By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Speedway, Indiana (December 6, 2023)………An eclectic docket featuring 14 events with half on dirt and half on pavement tracks is the agenda in 2024 for the 54th season of the most diverse oval racing series on the planet – the USAC Silver Crown National Championship.
Of those 14 dates, 12 events are confirmed at press time with a balanced slate of six events set for dirt tracks and six more on the pavement at venues ranging from half-miles to one miles and on tracks varying from semi-banked to high-banked across the states of Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
NEW FOR ‘24
The last time Pennsylvania’s Jennerstown Speedway hosted a USAC national event, the year was 1969. The track surface was still dirt and a human had not yet even stepped foot on the moon. Bob Tattersall wound up as the winner of that day’s midget race more than a half century ago.
Now, it’s the big cars’ turn at Jennerstown. On Saturday night, August 10, USAC competitors of the modern day will take their first shot at the now 0.522-mile paved oval for the inaugural Silver Crown showdown.
100 MILES FOR A PAYDAY AT IRP
The highest-paying event of the 2024 USAC Silver Crown season will also be its longest distance race in terms of laps. On Friday night of Memorial Day weekend, May 24, Indiana’s Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park will host the 67th running of the Hoosier Hundred on the .686-mile paved oval. Held for the second year in a row on pavement, the 146-lap, 100-mile event will pay $25,000-to-win.
THE PAVED SLATE
The 2024 season opens and closes on the hardtop with dates at Ohio’s Toledo Speedway for the Rollie Beale Classic on April 20 followed by a trip to the hallowed banks of Indiana’s Winchester Speedway for the running of the Rich Vogler Classic.
The Hoosier Hundred brings the series once again to IRP on May 24, then kicks off the summer months with a swing through Oregon, Wisconsin’s Madison International Speedway for the Bytec Dairyland 100 before setting off for a Jennerstown (Pa.) Speedway debut on August 10.
The championship decider and season closer is once again set during Championship Saturday on October 19 at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park.
THE DIRT HALVES
One of the most fascinating USAC Silver Crown events throughout the 2023 campaign will once again open the dirt portion of the schedule in 2024 on the Belleville High Banks in Kansas during the weekend of May 17-18 with practice and qualifying set for night one followed by the main event on the following evening. The Huncovsky Classic will be held in conjunction with two-straight nights of USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget racing on the Belleville Short Track, located inside the half-mile dirt oval.
Pennsylvania’s Port Royal Speedway will be the place for a full smorgasbord of action on June 15 during Open Wheel Madness, a star-studded affair featuring both USAC’s Silver Crown and AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship divisions at one venue on one night during Eastern Storm weekend in the east.
Indiana’s lone half-mile dirt oval, the Terre Haute Action Track, brings USAC’s champ cars out for the 20th edition of the Sumar Classic on Independence Day. It marks the first USAC Silver Crown event to be held on the fourth of July in exactly 20 years, since Jay Drake’s score at Colorado’s Pikes Peak International Raceway in 2004.
TRADITION RICH
A trio of the most tradition rich USAC Silver Crown events of them all are pegged for the dirt in August and September. The 61st running of the Bettenhausen 100 at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield provides the first of two $10,000-to-win dirt-mile adventures on the 2024 schedule on August 17.
Fair season in the Land of Lincoln continues two weeks later with the 70th running of the Ted Horn 100 at the Magic Mile of the Du Quoin State Fairgrounds in southern Illinois.
The final dirt run of the new year sees payout increases across the board. For the 42nd time, the champ cars will compete in the 4-Crown Nationals at Ohio’s Eldora Speedway. The event provides the only opportunity of the year to witness all three USAC national divisions in one night, with the winner’s share being increased from $10,000 to $15,000 from 2023 to 2024 for all three series, plus the High Limit Sprint Cars.
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2024 USAC SILVER CROWN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP SCHEDULE
Apr 20: (P) Toledo Speedway | Toledo, OH | Rollie Beale Classic | $8,000
May 5: (P) Winchester Speedway | Winchester, IN | Rich Vogler Classic | $8,000
May 17-18: (D) Belleville High Banks | Belleville, KS | Huncovsky Classic | $8,000
May 24: (P) Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park | Brownsburg, IN | Hoosier Hundred | $25,000
Jun 15: (D) Port Royal Speedway | Port Royal, PA | Open Wheel Madness | $8,000
Jun 21: (P) Madison International Speedway | Oregon, WI | Bytec Dairyland 100 | $8,000
Jul 4: (D) Terre Haute Action Track | Terre Haute, IN | Sumar Classic | $8,000
Jul 20: TBA
Aug 10: (P) Jennerstown Speedway | Jennerstown, PA | Silver Crown Showdown | $10,000
Aug 16: TBA
Aug 17: (D) Illinois State Fairgrounds | Springfield, IL | Bettenhausen 100 | $10,000
Aug 31: (D) Du Quoin State Fairgrounds | Du Quoin, IL | Ted Horn 100 | $10,000
Sep 20-21: (D) Eldora Speedway | Rossburg, OH | 4-Crown Nationals | $15,000
Oct 19: (P) Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park | Brownsburg, IN | Championship Saturday | $10,000
(P) represents a pavement track event
(D) represents a dirt track event