KNOXVILLE, Iowa – Teams competing in either the 360 or 410 Nationals at Knoxville Raceway have just 25 days remaining in their opportunity to cash in on the Priority Aviation $20,000 Sponsorship competition.

The cut off for donations/memberships towards your favorite race team/driver end at 6 p.m. CST on Wednesday, July 31.

It is still a very close race and no driver in the running is out of it.  Iowa’s Carson McCarl currently holds the lead in the race over Pennsylvania’s Lance Dewease and Iowa’s McKenna Haase.

The opportunity benefiting the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame & Museum for a $20,000 sponsorship from Priority Aviation is available to any driver competing at Knoxville in August at either the 360 Nationals or 410 Nationals.

Currently, 20 drivers have taken advantage of the contest.  McCarl leads the current standings ahead of Dewease, Haase, Bill Balog, Tyler Courtney, Sammy Swindell, Tanner Holmes, Jac Haudenschild, David Gravel, Sheldon Haudenschild, Scott Thiel, Austin McCarl, Parker Price-Miller, Craig Dollansky, Clint Garner, Mason Daniel, Kyle Larson, Chad Kemenah, Joe Beaver and Shane Stewart.

All that sprint car teams and fans need to do is have their prospective members or donors visit www.SprintCarStuff.comand order a membership there, contact the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame & Museum and request membership packets or make a donation.

If ordering online, specify your driver or race team in the “Notes” section on the final page.

The museum can ship membership and donation information out for the drivers and teams to pass out at their races in July.  The driver or team with the highest amount of donations returned to the museum before July 31 will receive the $20,000 sponsorship funding.

All funds collected will go towards paying off remaining construction costs on the Bryan Clauson Suite Tower. Memberships start at only $25 per year, but any donation amount will be accepted.

At the end of the 2018 season, the Indian Wrecking Crew — the factory’s awesomely talented trio of American Flat Track racers — was down to one.

Brad Baker was seriously injured during the X Games and was out indefinitely, and Bryan Smith and his crew announced they were going to contest the AFT Twins Championship on Kawasakis.

That left the Wrecking Crew with just one member, defending series champion Jared Mees.

Having Mees on board gave Indian officials tremendous leeway. They already had the most talented rider in flat-track racing, who just also happened to have one of the most talented crew chiefs in Kenny Tolbert.

With the luxury of Mees and Tolbert on board, Indian looked to hire a pair of young riders who they could build into future champions and who could potentially be contenders for many years to come.

In what now looks like a stroke of genius, Indian went with a brother act in the form of Briar and Bronson Bauman.

The younger brother, Bronson Bauman, already had experience with the factory Indian squad. As a young, up-and-coming AFT Twins rider, Bronson Bauman showcased his abilities last season and earned his first full-time factory ride for this season. Midway through the 2018 campaign, Bronson Bauman was hand-selected by Baker to fill in on his factory FTR750.

In Bronson Bauman’s first race aboard the FTR750, he secured a fifth-place finish at the Buffalo Chip TT. Bronson Bauman also recorded his first career Twins podium aboard the FTR750 with a second-place finish at Pennsylvania’s Williams Grove Speedway.

To find a third rider, Indian didn’t have to go far. As a privateer, Briar Bauman turned to the Indian Motorcycle FTR750 for the second half of last season. Through nine races, Briar Bauman secured six top-five finishes, including a second-place effort at the Peoria TT and his third AFT Twins victory at Williams Grove. His strong late-season effort rewarded him with a third-place finish in the standings and that was a strong enough résumé to earn him the ride with Indian.

American Flat Track has a long history of talented brother combinations. Before the Baumans there were the Hank and Gary Scott, Mark and Scott Brelford, Chuck, Larry and Dennis Palmgren and Tommy, Nicky and Roger Hayden, to name a few.

Indian definitely went for youth with the Baumans. Briar Bauman is 23 and Bronson Bauman just turned 22. And for the brothers, they couldn’t be in a better position, getting the opportunity to ride for the best factory squad in flat- track racing.

The Baumans, who grew up in the flat-track racing hotbed of Salinas, Calif., started racing at the same time, and surprise of all surprises, it was their mother, Lisa, who suggested they give it a try.

“Our neighbors asked if our parents could bring their bike down to a race at King City,” Bronson Bauman explained. “It was my mom who told my dad, ‘We should let the boys race.’ I think Briar and I both finished dead last, so we wanted to go back because we were kind of mad that we did so badly.”

Obviously, both brothers figured it out and quickly became two of the best amateur racers in the country.

Briar and Bronson Bauman admit they can’t totally deny the stereotype of brothers who were constantly fighting, but now that they are older, both say they couldn’t ask for a better teammate.

“I get along with pretty much everyone, but it’s nice to have Bronson in the pits,” Briar Bauman said. “We share stuff and try to help each other as much as we can. A lot of times when you get to the level where we’re at, teammates sometimes don’t work together that well. We’ve all seen times when there’s friction between teammates and that’s something we don’t have to worry about.”

For Bronson Bauman, simply having a teammate is a new experience.

“I’ve never really had a teammate before,” he admitted. “But it’s nice because we can bounce ideas off each other. We can talk about what lines on the track to run and things like that. That’s great for me, because that’s information he wouldn’t go around sharing with anybody else.”

LEICESTERSHIRE, England – Jonathan Rea launched himself into the World Superbike championship lead with a victory Saturday at Donington Park.

Kawasaki’s Rea took the lead early on and never look back as he romped to a 76th career win. The victory, combined with a crash by Ducati rider Alvaro Bautista, allowed Rea to move into the championship lead for the first time this season.

A blistering opening lap by Rea allowed him to build a lead of a second over polesitter Tom Sykes, followed by Lean Haslam, Loris Baz and Bautista.

Rea continued to set a scorching pace at the front, essentially making it a race for second behind him. On lap six disaster nearly struck for Bautista, who nearly crashed in turn two only to recover and remain on his bike.

After eight laps Rea had a comfortable lead of seven seconds as Sykes continued in second, followed by Haslam, Baz and Bautista.

The wet conditions soon began claiming victims. The first was Jordi Torres, who crashed on wet grass at the exit of turn six. He was followed closely by Sandro Cortese, who crashed at the entry of turn six.

Finally it was Bautista’s turn. He also crashed in turn six in spectacular fashion, ending his race and effectively handing the championship lead to Rea as long as he finished the race.

Rea held serve and earned the victory, with Sykes finished second from the pole ahead of Haslam in third. Baz settled for fourth, with Alex Lowes taking fifth following Bautista’s crash.

HOHENSTEIN-ERNSTTHAL, Germany – Marc Marquez scored his 57th premier class pole during MotoGP qualifying on Saturday at the Sachsenring.

Marquez eclipsed his own qualifying record at the German track, resetting it with a 1:20.195 lap to earn his 10th-straight pole at the Sachsenring.

“I am riding very well and since FP1 I have felt good here,” Marquez said. “We’ve just been trying different tyres and some different things on the bike to see how it compares. Even in qualifying we tried some different things to keep understanding more. We have everything in place for tomorrow but the Yamaha riders are very fast, (Maverick) Viñales and (Fabio) Quartararo are very fast so we will have to keep an eye on them. The pole was possible today but we will have to see if the win is possible tomorrow.”

Marquez will be joined on the front row two Yamaha riders – Petronas Yamaha SRT’s Fabio Quartararo and Monster Energy Yamaha’s Maverick Viñales. Quartararo was .205 of a second off the pace set by Marquez.

Alex Rins qualified fourth for Suzuki, followed by the Pramac Racing Ducati of Jack Miller and LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow.

The remainder of the top-10 included Franco Morbidelli, Pol Espargaro, Joan Mir and Takaaki Nakagami.

The Buffalo Sabres have signed free-agent center Marcus Johansson to a two-year, $9 million contract, the team announced Saturday.

Johansson, 28, has battled injuries in recent seasons. He was traded by the New Jersey Devils to the Bruins at the trade deadline in February and played only 10 regular-season games in Boston after suffering a lung contusion on a hit by the Carolina Hurricanes' Micheal Ferland.

After posting only a goal and two assists in those 10 games, Johansson bounced back with four goals and seven assists in 22 playoff games, forming a dynamic duo with Charlie Coyle on Boston's third line.

Johansson is coming off a three-year, $13.75 million contract that he signed with the Washington Capitals. His best season with the Capitals was 2016-17, when he had 24 goals and 34 assists in 82 games.

After a trade to the Devils, he played in only 29 games the next season and 58 last season.