Winchester, IN (June 29, 2009) – Thursday Night Thunder will return to the famous High Banks of Winchester Speedway this Thursday, July 2^nd with the Rich Vogler Classic for the USAC National Sprint Cars. This event is a great way to kick off the July 4^th Holiday Weekend with additional racing from the CRA Street Stocks and Vore’s Welding & Steel CRA FWD Compacts and Fireworks!

Thursday’s Rich Vogler Classic was originally scheduled for Sunday, April 19^th, but that event was canceled because of weather. Darren Hagen gave car owner Keith Kunz his third consecutive Rich Vogler Classic USAC National Sprint Car victory in last year’s event by leading the final 25 laps to get the win. The Riverside, Calif. driver nearly didn’t make it to the checkered flag. On lap 24 Chris Windom was pressuring Hagen for the lead when the two cars made contact exiting turn four. Both cars slid to the inside of the front straightaway and while Windom slid to a stop sideways at the end of the straightaway after making contact with the inside retaining wall, Windom’s day was done, but Hagen was able to continue on as the leader. On the restart he pulled away, then withstood a strong challenge from veterans Tracy Hines and Dave Darland on another restart with two laps to go to get the victory.

Hagen would not have had a chance to defend his win if the April event had ran, he was injured the weekend prior after his Sprint car flipped violently at Eldora Speedway. Hagen will be in the Keith Kuntz Motorsports #67 Thursday night along with teammates Cole Witt and Henry Clarke. They could be the ones to watch with the recent dominance the Kuntz cars have shown in this event and on the High Banked pavement tracks.

Former Rich Vogler Classic winners Dave Darland and New Castle’s Tracy Hines top a list of talented drivers who look to get a victory on the challenging High Banks of Winchester Speedway. Other top drivers expected include Hines’s Tony Stewart Racing teammate Levi Jones, Brad Sweet in the Kasey Kahne Racing entry, Jerry Coons Jr. behind the wheel of the famous #69 Hoffman Sprinter along with talented Bobby East. Other notable drivers expected to compete include New Castle youngster Dakota Armstrong, Eric Gordon, Russ Gamester, Jacob Wilson, Brian Gerster, Bobby Santos, Jesse Hockett, Damion Gardner and former NASCAR competitor Shane Hmiel. Darland holds a slim two-point lead over Jones in USAC National Sprint Car points heading into Thursday nights event.

The Rich Vogler Classic has been increased to 40 laps for this year’s event, there will also be heat races and a possible Semi-feature for the Sprint cars. The CRA Street Stocks will have a special 25-lap non-points event Thursday night along with 10 lap heat races. The Vore’s Welding & Steel CRA FWD Compacts will have a 20 lap non-points feature along with 8 lap heat races.

Pit gates will open on Thursday at 1pm, spectator gates at 3:30pm with practice beginning for the USAC Sprints at 4pm, followed by qualifying for the USAC Sprints at 5pm. Practice for the Street Stocks and FWD Compacts will begin at 5:30 with qualifying for each to follow at 6:30pm. The race program will begin at 7:30pm. Fireworks will cap off the evening after the feature races. More event information is available at www.winchesterspeedway.com.