The Southern Thaw stock car series may be canceled, but the inaugural Stand On It Classic remains a go. The event takes place March 22-23 at Arrowhead Speedway in Colcord, Oklahoma.
With heavy rain in the forecast for the Southern Thaw presented by RaceON events at Rocket Raceway Park and Hunt County Raceway, Southern Thaw promoters Kevin Rogers and Kevin Sustaire decided to pull the plug.
“We have severe weather moving in and the track grounds are already saturated,” Rogers said. “There are no make-up dates available. We will absolutely try again next year. One of these days we will get weather that will work.”
However, the finale to the series, the Stand On It Classic, will still take place. The race honors the late John and Susan Stand, who were both local racers. The event will consist of two $5,000-to-win, $500-to-start features on March 22 and 23, respectively, at Arrowhead Speedway.
“We have 64 stock cars pre-entered and are expecting at least 80 with last-minute entries,” Arrowhead Speedway general manager Bryce Hall said. “Drivers are coming from nine states, from as far away as Wisconsin.”
If weather becomes an issue, the Stand On It Classic has a rain date of March 29-30.
“This is an important race for us,” said Hall. “We opened last season with a state-of-the-art facility. It’s brand new and incredibly nice. We’d like to showcase it for drivers and fans across the country.”
Willie and Elizabeth Gammill built the track.
“It is on the same property of the old West Siloam Springs Speedway,” Hall said. “When Willie and Elizabeth bought it, they leveled everything. They carved out a 1/3-mile semi-banked track and built a spectacular speedway.”
They built two all-new 2,500-person grandstands, with one on each straightaway, plus 17 suites. Food trucks serve racers and fans.
“People like the quality and variety of food they can get from the trucks,” said Hall. “So, we went with the trucks and a barbecue pit trailer.”
Arrowhead Speedway also features Musco LED lighting and a fully paved pit area.
“We have 100 pit spots in the main pit area,” Hall said. “It is paved up to the concrete pads at each pit stall. Even the staging area is paved. No car has to drive on dirt until it hits the track”
A practice session precedes the inaugural Stand On It Classic on Thursday, March 21. Friday features the USRA stock cars as the headliner, with B-mods and tuners also on the car. Saturday once again has the USRA stock cars atop the docket, with B-mods and pure stocks also on hand.
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
