Perry, Michigan (Tuesday, August 2nd, 2011): A trying 2011 racing season turned around in one weekend for Sammy Epling as the Perry, Michigan driver put together a great weekend of racing in his UMP Late Model after picking up not only his first Feature Win of the year, but he backed it up a night later by scoring his second Feature in two days.
The weekend started on Friday, July 29th at the site of his first career track championship, the 3/8s (0.375) mile semi-banked dirt oval of Mt. Pleasant Speedway in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan and after a thrilling battle with current points leader, Zack Olger and two-time feature winner, Mark Andersen, Epling would steer his #28 S.J.E. Trucking Pontiac into victory lane after scoring his first Feature Win of the season.
"That was huge for this whole team, to finally get that monkey off our backs and get a meaningful Feature win, that really picked up our spirits, especially mine," Stated the driver originally from Cicero, Illinois but now calls Perry, Michigan home. "That last caution certainly made things interesting, especially having Mark (Andersen) and Zack (Olger) behind me on that last restart and also since it was a green-white-checkered deal, but we got a good jump on them and in the end, we were able to hold them off." He added.
The next day, Saturday, July 30th, the original plan was to go to I-96 Speedway in Lake Odessa, Michigan but flooding and extremely saturated grounds forced track officials to cancel the evenings' races. "Plan B" for Epling and the crew would be a trip further West to the 1/3 (0.333) mile high-banked dirt oval of Thunderbird Raceway in Muskegon, Michigan and the results were the same as the night before for the 41-year-old as he started on the outside of the front row and led all 25 laps to win his second Feature of the weekend.
The win was especially satisfying for Epling due to the fact of four track champions from the 2010 season were in the field including him (Mt. Pleasant Speedway), as well as Kevin Nelson Jr. (Winston Motor Speedway), Eric Spangler (I-96 Speedway) and Adam Thrush (Merritt Raceway). Throw in multi-time Thunderbird track champion, Rich Neiser, who is also the current track points leader at Thunderbird as well as up the road at Winston Motor Speedway, and Michigan Motorsports hall of famer and another multi-time Thunderbird track champion, John Grega, and the field was stacked from top to bottom.
"The car was flawless all night long. After the redraw for the feature, I knew if I could get a clean start and use the momentum on the outside, I could clear (Pole-Sitter) Shawn (Reed) and try and get away from everyone else who was back there," He continued. "This has been a really hard season on the team and this weekend was exactly what we needed to prove we're still competitive in this division and in this state, especially against the talent we go up against every weekend, especially this past Saturday night."
As the 2011 racing season for Epling and his S.J.E. Motorsports Team continues, the first weekend in August will see Epling returning to Mt. Pleasant on Friday, August 5th to take on the traveling invaders of the Sunoco American Late Model Series. Despite missing the last five Sunoco ALMS events, Epling is still 14th in the points standings just 43 points out of the coveted top 10 and still in line for a nice paycheck at the end of the season courtesy of the 2011 Sunoco ALMS points fund.
Then the next night, Saturday, August 6th, a short 45-minute venture west to I-96 Speedway in Lake Odessa, Michigan is in store for the team during the Relay for Life Celebration at the Races. Despite missing three races this season at the fast 3/8s (0.375) mile high-banked dirt oval and is currently tied for 17th in the track points with 2010 UMP DIRTcar National Champion, Rusty Schlenk and Ionia native, Scott Baker, he's only 48 markers outside of the top 10 in the season long points chase.
"Last weekend was huge in making up some of the UMP DIRTcar Racing Michigan State Points that we missed in June. We're still going to pick and choose where we race the rest of the season and stay relatively close to home. We may do a little traveling towards the end of the season, but not too much." Epling explained. "We'll just get as many points as we can there and see where we end up at the end of the season." He ended.
Epling's familiar red #28 Mastersbilt by Mars UMP Late Model with a Pontiac GTO nose sports sponsorship decals from his own business; S.J.E. Trucking as well as Shift Shop Transmissions, Fusion Graphics & Sign Company, Hedrick Precision Engines, M.P.H. Promotions, SammyEpling.com, and S.J.E. Motorsports.
For more information about Sammy Epling and the entire S.J.E. Motorsports Team and to inquire about additional sponsorship opportunities for the 2011 racing season, log onto the teams' website at: www.sammyepling.com You can also follow the remainder of the 2011 season with Epling by becoming a fan on his Facebook Fan Page. Just go to: www.facebook.com and search "Sammy Epling / S.J.E. Motorsports" then click on "Like" today.
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