Boat chase is wide open heading into St. Louis

A close points battle will raise the stakes when the Champ Boat Series begins the second half of its season at the Bud Light St. Louis Grand Prix on the St. Louis riverfront Aug. 15 to 17.

Terry Rinker of Riverview, Fla., leads the standings after scoring three straight podium finishes, but nearly all the drivers in the top 10 have a mathematical chance of catching him at St. Louis. The Bud Light Grand Prix is the fourth race of 2003 for the series.

The champ class, the top level of outboard powerboat racing, has produced three winners so far this year. Mike Seebold of St. Louis won in Tampico, Mexico, in May. In June the series staged two races with Greg Foster of Anaheim Hills, Calif., winning at New Roads, La., and Rinker winning at Bay City, Mich.

Rinker leads Chris Fairchild by 115 points, but the fifth-place driver is only 36 points behind Fairchild.

Beating the rain

Rain wiped out most events around the region over the weekend, but a few notes from events that did happen:

Jerrod Hull of Sikeston won Friday's sprint feature at Jacksonville (Ill.) Speedway.

Tim Montgomery of Fredericktown won $2,000 in a sprint event Friday at Memphis (Tenn.) Motorsports Park.

Rusty Griffaw, a Festus, Mo., racer who's won two of the past three modified features at Auto Tire and Parts Racepark near Benton, won Saturday at Montgomery County Speedway near New Haven. He was second Friday at Tri-City Speedway near Granite City, Ill.

Noteworthy

The $500 bounty on Robbie Standridge at ATPR will be extended to the Aug. 16 events after Saturday's rainout. Standridge, of Springfield, Ill., has won five straight feature races in the sprint class to tie a track record held by Eddie Gallagher of Memphis, Tenn. The track has no events scheduled this week.

More ATPR: NASCAR racer Kenny Wallace has been added as a guest and racer for Wednesday's special event for UMP late models and modifieds at ATPR. Both he and Ken Schrader will race in the night's events. Pure stocks also are on the card.