It was a little more than eight years ago that the World of Outlaws debuted the Gumout Series for sprint cars at Lernerville Speedway. The Sarver dirt oval will make history again at 7:30 p.m. today when it plays host to the inaugural O'Reilly All Star Late Model Series.

Series director Jason Shank likes the idea of kicking off the series at Don Martin's Lernerville Speedway.

"I can't think of a better place to open up a season at," said Shank, a North Versailles native. "Lernerville Speedway has become a household name in the world of dirt late model racing and we are proud to be able to start our tour at such a fabulous facility."

Every Friday at Lernerville, the local late model drivers excite fans, and tonight shouldn't be any different with the addition of the new touring series competitors.

"We're excited to have the O'Reilly All Star Late Model Series open up their inaugural season at Lernerville," said Lernerville Speedway general manager Gary Risch. "The ASLMS is a fresh, new regional series that will thrive with the incentives they are putting out there for the drivers. Lernerville Speedway is honored to hold the series' inaugural event."

Pittsburgh's Pennsylvania Motor Speedway is sure to shake off the dust at 7 p.m. tomorrow for the season opener at Dirt's Monster Half-Mile near Imperial.

It was announced recently by the World Racing Group that PPMS would become a DIRTcar Racing sanctioned facility in 2009. The agreement aligns PPMS with Lernerville competitors in the DIRTcar Racing East Region.

"Working with Lernerville Speedway, now drivers in this area will have a much better shot at winning some of that DIRTcar Racing points-fund money and receiving national recognition," said Ben Miley of Miley Motorsports, promoters of PPMS.

Dog Hollow Speedway's defending late model champion Shawn "Sheetz" McGarvey, 40, of Coalport, Cambria County, was killed Tuesday morning in a work-related accident. In his short career, McGarvey collected track titles at Dog Hollow, Thunder Valley Raceway, Thunder Mountain and Central PA Speedways.

Besides the All Star Late Models, the Pro Late Models (crates) are on the schedule tonight at Lernerville. ... Motordrome Speedway opens the 2009 NASCAR season at 7:30 p.m. today in Smithton. ... Mercer Raceway Park looks to drop the green flag on the fourth consecutive Saturday night of racing at 7 p.m. tomorrow. ... Sharon Speedway in Hartford, Ohio, has practice from 1-4 p.m. tomorrow. ... Pittsburgh Raceway Park, the drag strip near New Alexandria, has test and tunes schedule from 1-5 p.m. tomorrow and Sunday.