Shane Stewart Two-Time ASCS National Championship Opens 2012 Australian Tour on Fire

Feb 10, 2012

The two-time Knoxville 360 Nationals Champion kicked off his 2012 Australia tour with two wins and a third place.

Australia's love for Sprint Car racing continues to intensify at an accelerated pace. The country's boasts a very well organized Sprint Car scene that is run to the rulebook by a single organizing group - the Sprintcar Control Council. The fans are savvy and their talent pool is beginning to rival ours here in the states. The peak racing season is between Christmas through the end of January, and each year more American racers bent on winning championships, are kick-starting their season with a walkabout downunder.

#77 Sprint car driver Shane Stewart in action down in Australia.

"I think racing in Australia helps keep you in physical and mental shape for the upcoming season in the states," Shane Stewart told K&N. "The racing in Australia has really become more like American racing. The equipment and the drivers have really stepped it up over the last five years. I really do believe that racing over here helps you stay focused."

The K&N sponsored driver opened his 2012 tour downunder with two consecutive wins and a third place podium finish. Stewart has even more hardware to add to his 90 feature wins he has accumulated already over the past 13 years of racing. On his resume Stewart proudly lists wins in all major series in both the U.S. and Australia.

Does one race starting the 2012 season in Australia stand out? "The Classic is a race that always sticks out in my mind," says Stewart. "It would be equivalent to the Knoxville Nationals. I won this race in 2010 and it is always a race that I put on my calendar to win."

Stewart from Bixby, Oklahoma was voted the 2011 "Driver of the Year" by the North American 360 Sprint Car Poll voting panel of media members, promoters, sanctioning officials and manufacturers for the second time. Stewart, the American Sprint Car Series (ASCS) national tour champion and 2009 "Driver of the Year", earned thirteen of the twenty first-place ballots cast in the year-end poll. Stewart's car owner, Paul Silva, earned his second "Team of the Year" award as well.

"I am looking forward to getting back in the Paul Silva owned 57 again," added the two-time Knoxville 360 Nationals Champion. "We are looking forward to getting the season started and hopefully we can keep building on what we have been able to accomplish the last three years."

Stewart will begin his 2012 race calendar in the U.S. racing in the 3G owned car of Joe Gearte and Tim Norman in Florida at the Ronald Laney Memorial race. "After that I will head down to Arizona to start off the ASCS National Tour in the 57 car."

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