Loves Park, IL- This Friday night September 30 marks the Championship Round of the Gilley’s Cool 5 Series at Rockford Speedway which boasts a point fund of over $12,000 that will be divided amongst the Weekly Warrior Late Models, Area Sportsman, American Short Trackers and RoadRunners based on the final point standings. Large fields of entrants are expected in all 4 divisions as well as the Figure 8 and Hornet/Bandit Challenge which join the card during Hinckley Springs opening night of the 46th annual National Short Track Championships.

2011 NASCAR Stanley Steemer Late Model Champion Ryan Carlson finds himself atop the Gilley’s point standings while James Swan and Tom Gille are separated from one another for the runner-up spot by just one point. As exciting as that is, the top five in Sportsman competition find themselves just eleven markers apart as Matt Lundberg, Matt Berger, Weekly Champion Austin Nason, Brad Gerke and Doug Bennett are bunched together atop the standings.

While BJ Sparkman has a somewhat comfortable lead of nineteen points in American Short Tracker Gilley’s action, Scott Hoeft, 2011 Weekly Champion George Sparkman, Joey LaMarca and Nick Cina, Jr will hussle their machines in an attempt to find the top three at the end of the night, as only eleven points separate the hard chargers. Eleven seems to be a popular separation and it holds true in the RoadRunners as well, Dana Czach leads 2011 Weekly Champion Alex Papini by a mere four points, Howie Ware trails Papini by six points and is just one point ahead of Kris Nilson.

One Lucky Fan could walk away $1,250 richer if they correctly pick the top four finishers of the Weekly Warrior Late Model 46 in order on Friday night. Nason’s Landscaping ‘Faster Than a Speeding Bullet’ Qualifying gets underway at 5:30 with the first big race at 7:07pm. For a complete schedule of events for ‘One Great Racing Weekend’ or to purchase advance tickets contact the Speedway Box Office at 815-633-1500 or visit www.rockfordspeedway.com.