STEVE STAPP FAST TIME CHALLENGE BEGINS MAY 23 AT TERRE HAUTE
By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Terre Haute, Indiana (May 17, 2023)………Sixty years after setting a new USAC Sprint Car track record, the Stapp family is honoring the National Sprint Car Hall of Famer with the Steve “The Bopper” Stapp Fast Time Challenge.
Following the Honest Abe Roofing Qualifying session, a cash prize of $250 will be awarded to the fastest qualifier of the May 23 Tony Hulman Classic featuring the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship at the Terre Haute (Ind.) Action Track.
If the fastest qualifier is able to break the track record, that driver would earn an additional bonus of $250 for a possible total of $500 for their overall qualifying effort.
If a new one-lap track record is not set during the May 23 race, the $250 will roll over to the NOS Energy Drink Indiana Sprint Week round at Terre Haute on Wednesday night, July 26.
Brady Bacon is the current one-lap track record holder for the USAC National Sprint Cars at Terre Haute, ripping a lap of 19.225 seconds around the half-mile on May 21, 2014.
The 2023 racing season marks the 60th anniversary of Steve Stapp’s record setting track record lap at Terre Haute, set on June 16, 1963 at a time of 23.420 seconds.
Stapp-owned cars earned 24 fast qualifying times in USAC National Sprint Car competition, three of which occurred at Terre Haute. Pancho Carter scored quick time honors for Stapp at the 1976 Tony Hulman Classic and once more in 1980.
At the tail end of 1976, Joe Saldana stepped into the Stapp seat and laid down a fast qualifying effort. Saldana, a 1973 Hulman Classic winner for car owner Lloyd Weaver, will serve as the grand marshal of Tuesday’s 53rd running of the event.
Stapp cars won the Hulman Classic twice in 1975 and 1979 as Pancho became the event’s first two-time winner. The Stapp sprinter captured a total of five USAC Sprint triumphs at Terre Haute, with Johnny Rutherford in 1965, Larry Dickson in 1968 and Carter again in 1977.
The 2023 Tony Hulman Classic on Tuesday night, May 23, features the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship along with UMP Modifieds. Pits open at 1pm Eastern with front gates opening at 3pm, the drivers meeting at 6pm and cars on track at 6:30pm. Tickets are $30 for general admission and $20 for the infield. Children age 10 and under are free. Pit passes are $40.
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