Earlier this month, Davey Hamliton Jr. revealed his plans for the inaugural Open Wheel Showdown at the Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Dec. 1-2.
The two-day event will featured winged asphalt sprint cars and national midgets, with a total purse of $200,000.
With the event being the first of its kind, event promoter Hamilton Jr. has assembled an all-star crew for the December race.
Jared Owen from the 500 Sprint Car Tour will assemble the officiating crew for the inaugural Open Wheel Showdown. The Midwest-based team will include officials from both the 500 Sprint Car Tour and Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park.
Owen, who will serve as operations director, will head up the pre-event planning and logistics for the event. Alongside Owen will be Justin Carey, also from the 500 Sprint Car Tour. Carey will be the competition director and handle all technical aspects of the event.
Brad Hayes (USSA Kenyon Midgets) will be the assistant midget director, working with Carey on the grounds for all pre-event and post-event inspections. Oswego Speedway’s Chuck Handley will serve as race control, while also being on the one-way Raceievers, communicating with drivers.
Along with these top officials, there will also be an engine tech director to make sure everyone is legal within the engine rules.
Nine additional officials will join the team mentioned above for the inaugural event.
With this event potentially being the most prestigious pavement winged sprint car race ever promoted, Hamilton Jr. felt it important to assemble a very diverse team with a long history in racing. With a strong group of individuals on both the officiating and competition side of things, the inaugural event is sure to be a safe, competitive and fun event for all involved.
“I’ve spent a lot of time putting a crew together with no affiliations with any of the current winged series,” explained Hamilton Jr. “It was important to me to assemble what I felt was a fair and competent event officiating team and I feel I’ve done just that. The Open Wheel Showdown will only be a once-a-year event and not a series of events.
“By focusing on this one event, I can put all of my efforts into it to ensure it’s organized and successful each year. I know there are rumors circulating that I plan to start a Midwest-based wing series next year, but I can assure you that is simply not the case.
“This is a lot of work as is, this is something for everyone to be able to come and compete for some really good money and not interfere with any schedules across the country with the hopes to grow the purse for this race each year to be bigger and bigger. Again I want to emphasize the Open Wheel Showdown will only be a one event a year deal.
“I feel good with what I’ve been able to do so far with this race and I have so many more great things to announce leading up to the race.”
The main event for the winged sprint cars on Saturday, Dec., 2 will pay $50,000-to-win and $2,500-to-start from a total race purse of $155,000. The national midget main event will also pay $10,000 to win.
“We are excited to be a part of this event,” Owen said. “The amount of work and passion that Davey Hamilton Jr. and his team have poured into this event is contagious. We have worked to assemble a cohesive group of individuals to run tech and race operations for the event.”
Entries for the event continue to pile in as over 40 sprint car entries have been received thus far.
Teams can enter at www.openwheelshowdown.com.