ERIE, MI (September 9, 2017) – With the final points race in the books, Steve Irwin (Fenton, MI) has earned the 2017 Engine Pro Sprints On Dirt presented by ARP championship.  The Flying Zero team of Irwin, car owner/wife Adrianna, and crew chief Nathan Whitney put together a consistent season in their Krieger-powered Maxim Flying Zero, finishing in the top seven in fourteen races while dropping out of one.

Irwin isn’t unfamiliar with championships.  This is his second SOD championship, having won the first in 2001.  He also won the 2007, 2009, 2010, and 2014 non-wing, dirt Michigan Traditional Sprints championships and the 2014 Spartan Speedway non-wing pavement championship.  Irwin has 49 feature wins.

Besides the season championship, Irwin also won the SOD MAHLE/Clevite Beyond Limits Challenge four-race championship.  He finished second in the King Engine Bearings Hartford Speedway King of Michigan four-race series and fifth in the Driven Racing Oil Butler Speedway Battlegrounds Bash four-race series.

Thomas Schinderle finished second in the championship chase and earned the Perfit Corporation Series Rookie of the Year title as the highest finishing driver with previous sprint car experience but a first-time SOD regular.