INDIANA, Pa. -- The Challenger Raceway has announced plans for the Fifth Annual "Spring Fest," the kickoff to their 2007 "special events only" season.

The Fifth Annual Spring Fest will take place on Sunday, April 1, 2007. A three-division program of racing is on tap, as the Super Late Model division will headline the program. They will be competing in a 50-lap main event, paying $5,000 to the winner. The Semi-Late division will be on the card, a collection of area divisions of Steel Block, Limited, and Crate Late Model classes. Their main event will be 30 laps in distance, paying $800 to the winner. Also on tap will be the Roadrunner division, consisting of the popular front-wheel drive four cylinder cars, competing in a 20-lap event paying $200 to the winner. Division specification rules are available at the track's web site at www.challengerraceway.com .

The gates will open for the day of racing at 2:00. On-track activity will begin with practice laps at 4:00, with the Roadrunners kicking off racing at 4:30. Adult General Admission is $20, ages 12-15 is $10, ages 5-11 is $5, age four and under is free. The Pit Fee is $30. The posted rain date for this event is April 8. April 15 will be used if the weather fails to cooperate on both of the previous dates.

The familiar Challenger Raceway fan-friendly format will be used for this event. Drivers will draw for their heat race starting positions, and the top heat finishers will redraw for their feature race starting positions. The 2006 World of Outlaws Late Model Champion Tim McCreadie from Watertown, NY is the defending Super Late Model Spring Fest Champion, winning the event from eleventh starting position. In the 2005 event, York PA driver Rick Eckert raced from 21st starting position to victory. Steve Shaver from Vienna, WV was the Spring Fest winner in 2004. Eckert is a two-time winner of Spring Fest, winning the inaugural version in 2003.

The Challenger Raceway will also hold a series of open practice sessions. These will be held on three Wednesday nights, before and after the scheduled running of Spring Fest. March 28, April 4, and April 11 are the scheduled dates. This will be the first racing action for many of the area's teams, and this will allow them a non-pressure environment to test their new and reworked racecars for the first time. These practice sessions are open to all classes of cars. The gates will open at 5:30, with cars hitting the track at 6:30. The grandstands for the practice sessions will be free of charge, and the Pit Fee will be $20.

The Challenger Raceway is located 6.4 miles southwest of US 422 on PA 286, then one mile north on McIntyre Road. For more information, please call 724-726-5494 during the week for the office, or 724-726-9808 on race days for the track. For the most complete source of Challenger Raceway information, please visit the track's web site at www.challengerraceway.com .