Thursday Thunder Lights Up Atlanta

Atlanta Motor Speedway kicks off its 19th season of Thursday Thunder on June 2nd. Thursday Thunder is part of the INEX US Legends Cars International, started by Speedway Motorsports Inc.

US Legends Cars International produces Legends, Bandolero, Thunder Roadsters, and Dirt Modified cars. They are sanctioned by INEX to provide fun and to be an affordable racing opportunity for everyone. They provide cars to countries all over the world, most recently Japan.

On Papa John’s Thursday Thunder Media Day, Ken Ragan, director of US Legends of Georgia, brought in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers Joey Logano, Reed Sorenson, and David Regan, as well as three current US Legend Car drivers, and Donald Hawk, Speedway Motorsports Incorporated Senior Vice President of Business Affairs, to talk about the upcoming season.

Joey Logano, Reed Sorenson, and David Regan talked about how the influence of racing in the US Legends Cars effected their driving style in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

Reed Sorenson stated, “I thought Legends car racing was very competitive. You’ve got people on different levels, and I think you learn something new every week. These cars are not easy to drive. Anybody who has ever driven them knows that you need a lot of car control. What you can learn from these cars and what you can learn from the competition definitely helps you for that next level. These guys, at their age – and we thought this a long time ago – is the best choice to try to move up to that next level.”

Joey Logano stated, “Legends car racing and Bandoleros goes back to the deepest roots for me. That’s what it’s all about. It’s very competitive, and that’s a lot of fun in itself. But for me, as I get a little bit older, I just know we had a lot of fun, and it was fun for my family and me. We were from Connecticut. We didn’t know what we were doing. We didn’t know anything about racing. My parents didn’t race, and we just kind of winged it and had fun with it. We’d show up and work hard and figure out all this stuff, and it was just a fun, family, growing experience.”

David Regan stated, “As a kid, it’s neat to just be at a race track that the NASCAR stars are racing at on the weekends, and I had a similar experience showing up to a large facility with a lot of grandstands and the banking that the Dale Earnhardts and Jeff Gordons were racing on. When you’re 8, 9, 10 years old, that’s a really neat thing. When you’re a young kid, you’re not really thinking about 10 years down the road and trying to get into the NASCAR world or what you’re going to do with your career, your job when you’re finished with school. You’re just worried about having fun. You make a lot of friends in the garage, and it’s a family thing.”

Ed Clark, president and GM of Atlanta Motor Speedway, stated “This is our favorite time of year. The weather gets really hot here. As hot as the weather is, the grassroots racing we have here will heat up big time. We have have been doing this for 19 years. It is time to change things up.”

The Pro class will be returning to Atlanta this season. This will be the main event of Thursday evenings. Racing Radios will sponsor the series. This series will be broadcasted locally on 92.5 The Bear, the local NASCAR radio affiliate.

Atlanta Motor Speedway and Ragan are expecting their largest car count for this season of Thursday Thunder.

Hawk talks about the importance of this series. “Bruton Smith is passionate about Legends cars racing. If you look at the field in Xfinity, Cup, and Truck, there are 19 drivers who are literally winning races today who sat in these cars. We are proud of the program and what they pulled together.”

“Without media, without fans, without competitors, this sport is zero. We [SMI] are becoming more aware of that everyday. We need to build this thing together,” said Donald Hawk about racing in general.

Hawk also challenges drivers at Atlanta Motor Speedway to go up to Charlotte Motor Speedway on Tuesday’s to compete. “We focus so much in our company on Summer Shootout in Charlotte. I am going to put the challenge out. I am going to put some money down here in the budget to Thursday Thunder because I want to see a little more running back and forth up and down the highway. I want there to be a reason for people to race at point A and point B. I now challenge you to get some money to Ken so that we can have two of the best racing programs in the country, one at Atlanta Motor Speedway and one at Charlotte Motor Speedway.”

Papa Johns announced they will be the presenting sponsor for Thursday Thunder for their second year. “Obviously as a company, we are very engaged in the sports field. We love being apart of the race crew down here. Fans love us, we love you guys. It means a lot to us that we have the support here to show up. Our goal is to be apart of a team with a driver,” stated a Papa Johns representative.

Atlanta Motor Speedway will also be the host of the 2016 Bandolero Nationals on September 23-24.

Papa John’s Thursday Thunder kicks off on June 3rd for ten weeks. Fans can purchase infield passes for Thursday Thunder, $12 for adults, $5 for ages six to 11, and children under five are free. Grandstand tickets will be available for $5, and children under five are free.

Caleb Whisler
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