Lucas Oil Speedway, located at Highways 83 and 54 in Wheatland, held its annual Media Day on Wednesday with special guest and veteran NASCAR driver and Missouri Sports of Fame member Ken Schrader.

Randy Kirby
Randy Kirby
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Schrader is scheduled to race his USRA Modified at Lucas Oil Speedway April 14-15 during the 4th annual Lucas Oil MLRA Spring Nationals weekend.

Schrader acknowleged how much work goes into maintaining and promoting a racing mecca such as Lucas Oil Speedway, which he referred to as the premiere short track in the United States.

"You build a beautiful facility like this, then you gotta go work your butt off to get everybody to come," Schrader noted, adding that he is excited to come back in mid-April. "I just love coming here."

General Manager and 2016 Promoter of the Year Dan Robinson gave a brief overview of the season, which marks the 11-year anniversary of the grand opening of Lucas Oil Speedway under the ownership of founder Forrest Lucas.

In addition, the famous Monster Truck "Big Foot" was on display. Big Foot will again be one of the featured attractions at the Monster Truck Nationals "Eve of Destruction" which will conclude the Lucas Oil Speedway schedule on Oct. 21. Newly-retired Big Foot driver Don Runte talked about retiring last year after driving Big Foot for 28 years.

"It's one of those places that keeps building itself," Runte said. It's a pleasure to be here. And we'll have monster trucks back here in October."

Lucas Oil Speedway's new Off Road track will play host to its first event July 21-23 to usher in a form of racing new to this part of the country.

The Lucas Oil Speedway 2017 schedule fires up with the Big Adventure RV Weekly Racing Series opener on April 8, followed by the 4th annual MLRA Spring Nationals Presented by RacingJunk.com on April 14-15. A practice day is set for this Saturday, April 1 at the speedway.

The "Lake Lucas" drag-boat track features seating for hundreds of spectators in front of an elongated lake. Races are scheduled for June 9-10 and Sept. 1-3.

2017 marks the seventh season for the Liquid Quarter Mile Drag Racing Lake, Lake Lucas. Two nationally-televised Drag Boat Races featuring the Lucas Oil Drag Boat Racing Series will be held in 2017. Also new for 2017 will be an all new purpose build Off Road Racing facility featuring the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series as well as a host of other regional events.

The first Lucas Oil Speedway AMA Pro-Am Motocross is set for Sept. 29-Oct. 1 with professional and amateur divisions competing. The Nitro AX Tour is the sanctioning body and the event will be the fifth of the Nitro Summer Series.

"We're excited to partner with Jay Reynolds of the Arctic Cat Nitro Arenacross Tour to bring this thrilling form of motocross to our facility," Lucas Oil Speedway General Manager Dan Robinson said. "It's something that I think our fans will enjoy and it should be a lot of fun for those motocross guys as well."

Event promoter Reynolds said the event will be one of the biggest motocross weekends the area has ever seen.

For complete Lucas Oil Speedway event information, archived stories, ticket info and schedule information for the season, visit LucasOilSpeedway.com. Three-day passes for the 25th annual Show-Me 100 Presented by ProtecttheHarvest.com are now on sale.

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