WoO News

Last season at 23 years of age Tony Bruce Jr. did something that it takes some drivers an entire career to accomplish and that was to win a World of Outlaws A-Feature event. Now that he has the first win out of the way, he is focused entirely on returning to the winner’s circle in 2009, as he continues to establish himself in the upper echelons of sprint car racing world.

Bruce and his team have spent the off-season working feverously in their shop in Liberal, Kansas as they gear up for another go around on the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series trail, which stretches from February until early November, with 80-plus races on the calendar.

“The winter months bring anxiety along with everything else,” said Bruce. “It’s cold outside and you are working in the shop and you can’t wait to get to Florida. I’m ready to get back racing.”

This will be the fifth time in his career that Bruce has opened the season in the Alltel DIRTcar Nationals by UNOH at Volusia Speedway Park in Florida. With all of the World of Outlaws drivers in attendance, along with competitors from the All Star Circuit of Champions, and the always tough Pennsylvania Posse, the field will be one of the toughest he faces all year. Bruce picked up a Top-10 finish on the third night of the six nights of racing last season. The Alltel DIRTcar Nationals by UNOH will again feature six nights of sprint car racing, with the World of Outlaws taking to the blazing fast half-mile February 6-8, with $10,000 on the line each night to win.

“Our big goal for every Florida Speedweeks is to make every A-Main,”Bruce said. “If you make every single A-Main in those six nights that you are there, you will probably run up front in at least one of them. Making the show is the main thing and then you go from there.”

Experience is still the number one goal for Bruce each and every night be climbs into his race car, as he continues to compete against drivers who were winning races and championships before he was even born. Bruce finished a very solid 14th in the World of Outlaws championship standings last season, seven spots better than the 21st place showing in his rookie season of 2007.

“It definitely is important,” he said of experience. “There is nothing I can ever do to make myself equal to Steve Kinser. As many laps as I can get helps with knowing things that are going on around the race track, and moves that are made. Laps definitely come into play.”

Bruce picked up his first career World of Outlaws A-Feature win last season at 34 Raceway in Iowa, holding off 20-time series champion Steve Kinser for all 35 laps of the series inaugural visit to the high-banked 3/8-mile. While the pressure of picking up the first win is no longer on his shoulders, Bruce points out that the expectations instantly became higher each night he took to the track after that triumph.

“Once you win once, everyone expects you to win another one,” Bruce stated. “I think the added pressure is already there anyway. We’re out there to win races and that is our job, first and foremost. We put enough pressure on ourselves that I don’t really have to pay attention to anyone else.”