By Mike Adaskaveg

The “Outlaws” will ride into town again in 2012.

The tour of professional sprint car drivers, nationally renowned for exciting high speed competition, drew the largest crowds this past season at Oval Motorsports’ Merced and Antioch Speedways. With roof wings for down force to control 600 horsepower engines sitting on frames with large tires, the cars are the fastest racers on dirt.

The 2012 World of Outlaws events are scheduled on Friday, March 30 at Merced Speedway and Monday, September 10 at Antioch Speedway.

“These races are our premier events of the season,” said Oval Motorsports President John Soares. “There has been a steady stream of communication from race fans begging for us to bring the shows back this year.”

Tickets are now on sale for the events through the World of Outlaws website http://dirtcar.ticketforce.com/. A free pit pass for the Merced event is now being offered with each purchase of an advanced reserved ticket by December 25, 2011

Soares has already begun preparing the two clay ovals for the event. The most noticeable changes are at Merced Speedway, where light poles and walls are being moved in order to widen the track to 70 feet.

“Merced Speedway will continue to evolve into the top dirt track in California,” Soares said. “We have four trucks running all day, hauling in clay to build the new surface.”

The track’s new grading will have an infield devoid of obstacles. Its width will allow for more side-by-side racing and passing.

“It will be a driver’s track,” Soares explained. “It will be wider and ‘racier’, as they say. The World of Outlaws will be a better show than ever this coming March.”

Antioch Speedway, the pride of Oval Motorsports, received a face-lift for this past September’s World of Outlaws event. Sprint car drivers raved about its surface, which provided fans with a thrilling main event.

Steve Kinser, the franchise driver of the World of Outlaws with nearly 600 wins, brought the fans to their feet at Antioch in September as he won the first time competing there.

“This track was perfect, I can’t complain about a thing – we were able to set up and run like we had run here before,” Kinser said in victory lane.

Second place finisher Kyle Larson of Elk Grove, who was experienced in driving at Antioch Speedway, also had praise for the track.

“The track was better than ever,” Larson said. “You could run high or run low. It made for great racing. I almost had Steve (Kinser).”

The Oval Motorsports tracks will run continuously through the 2012 season. Merced Speedway will be in operation on Friday nights and Antioch Speedway on Saturday nights. The season’s schedule and the classes of cars being raced will be released soon.

Merced Speedway is located in the Merced County Fairgrounds, 900 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way in Merced, CA.