Pro Cup Continuing On With Final Five Races Under New Owner

By Matt Kentfield, http://www.speed51.com - Twitter: @mattkentfield

Jack McNelly is the new sole owner of the series now known as the Pro Cup Series. He’s a successful businessman and a race-winning car owner.

McNelly is also a realist.

He knows that keeping the series formerly known as the USARacing Pro Cup Series is going to need some help in order to stay afloat, but he is willing to forge on with the final five races of the 2011 season, beginning with Saturday night's event at Concord Speedway (NC), with hopes of continuing the series into 2012 and beyond.

“We are in survival mode. I will admit that readily to anybody,” said McNelly. “I will also tell everybody that I have agreed to spearhead this, and yes it’s on my shoulders, but there’s no way in the world that I can do it by myself. It’s going to take a lot of effort from a lot of people if this thing’s going to survive. People are going to have to step up and I’ve got to find partners. I’ve got to find corporate partners out there to make this thing exist. I understand it’s a difficult time to do that, but at the same time, I think the series, the people, the competitors, the fans, the vendors and the sponsors all deserve at least a chance.

“I thought about it, prayed about it and talked it over with my wife, who has been more than supportive of this, and decided we can make this work, but we’ll have to do business a little bit differently. But, I think we can make this work and buy or sell some time here during the last five races of the year to see if there’s anything out there for 2012. If you shut something down in the middle of the stream, number one it’s bad business and you get a lot of ill-will from people, but number two, you have no chance going forward. It’s gone forever. I think we can hang on, but like I said, we’ll have to do business a little differently.”

From Jack McNelly, Pro Cup Series Director

In light of the recent announcement that the USAR/USA Racing Series had ceased operation I would like to announce that I have every intention of continuing on the tradition of great oval track stock car racing that we all have loved and participated in for so many years.

Pro Cup will be racing at Concord Speedway on Saturday, August 13th. It is my hope that your team will join me in this effort to launch a new series so we can all continue racing. I am spending countless man-hours searching for supporters to help with this effort, but without the teams there is no place for a racing series.

If you plan to participate in the Concord Speedway event, please notify my office at 704-662-9212 (office) or 704-662-9207 (fax). Entrants who had previously submitted an entry form do not need to re-submit, you have been accepted for the event. Also, it would be appreciated if participants would remove all USAR/USA Racing decals, logos, etc from the race car, equipment, crew/driver uniforms, transporters, etc.

Here is an event schedule for the Pro Cup 200, August 13th at Concord Speedway. We are also in the process of providing a new home on the Internet for the Pro Cup Series. The new website address is - http://www.procuponline.com

http://www.procuponline.com/filemgmt_...1_ver2.pdf

Thank You,
Jack McNelly

As we work on providing you a better home for USARProCup.com and tune our plans, we thought you might want to have this necessary information as you head into the Motor Mile race weekend.

• Host Hotel information
• Event Entry Forms for teams
• Race weekend schedule

Can all be found by clicking the "Downloads" navigation button at the top of the page! There you can view the files online or save them to your local computer for printing.

 

 

As you are all aware we have made some adjustments to the tire rules.  In order to clear up some questions that have arisen, please be advised that beginning with the Shenandoah event USA Racing will be implementing the following amended rules for tire purchasing and management.

Definition of "Event Tires" - Tires marked as such from previous events and tires purchased at the current event.

• Only "Event Tires" may be used for practice, qualifying and racing.
• Tires purchased directly from Jackson Motorsports (not at an event) will NOT be marked "Event Tires"
• Teams are limited to purchasing a maximum of 8 sticker tires per event
• Teams are required to purchase a minimum of 4 sticker tires per event
• Teams that have competed during the 2011 season may have used tires from a ONLY ONE previous event marked as "Event Tires" (at the next entered event) by a USAR Official to be used for practice only.
• Teams that have NOT competed during the 2011 season may purchase 4 sticker tires for its initial event only to be used for practice only.
• Qualifying to be done on sticker tires ONLY

From USAR Pro Cup Series
To All USA Racing Pro Cup Teams:

We are presently scheduling new races and will put out a release very soon. We promise that you will be pleased.
USA Racing would like to thank you for your cooperation and understanding of the recent restructure of the purse. We appreciate your continued support of our series and hope that it will continue. We are implementing the following as cost saving measures to offset the loss of revenue.

Leased Shows Only

* Reduced to 200 laps. This will save money in two ways.
o Reduced expense of race fuel
o Reduced wear and tear on engines as well as other components such as brakes, suspension parts etc.

Estimated savings is about $ 45.00 for fuel and approx $ 400.00 for engines per event.

Mandatory pit stops for fuel and tires will remain in effect.

Tires (All Events)

* Each team will be allowed to purchase a MAXIMUM of 8 tires and a minimum of 4 tires at each event. This new tire rule will save each team around $750- $1000 on an average per event depending on its strategy.
* Must qualify and start the race on stickers. (This is when the cars are full of gas)
* Must have 2 or 4 tires in the pit. These tires can be any combination of the following;
+ 4 stickers
+ 2 stickers and 2 scuffs
+ 4 scuffs