The Ollie’s All Star Circuit of Champions is kicking off its season on Friday at Screven Motorsports Park.
The catch is, the tour will likely see a new champion, a multitude of breakout stars, and boasts a nine-driver rookie class for the 2021 season.
There isn’t a shortage of storylines heading into the schedule.
Full Time Vets
With the departure of 3-time champion Aaron Reutzel to the World of Outlaws, Cory Eliason is looking to earn his first title with the tour in the Rudeen No. 26 car.
Eliason was the first runner-up to Reutzel in recent memory and gave the star a run for his money in 2020. He hopes to complete the run this season.
Behind Eliason are a few drivers in new rides for the season hoping to dial up a winning combination the likes of which we haven’t seen before. That’s the goal, at least.
Zeb Wise – who split with the No. 11 after the final ASCoC race last year – is looking to run the full season coming fresh off of his Rookie of the Year campaign with the series. His plans, though, have not yet been announced.
CJB Motorsports will put a second car into the tour in 2021 for veteran Paul McMahan to drive. He’ll be a part of a two-car team paired with another experienced driver for next season. It should be a pairing that performs well, if all goes to plan.
Skylar Gee is listed by the series on its full-time roster, but has only announced his plans for Speedweek. The Canadian driver has only confirmed that he will be in the Grove Racing No. 28 for the first six events of the year.
That’s not an abnormal move either, the seventh race of the year isn’t scheduled until the second week of April, so there’s time for moving parts to iron themselves out.
T.J. Michael will return to the tour full-time in 2021 with the help of A.J. Havens hoping to capture his first win with the series this season.
Two-Time series champion – the only existing title winner on the tour this year – Greg Wilson will come back to the No. w20 car to complete the returning driver roster.
Full Time Rookies
The rookie class in this year’s ASCoC tour is one of the most unique classes that a top racing series could ever ask for. Albeit they aren’t all in the front end of their careers, having nine drivers competing for their first full tour is something to be excited about.
Perhaps the rookie with the biggest question mark in front of him is a driver that hasn’t raced much of his career in a winged sprint car.
The 2019 USAC Midget champion in Tyler Courtney started to make the transition a season ago, bringing out his winged No. 7BC to Knoxville and some ASCoC races. Courtney podiumed at Knoxville and ran well with the national tour in 2020, but getting a full season with the wing on will be more telling than his warm-up year.
Bill Balog will take his No. 17B team on the road this year after winning 10 IRA Sprint Car champions, and if that’s not scary enough for his competitors, he’s already got a head start this year from running the Wild Wing Shootout in Arizona – as did Eliason.
Ian Madsen is heading for the full-time schedule with Sam McGhee in the No. 11 car that he drove for a small portion of last year. After splitting ways with the KCP Racing No. 18 midway through the season, the team got a bit of a head start ahead of taking on the 2021 season.
Brent Marks headlines a triad of Pennsylvania Posse members that look to have their names blow up even more on the national tour. It’s exciting in it’s own right to see three guys leaving the state to show what they’ve got and kind of put their talent on the table. Let’s hope it goes well for them.
He’s joined in that venture by veteran Lucas Wolfe – who is sure to play a big threat to the tour – as well as Kyle Reinhardt – who has a cool story about a 15-hour tow that lead to his first win at Selinsgrove last season.
If there is anything that is certain in this rookie class, it’s that a lot of eyes will be on the native Pennsylvanian’s.
Of course, that’s got to bring up the Knoxville rivalry, right? Hunter Schuerenberg is taking the Vermeer No. 55 car on the road after it’s competed at Knoxville weekly in the recent years. Schuerenberg has proved himself without the wing, tied at 51st on the all-time USAC wins list with the likes of Mario Andretti, but can he make more progress with the wing on?
After Paul McMahan tested positive for COVID-19 last season, Justin Peck was put behind the wheel of the Paul Buch No. 13 car. This season, though, Peck will be behind the wheel of the black-yellow-and-blue machine full-time. The 22-year-old became friends with the team, and they hit it off enough to put Peck in the car this season.
Zach Hampton completes the rookie roster racing his own No. 35 car. Hampton as competed before in the Knoxville Nationals and looks to keep making progress in his ride.
The season opens on Friday night, and we’ll surely get some information we can overreact to through the weekend, but until then, we’ll just wait until things kick off. Oh, and it sounds like Tony Stewart Racing as well as Kyle Larson might be making the trip down.
Strap in. 2021 is just getting started.
2021 Ollie’s All Stars Confirmed Roster
Cory Eliason
Zeb Wise
Paul McMahan
Skylar Gee
Greg Wilson
T.J. Michael
Tyler Courtney (R)
Bill Balog (R)
Ian Madsen (R)
Brent Marks (R)
Lucas Wolfe (R)
Kyle Reinhardt (R)
Hunter Schuerenberg (R)
Justin Peck (R)
Zach Hampton (R)
Ollie’s All Stars Speedweek Schedule
Jan. 29 | Screven Motor Speedway
Jan. 30 | Screven Motor Speedway
Jan. 31 | Off Day
Feb. 01 | East Bay Raceway Park
Feb. 02 | East Bay Raceway Park
Feb. 03 | Volusia Speedway Park
Feb. 04 | Volusia Speedway Park
