INDIANAPOLIS, IN (September 13, 2018) - The most anticipated event of the POWRi Lucas Oil WAR Sprint League season is quickly approaching as the eighth annual Jesse Hockett/Daniel McMillin Memorial is just over one week away. With 62 pre-entries already signed-in for the sprint car extravaganza at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Missouri, the WAR Sprints have revamped the format and boosted the purse, with a racer-friendly focus in mind.
Instead of the typical six heat race, three semi feature and main event format for three consecutive nights, the decision was made to change things up in 2018. With another historic car count of 60 and potentially 70+ entries, the WAR Sprints portion of the Hockett/McMillin Memorial is once again slated to feature the highest car count for non-wing sprint cars in the country.
This year, the field will be split into two, with half of the drivers competing in Thursday's preliminary night presented by Mesilla Valley Transportation and the other half racing in Friday's preliminary night presented by Rockwell Security. Any late entries signing-in at the event will draw for a preliminary night to be assigned to.
Simply put, this year's format is all about one thing: points. On the preliminary night, drivers will be competing for points every single time they hit the track. Group qualifying, heat races, qualifiers, and feature all will be opportunities to gather points by passing cars and/or finishing at the front. A full dive into the revamped format can be found below.
Along with a new format comes the opportunity for a new purse. With over $40,000 in total purse earnings up for grabs, this year's event will feature preliminary features that pay $1,377 to win and $200 to start with all non-qualifiers making $75. In Saturday's finale, the winner is set to take $3,077 home with the start money at $400 and all non-qualifiers making $125. This is the highest the Hockett/McMillin WAR Sprints purse has ever been.
The list of Thursday and Friday night preliminary qualifiers can be found at the bottom of this article, and is subject to change due to weather or car count. Due to this being such a high-caliber event and the revamped format, drivers will receive 50 show-up points for their preliminary night and Saturday's finale.
Preliminary Night Format (Thursday & Friday, Based On 70 Cars):
- Pill draw will be used to organize heat races, however it will NOT determine the starting lineups this time.
- You will hot lap with your heat race, which serves as group qualifying.
- Times from within your group will line up the eight-lap heat race, with a four-car inversion placing the quickest-qualifier in fourth, second-quickest in third, etc. Fifth through the balance of the heat will line up straight up from their group qualifying times.
- Combined points from group qualifying and heat races will then lineup a trio of ten-lap qualifiers. The qualifiers will see a six-car inversion with high point man starting sixth in qualifier one, second in points starting sixth in qualifier two, etc.
- Following the qualifiers, the top 16 in overall points will lock-in to the preliminary feature, with all others heading for the B-Main.
- The 12-lap B-Main will line up directly off points and transfer the top four finishers to the tail of the feature.
- The 25-lap preliminary feature will have an eight-car inversion, placing the high point man starting eighth, second in points starting seventh, etc.
- Following the conclusion of Friday's program, the top 12 in overall points will lock-in to Saturday's pole shuffle and main event, 13-44 in points will split into two B-Mains, while 45-70 in points will split into two C-Mains.
The Points System (Preliminary Night ONLY):
- Group Qualifying (One-Point Drop-Off)… 1st (10), 2nd (9), 3rd (8), etc.
- Heat Races (Two-Point Drop-Off)… 1st (20), 2nd (18), 3rd (16), etc… +1 PT per pass.
- Qualifiers (Three-Point Drop Off)… 1st (50), 2nd (47), 3rd (44), etc… +2 PTS per pass.
- Feature (Four-Point Drop-Off)… 1st (150), 2nd (146), 3rd (142), etc… +3 PTS per pass.
Jesse Hockett/Daniel McMillin Memorial Finale (Saturday):
- The pair of C-Mains will start the evening and be 12-lap races with the top four finishers from each transferring to the back of the corresponding feature.
- The top 12 in points will head out for lock-in hot laps and following their practice sessions, will remain in the infield to run the pole shuffle. This is not your average pole shuffle with two cars, however, this is a five-round series of four-car, three-lap races.
- Point-Getters 9th-10th-11th-12th run a green-white-checkered race with the top two finishers moving on. Those transfers will then race point-getters 7th-8th in another three-lap bout with only two moving on. The process continues until the transfers of round four battle the highest and second-highest in points for the pole position. In theory, you can gain as many spots as possible all the way up until the pole, but you can only lose three positions, moving you back one row.
- The pair of B-Mains will be 15-lap events with the top six finishers from each transferring into the main event. Transfers from the first B-Main will line the final six inside rows of the feature with the transfers from the second B-Main lining the final six outside rows of the feature.
- The 24-car, 30-lap championship main event will then conclude the weekend with a new champion being crowned.
Thursday's Mesilla Valley Transportation Preliminary Night:
04 - Kyle Jones
5$ - Danny Smith
5X - Tyson Hall
6 - Mario Clouser
6X - Chris Phillips
7R - JD Black
9B - Casey Baker
12 - Wesley Smith
15D - Andrew Deal
18 - Terry Richards
20 - Steve Thomas
21 - Ryan Kitchen
21X - Carson Short
22S - Slater Helt
24 - Landon Simon
24H - Ty Hulsey
27S - Tom Sires,
30 - Ryan Kent
31K - Dylan Kadous
31W - Casey Wills
36 - Kevin Reed
41 - Brad Wyatt
56 - Mitchell Davis
65 - Chris Parkinson
77 - Jack Wagner
77K - Katlynn Leer
78 - Rob Caho Jr.
82 - Christie Thomason
91 - TBA
99 - Korey Weyant
TBA - Clinton Boyles
Friday's Rockwell Security Preliminary Night:
1 - Mitch Wissmiller
1W - Paul White
2 - Zach Clark
3C - Kyle Cummins
5D - Zach Daum
6M - Christian Moore
7JR - Warren Johnson
7M - Chance Morton
7S - Wade Seiler
9 - Matt Moore
9$ - Kyle Clark
9X - Chad Goff
11W - Wyatt Burks
13 - Grant Wresche
15B - Quinton Benson
16 - Anthony Nicholson
22 - David Stephenson
22P - Chase Porter
22X - Jeff Pellersels
24C - Craig Carroll
31 - Joe B. Miller
36E - Blake Edwards
37 - Brian Beebe
51 - Mitchell Moore
52 - JD Fry
53 - Brett Wilson
54 - Trey Gropp
57 - TJ Artz
67 - Jonathan Hughes
73 - Samuel Wagner
90 - Riley Kreisel
97 - Kevin Cummins