Liking” SUPRS on Facebook, Circling SUPRS on Google+, Following @SUPRSOnline on Twitter, and Viewing SUPRS videos on YouTube.
SUPRS St. Patrick’s Day Grab O’ the Green History:
- 2005-Kevin Marine-Dover Downs International Speedway
- 2006-Randy Ritskes-Dover Downs International Speedway
- 2007-Kris Heveron-Dover Downs International Speedway
- 2008-Bud Flath-Stafford Mountain Raceway
- 2009-Ray Sand, Jr.-Stafford Mountain Raceway
- 2010-Jamie Hartley-Buckley Speedway
- 2011-No Race
- 2012-No Race
- 2013-No Race
- 2014-Steve Callahan-Dover Downs International Speedway
- 2015-Rob Warren-Dover Downs International Speedway
