WHEATLAND, MO. (April 6, 2023) – Evan Collins is used to helping put on thrill shows for fans, as part of his job as an official with the Monster Truck Insanity Tour. This time, Collins is looking forward to being a part of the big show Saturday night at Lucas Oil Speedway.
Collins, from Van Buren, Arkansas, will start on the front row of the Easter Bowl 150 Enduro at Lucas Oil Speedway. The 150-lap race is for cars that are basically street-legal with some racing modifications for safety. It’s a free-for-all with bumping, banging and spins. Stoppages occur only for a red flag, if the track is blocked for a dangerous situation.
“I’m there to put on a show for the people who come to watch it,” Collins said. “I’ve been in the live entertainment industry for three or four years now. It’s about the people who spend their money who come to the show and come to support Lucas Oil and us weekend warriors.”
The first car to endure the mayhem and make it to 150 laps wins the $1,500 first prize. Drivers will lineup in the order that entries were received and Collins is No. 2, scheduled to take the green from the middle of row one in a three-wide, standing-star format.
“The best advice I can give somebody – along with myself – is to just stay out of the carnage,” Collins said. “The best car is probably not going to win. A guy last year went from 33rd to 3rd, purely by attrition. It’s more bob and weave for an hour and a half.”
Collins, 27, said he’s done some dirt-track racing in the past, but has mostly stuck with Enduro and Demolition Derbies as hobbies. His best Enduro finish has been a fifth, but he won a demolition derby last fall at home hometown track in Van Buren.
“But this will be by far the biggest Enduro that I’ve been to,” he said.
Collins said his job with the Monster Truck Insanity Tour involves flying into a city, laying out the track, working the show as an official and interacting with the crowd. When it’s over, he said the goal is to tear everything down and “put things back to normal and leave it better than how we found it.”
This will be his first trip to Lucas Oil Speedway and he’s gone through his 1970 Buick Century “with a fine-tooth comb” to get it prepared for the action.
“We’re just going up there to have fun,” Collins said.
Clay Goodman of Carthage came home the winner of last year’s inaugural Easter Bowl 150 Enduro. Troy Mitchell, of Henley, Mo., was a distant second and Jeremy Wilson of Humboldt, Kansas, wound up third after starting 33rd.
Enduro entry is $150 and entry forms can be found on the Drivers’ Dashboard section of LucasOilSpeedway.com.
Payout for the Enduro race will be: 1st $1,500; 2nd $800; 3rd $750; 4th $500; 5th $300, 6th $250; 7th $200; 8th $175; 9th $150 and 10th $125.
The O’Reilly Auto Parts USRA Stock Cars will be a USRA Summit Shootout Qualifier, paying $1,500 to win and $150 to start. B-Main non-qualifiers will earn $110 and there will be a $50 entry in the division.
To qualify for the Summit Shootout, which will be held in October during the week-long 10th annual Summit USRA Nationals at Lucas Oil Speedway, you must be a current track champion at a Summit USRA Weekly Racing Series track or win a Summit Shootout Qualifier during the 2023 racing season. If the winner of a Summit Shootout Qualifier also is a track champion, the second-place finisher in the Qualifier will get the invite to race in the Summit Shootout.
In the Midwest Mods it will be $600 to win and $110 to start with $70 going to B-Main non-qualifiers. Entry will be $25 and Midwest Mods will follow a POWRi Midwest Mod rules package.
Pit gates will open at 4 p.m. with grandstands at 5, hot laps at 6:30 and racing at 7:05.
Easter Bowl Enduro 150 ticket information:
Advance discount tickets online only (16 and up) – $12
Adults (16 and up) – $15
Seniors (62 and up)/Military – $12
Youth (ages 6-15) – $5
Kids (5 and under) – FREE
Family pass (two adults and up to three youth) – $35
Pit pass – $35
Off Road practice Saturday afternoon: Also on Saturday afternoon, due to a high interest in the inaugural MidAmerica Outdoors Side-by-Side Series event set for April 28-29 a practice day on the Off Road track will be held from noon-4 p.m. Pit gates will open at 10 a.m. with pit passes $25. That pass also will be good for admission into the Easter Bowl Enduro 150 program on the dirt track.
SRX roster of drivers expands, with tickets on sale: General admission tickets for the Superstar Racing Experience (SRX) race scheduled for Aug. 17 at Lucas Oil Speedway remain on sale. The SRX Thursday Night Thunder event will be the finale in the six-race series, which features some of racing’s biggest names.
Drivers previously announced for the Wheatland event include Tony Stewart, Kenny Wallace, Hailie Deegan, Brad Keselowski, Bobby Labonte, Ryan Newman, Helio Castroneves, Clint Bowyer, reigning SRX Champion Marco Andretti, Paul Tracy and Ryan Hunter-Reay.
Tickets for the SRX event will be $35 in advance and $40 at the gate (ages 16 and over). Kids (ages 6-15) will be $20 with ages 5-and-under free. Advance tickets can now be purchased via Stubwire – https://www.stubwire.com/event/srxespnthursdaynightthunder/lucasoilspeedway/wheatland/28075/ Pit passes are $50 and must be purchased the day of the event.
For information about any event at Lucas Oil Speedway in 2023 contact admissions director Nichole McMillan at (417) 282-5984 or email her at nichole@lucasoilspeedway.com for more information.
CONTACT:
Danny Lorton
Lucas Oil Speedway General Manager
Office: (417) 282-5984