CARB NIGHT CLASSIC CONTINUES USAC’s MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND TRADITION AT LUCAS OIL RACEWAY
USAC’s long-standing tradition of racing on Memorial Day weekend at Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis continues on Friday night, May 27, 2016, with the running of the “Carb Night Classic…The Race Before the 500” featuring the USAC Silver Crown Series.
The event will feature a 100-lap event for the USAC Silver Crown Series. In addition, the racing extravaganza at the .686-mile track west of Indianapolis, located just a little over six miles from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, will play host to the 5th Annual USAC Hall of Fame induction ceremonies as well as complete events for two series from the Mazda Road to Indy: The Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires and the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda.
The event is the continuation of a tradition of USAC racing in Central Indiana on Memorial Day Weekend leading up to the running of the Indianapolis 500. In fact, this year’s “Carb Night Classic…The Race Before the 500” will mark the 34th consecutive year a USAC event has been held at Lucas Oil Raceway on Memorial Day weekend.
“It’s very exciting to be part of such a big event on Memorial Day weekend in Indy,” USAC Racing Director Levi Jones said. “Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis is synonymous with USAC racing ever since the first event back in 1961. The ‘Carb Night Classic’ is sure to provide a night full of action-packed open wheel racing for fans.”
The Silver Crown Series event, previously known as the “Day Before the 500” last season was won by Kingsburg, California’s Tanner Swanson who also took the victory in Lucas Oil Raceway’s other Silver Crown event in July of 2015.
In what is a busy week for USAC competitors in Indiana, the USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Cars will take on the Terre Haute Action Track Wednesday, May 25, for the 46th running of the “Tony Hulman Classic.” The following day, Thursday, May 26, the USAC Silver Crown cars will compete on the one-mile dirt surface at the Indiana State Fairgrounds for the prestigious “Hoosier Hundred” before coming to Lucas Oil Raceway for the “Carb Night Classic…The Race Before the 500” on Friday night, May 27.
The back-to-back events on the Silver Crown schedule mark a rare occurrence in the history of the series. Since 1971, only three times has the Silver Crown Series raced at different tracks in consecutive days.
In 1974, Mario Andretti took home both of the weekend’s 100-mile races at the Missouri State Fairgrounds in Sedalia and the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield in his Vel’s Parnelli Jones Racing number 2 on August 17-18. J.J. Yeley swept 100-lappers on consecutive nights on May 22-23 of 2003 at Lucas Oil Raceway (then called Indianapolis Raceway Park) and the Indiana State Fairgrounds in Indianapolis in Bob East & Tony Stewart’s number 9. The last occasion came in 2008 when Dave Darland won on the dirt at Terre Haute and Bobby East won on the pavement at Lucas Oil Raceway.