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Searing gets “hardship” nod from Challenge Series rivals and leadership

ST. CLOUD, MN - Series leadership has announced that two-time and defending Structural Buildings WISSOTA Challenge Series champion Cole Searing, from Huron, South Dakota, will receive a hardship exemption for the next two series events. Searing suffered a ruptured appendix and subsequent emergency surgery following the Fiesta City Speedway stop, which kept him out of the driver’s seat for the reminder of the weekend.

“First things first, we are all glad Cole is all right and is on his way home to rest and feel better,” said series director Chris Stepan. “Due to his situation, we got the other perfect attendance ServPro Stars of the Series together this morning and allowed them to vote on whether to grant him an exemption for the remainder of the weekend or not, which allowed him to receive hardship points for the events at Madison Speedway (Madison, MN) and Casino Speedway (Watertown, SD). [This is] similar to what the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series and World of Outlaw Late Model Series do for their perfect-attendance competitors. The 10 other perfect attendance drivers voted unanimously to allow the exemption and grant Cole points to keep him in the running for his third series title at season’s end.”

A hardship consists of an emergency situation, forcing the driver to miss a series event, or events. Racing-related incidents (blown motors, crashed cars, etc.) and personal matters (weddings, vacations, etc.) are not considered.

Searing will receive full show-up points, along with last-place heat race points and last-place feature points for the two nights. Those points will be added to his series point total after the weekend is concluded. He will not receive WISSOTA national points for the two hardship events. He will still be eligible for ServPro Star provisionals, as well as ServPro Star-specific contingency awards nightly, and other series perks once he rejoins the tour at the Gondik Law Speedway in Superior, Wisconsin on July 4-5 for the 9th annual Great Lakes Border Battle weekend.

For more information on the Challenge Series, please visit www.WISSOTAChallengeSeries.com.