Spoold Media owner Corey Stamper set social media abuzz recently with the announcement of King of the South, a $50,00- to-win, invitation-only small tire race May 24-26 at Shadyside Dragway in Shelby, North Carolina.<\/p>\n
Stamper, along with promoting partners Seth and Zach Buff \u2013 Seth is the owner and operator of Shadyside, while Zach is the Track Manager and Race Director \u2013 have put on various events in the past, but are taking it to the next level this season, allowing 64 drivers to race for the huge cash prize.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve always been small tire guys,\u201d said Stamper. \u201cWe started kicking around the idea of bringing back how it used to be \u2013 to see who\u2019s the baddest on a 28-inch slick. Seth hit me up one day and said, \u2018What if we paid $50,000 to win? Do you think that\u2019d be a pretty big race?\u2019 I looked at him like he was crazy. I mean, that\u2019s a lot of money. But I told him, \u2018If you\u2019re down to do it, I\u2019m with you, buddy.\u2019 And that 50 grand is guaranteed \u2013 someone will be handed that in cash.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
One of the key components to King of the South is the invite-only format. As invitations were accepted and shared by drivers to the public, Stamper quickly became overwhelmed with texts and messages from racers wanting to be a part of the historic event.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s blooming into something crazy,\u201d Stamper said. \u201cI dropped the announcement the week of PRI (Performance Racing Industry), and my phone battery drained within an hour. For the next few weeks, I was getting about 30 messages an hour from people wanting in on the race. Some people love it, some people hate it. Everybody suddenly wants to be invited, wants to be let in. Some will be mad they didn\u2019t get invited. And we\u2019ve still got more drivers to announce. In fact, I\u2019ve joked the full invite list is under lock & key at Fort Knox.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fans will recognize many of the drivers who have received their \u201cGolden Ticket,\u201d including Kye Kelley, Lyle Barnett, Manny Buginga, and Justin Swanstrom. Stamper is excited to see many of these well-known names line up against some lesser known small-tire competitors and hometown heroes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a collection of the biggest names in racing,\u201d said Stamper. \u201cYou have old school, new school, no prep, prep, street racers. I call it a hybrid race, because you\u2019ll never see some of these match-ups anywhere else. It\u2019s going to be the biggest race ever in the Carolinas.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Racers will be allowed to test on Friday; they will then be given two shakedown passes on Saturday before rolling into the first-round chip draw and eliminations. Racing will conclude on Sunday, with a second-chance race added for drivers that lost in the opening round. The track will feature a basic bracket-style prep, allowing for close side-by-side racing without a lot of down time for track maintenance.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure everyone gets sick of waiting on track prep for racing to start,\u201d Stamper said. \u201cI\u2019m not a fan of that. We want to bridge the gap between the no prep world and the radial prep world, to find a happy medium. We\u2019re big on getting the race done, where a normal family can come out and enjoy it. I feel like that\u2019s what we need to get back to.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
In addition to the Small Tire Invitational, the event will feature the Lil Gangstas class, which will run on a 5.30 index, although times will not be shown. Stamper said the support for the class has been almost as overwhelming as the main event, with everyone allowed to participate.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cI\u2019ve probably had 60-70 messages from people wanting to run Lil Gangstas,\u201d said Stamper. \u201cAnybody that shows up and pays $200 can race. All you have to do is fit the rules.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
King of the South will also be headlining the 6th Annual Ronnie Buff Memorial weekend, honoring the original owner and operator of Shadyside Dragway \u2013 and grandfather to Seth and Zach \u2013 who tragically passed away due to cancer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat family eats, sleeps, and breathes drag racing,\u201d Stamper said. \u201cThey live on the track compound. Ronnie\u2019s actually buried on-site at the track. He was a big influence on bringing Outlaw 10.5 and small tire racing to Shadyside. This is our way of showing him, \u2018Hey, this is the biggest weekend on the calendar. Everyone wants to win the Ronnie Buff Memorial.\u2019 So when we came up with King of the South, we knew the biggest small tire race in the south had to be a part of the biggest weekend at Shadyside.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The post Corey Stamper Dishes on King of the South, a $50,000-to-Win Invitation-Only Small Tire Race<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated | Drag Racing News, Opinion, Interviews, Photos, Videos and More<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Spoold Media owner Corey Stamper set social media abuzz recently with the announcement of King of the South, a $50,00- to-win, invitation-only small tire race May 24-26 at Shadyside Dragway in Shelby, North Carolina. Stamper, along with promoting partners Seth and Zach Buff \u2013 Seth is the owner and operator of Shadyside, while Zach is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91439\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}