In the world of oval track racing, only left turns are good. But with the recent economic down turn, some Western Pennsylvania tracks have been forced to turn right and veer off course.

Larry Mattingly, the newly appointed general manager of Sharon Speedway, sent shock waves through the racing community when he announced that the track is altering its format by rotating the headline classes between the Sprint cars and big-block Modifieds.

"Sharon was paying $22,000 in purse money for a regular night," Mattingly said.

Both classes will each compete nine times during the season and will appear together twice for special events.

The Limited Sprints, E-Mods and Pro Stock support classes will continue to race weekly. There also will be promotional nights for fans who have unemployment claims.

In other racing news:

• Jennerstown Speedway won't open this year and is listed for sale. Owner Dave Wheeler said that he lacks the time to run the track and to serve as president and CEO of Wheeler Brothers in Somerset.

• The Ron Neilson family ended a 12-year run at Raceway 7 Speedway. Taking over the reins will be Terry Adams, who has leased the facility. Adams, along with Nick Bonnema, operated Speedway 7 in 1991. Currently, Adams also promotes Lorain County Speedway, an asphalt track in Ohio, on Saturday nights.

The first change will be scheduling, with the track opening from May until the end of October, unlike most years when the facility would be dark after the second week in September.

Another major change will be pushing the starting time from 7:30 to 8 p.m. RACEceivers will be mandatory for drivers to expedite caution lineups. A new front-wheel drive class has been added, the Enduro stocks, which are basic front-wheel drive cars or mini trucks.

• After months of negotiation, Tri-City Speedway owners Mike Graham and Roger Crick completed the sale of the track to H&H Motorsports, which is co-owned by Rick Hetrick and Roy Hill.

"We are very excited about the 2009 season," said Hetrick. "We will be running the same weekly classes as last year, but we will be adding some Super Sprint, Late Model and Mod Lite shows to our lineup."

Although Hill has no previous racetrack experience, Hetrick once owned Fox Raceway, a motocross track in Marienville.

Tri-City opens April 26.

• Lernerville Speedway will open tonight with its four usual race divisions of Late Models, Sprints, Modifieds and the Pure Stocks, which will be called DirtCar Sportsman.

Racing begins promptly at 7:30 p.m.

• All systems are go for the 2009 season opener at 7 p.m. Saturday night at Mercer Raceway Park. It will be the 58th anniversary season opener featuring the BRP Modified Tour, United E-Mod Series, open Stock Cars, and the Mini Stocks. The rain date is April 4.

• Pittsburgh's Pennsylvania Motor Speedway will open April 4 with racing at 7 p.m. RACEceivers are mandatory in all divisions.

• Firefighters responded to a fire at Late Model driver Jack Pencil's Race Shop in Bedford last week. Eleven companies from two counties and two states fought the fire. They had difficulty extinguishing the fire because of burning tires and fuel, and the roof began to collapse. The building is a total loss.

Carol Gamble is the racing columnist for the Butler Eagle.