Action Track USA Stars Shine in Tulsa Shootout
Action Track USA Stars Shine at Tulsa Shootout
By Barry Angstadt
1/6/21
There’s absolutely no doubt the Tulsa Shootout, featuring six classes of 600cc micro sprints, has gained much notoriety the past few years. With Flo Racing now streaming the entire event—a total of 359 races were run over four days—the Shootout has grown immensely in stature and popularity. Names like Kyle Busch, Christopher Bell, Tyler Courtney, Tanner Thorson, and Kevin Thomas Jr. help to make the Shootout newsworthy, too, and they were all in competition at this year’s edition of the biggest micro sprint race on the planet.
A whopping 1,661 entries were filed as practice began last Tuesday, and the number rose slightly higher when qualifying races kicked off on Wednesday, December 29. There were 418 entries in the Non-Wing Stock division—the class that is closest to the rules package utilized in the mid-Atlantic region. And some of those mid-Atlantic stars…most of them regulars at Championship Energy Action Track USA on the Kutztown Fairgrounds…used this year’s Shootout to beef up their racing resumes`.
Alex Bright, who is second on the all-time 600cc Sprint win list at Action Track USA, qualified for the “big four A-mains” (Wing and Non-Wing Outlaw; Wing and Non-Wing Stock). “The Phenom” from Collegeville, PA, finished an oh-so-close runner-up to Emerson Axsom in the first A-main, which was the Non-Wing Stock 30-lapper.
Tommy Kunsman, the owner of one career victory at Action Track USA, had a fantastic Shootout as he also qualified for all four A-mains and ended Saturday night with finishes of sixth, fourth, 13th, and second for an excellent average finish of 6.25.
Action Track’s 2020 point champion in the 600 Sprint division, “Hollywood” Colin White, made two of the “big four” main events while the 2021 point champ at Kutztown, Steven Snyder Jr., also earned starting spots in two of those four A-mains.
All four drivers, along with Joey Amantea, Logan Rumsey, Kyle Spence, and Damon Paul, turned heads by winning heat races, qualifiers, B-mains, and Last Chance Qualifiers during the four day Shootout. And all of them gave insightful and well-spoken interviews during the Flo broadcast after their qualifying race triumphs. With a large portion of the nation’s racing industry and fans watching, the Action Track USA competitors gave themselves and their sponsors some tremendously positive exposure during the live stream of the Tulsa Shootout.
It should not be lost on any racers in the 600 Sprint class (along with SpeedSTR and Slingshot teams) that similar exposure can be gained on a weekly basis by competing at Championship Energy Action Track USA on the Kutztown Fairgrounds. The Berks County race place has all its events streamed live on Flo Racing. While watching the exhilarating, side by side competition, viewers have tweeted and sent Facebook messages from all over the United States as well as Australia and New Zealand.
Bright finished runner-up in the Non-Wing Stock feature at the Shootout, while Kunsman ended up sixth. Snyder took the checkered right behind Kunsman in seventh, with Colin White placing 18th and Logan Rumsey finishing 21st. That is six Action Track USA pilots making the 24-car starting field out of a whopping 418 entries!
The Non-Wing Outlaw class had the second highest number of entries, with 389, and Kunsman pulled off a fourth-place finish in an incredibly wild and entertaining A-main. Bright wound up seventh with Amantea placing 19th. It is notable that all three drivers won B-mains, then qualified through the Last Chance Qualifier…meaning all three started near the rear of the field, making the top five effort by Kunsman and the top ten finish by Bright even more impressive.
The Winged A class (winged stock) pulled an entry list of 383. In that A-main, Bright finished fourth, polesitter Kyle Spence wound up eighth, White ended the race in 11th, Kunsman was 13th, Damon Paul was 15th, and Snyder finished 18th.
There were 254 entries in the Winged Outlaw division, and Kunsman nearly pulled off the win. He finished a close second to Craig Ronk, while Bright soldiered to a 15th place finish.
Championship Energy Action Track USA congratulates all of its competitors who shined in Tulsa. The region’s 600 Sprint teams are also reminded that the Flo Racing cameras will once again stream the intense competition at Action Track USA when the 2022 season begins on May 8.
