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$50,000 To Win "Rock and Roll Gold Cup" Hits The Badlands This Saturday And Sunday Night

Drivers from coast-to-coast will converge on Brandon, South Dakota’s Badlands Motor Speedway this Saturday and Sunday night, Aug. 20-21, to contend for a $50,000 winner’s share in this weekend’s “Rock and Roll Gold Cup” USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car spectacular.

The big finale on Sunday night pays the richest winner’s share for a USAC National Sprint Car race since the “Mopar Million” at Eldora Speedway in 2003. Sunday’s $50,000-to-win feature also pays a guaranteed $1000 to start!

Following winged racing on Friday, the back-to-back nights of USAC “Special Events” begin with a full show on Saturday night in which drivers will be gunning for a $4000 winner’s share in the feature event.

If a driver can pull off the double and win both the winged and USAC Sprint feature events on Sunday night, an extra $25,000 will go into his or her paycheck for a $125,000 payday.

Headlining expected entries for the first USAC National Sprint Car events ever held in the state of South Dakota include Brady Bacon, who sits atop the USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car standings, which will not be affected by the Badlands results, since they are non-point “special events.”

Broken Arrow, Oklahoma’s Bacon owns 2016 victories at Montpelier, Ind. and Jackson, Minn. and enjoys a 170-point lead over defending series champion Robert Ballou of Rocklin, California. Ballou has 2016 wins at Ocala, Fla., Terre Haute, Ind., Putnamville, Ind. and Kansas City, Kans.

At press time, alongside Bacon and Ballou, other big names in the driver lineup include USAC National Sprint Car winners Chris Windom, Kevin Thomas, Jr., Aaron Farney, Chad Boespflug and Bud Kaeding as well as Terre Haute USAC Silver Crown winner C.J. Leary, two-time Western Classic Sprint Car champion Ryan Bernal, USAC Sprint Car regular and South Dakota native Bret Mellenberndt, World of Outlaws winner Tim Kaeding and many others!

Furthermore, Bacon, Windom and Leary will among a handful who will be pulling double-duty on Saturday, jetting into the Badlands Saturday night after competing in Saturday afternoon’s “Bettenhausen 100” USAC Silver Crown Championship race at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield.

None of USAC’s national divisions have competed in South Dakota since a Midget race in 1996 at Badlands (formerly known at Huset’s Speedway) won by Kenny Irwin, Jr. The other five events held in the state were all midget events as well, and held between the years of 1976 and 1982, won by Steve Cannon, Sleepy Tripp, Johnny Parsons, Rich Vogler and Ken Schrader.

On Saturday night, racing action gets underway at 8pm with the front gates opening at 6pm. “Championship Night” on Sunday begins with racing at 7pm while the front gates open at 5pm.

Single event tickets for each of the qualifying nights, the winged portion on Friday and the USAC event on Saturday, are $40, while “Championship Night” tickets are $50. A three-day pass can be purchased for $110.

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