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USAC: Snider Seeks 125th Silver Crown Start Friday

20 May 1998

George Snider of Bakersfield, Calif. is the senior member of the USAC Silver Crown Championship Series and will seek a record 125th career feature start in A.J. Foyt's True Value "Hulman Hoosier Hundred" Friday night at the Indiana State Fairgrounds in Indianapolis.

Snider won the inaugural USAC Silver Crown title in 1971 and has been a series regular ever since but has yet to compete this season. He started four races last year and finished second to Donnie Beechler in his last start - the 100-miler at CalExpo in Sacramento, Calif. last October.

He will drive the famous #11 True Value/Terre Haute First National Bank Chevy Friday night and hopes to continue the streak of recent success his car has enjoyed with drivers Tony Stewart and Mike Bliss. Stewart won last year's series finale at Las Vegas, Nev. in the #11 and this year's races at Phoenix International Raceway in February and last Saturday night at Indianapolis Raceway Park.. Bliss brought the car from 16th starting position to second before running out of fuel near the end of the race at Walt Disney World Speedway in January.

George is one of USAC's most accomplished veterans and has been a USAC driver since the 1960s. In 1981/82 he won USAC's first "Gold Crown" championship, a point system which included the Indianapolis 500, and he has seven career Silver Crown triumphs, the latest coming at Indianapolis Raceway Park in 1990. His seven wins have come at seven different tracks, and include a 1971 victory at DuQuoin, Ill., the "Tony Bettenhausen 100" at Springfield, Ill. in 1981, the "Hulman Hundred" at the Indiana State Fairgrounds in 1984, the Tampa, Fla. State Fairgrounds in 1985, the "Milwaukee Mile" in 1988 and at CalExpo State Fairgrounds in Sacramento, Calif. in 1989.

A veteran of 22 Indianapolis 500s between 1965 and 1987, he finished eighth in 1975 and 1978 and also owns a half-dozen victories in the tough USAC Sprint Cars and four wins in USAC Midgets. His Sprint car triumphs include the inaugural "Tony Hulman Classic" in 1971 at the Terre Haute (Ind.) Action Track.

He'll face a formidable field of challengers in Friday night's fourth round of the Silver Crown Championship Series, including series point leader and 2-time defending Stoops Freightliner/USAC Sprint Car Champ Brian Tyler of Parma, Mich.

Practice gets under way at 5 p.m. Qualifying starts at 6 and a 15-mile True Value "last chance" race is set for 7. A.J. Foyt's 100-mile "Hulman-Hoosier Hundred" finale gets the green flag at 8 p.m.