PRINCETON, Ill. (June 9, 2001) - The United States Modified Touring Series will be back in the east region the week of June 12-14. The series will start at Bureau County Speedway on Tuesday, June 12. The series tried to race at the Princeton, Ill., track two years ago, but mother nature brought tornado warnings to the area and cancelled those plans. So the USMTS will try once again to get in and have a race at the Speedway.

The next night on Wednesday, June 13, the series will move to Lafayette County Speedway in Darlington, Wis., for the first-ever visit to the speedway. On Thursday, the series will come back south again to Freeport (Ill.) Raceway Park. This will be the first three-day swing of the year for the USMTS series and they are expecting a very good field of cars for these events.

So far in 2001, the USMTS has raced eight times and had eight different winners.

At these races USMTS brings the fun back into racing as we get the fans involved. Some lucky fan will have the chance to win up to $5,000 with the Olympic Fire Protection Pick Six Program.

USMTS will also do special things for the children, with a bicycle given away each night. Another thing for the kids will be a frisbee toss giving a lucky child the chance to win $10. A special autograph session will be held at each of these tracks during intermission.

All United States Modified Touring Series races pay $2,000 to win and $200 to start the Simpson Race Products A-Main. The USMTS offers drivers more than $2,000 in contingencies each night making this the best paying one day show for modified drivers. All races are run by passing points so drivers have to race hard every time they are on the track. The Sportsman class and Bomber class will both be racing with the large field of Modifieds on Tuesday, June 12.

So far in 2001 the USMTS has had two east region races and Mike Chasteen of Peoria, Ill., and Henry Delonjay of Quincy, Ill., picked up the wins.

The first race was held at Canton, Ill., with 60 cars on hand. Chasteen passed Kelly Shyrock en route to the win. The next night the series traveled to Quincy, and for the first time ever, three drivers from the same town were 1-2-3. Henry Delonjay, Mike Karhoff and Mark Burgtorf, all of Quincy, took the USMTS prize money.

USMTS does realize people have to work the next day and they try very hard to have the Simpson Race Products A Main on the track by 9:15 p.m. For more information about USMTS call 515-832-7944 or for race day information call the Bureau County Speedway at 815-872-0538.