Todd Rose | Daily Press A pack of sport modifieds rumbles through turns one and two at the Upper Peninsula International Raceway, Aug. 18, 2019.

ESCANABA — The Upper Peninsula International Raceway capped off a successful 2020 Monday by revealing an eight-race schedule for the 2021 racing season on its Facebook page.

Engines will roar to life on May 22 for a practice session, allowing drivers to refamiliarize themselves with the dirt oval.

The first race day of the season comes two weeks later on Sunday, June 6. From there, UPIR returns to a Saturday night program on June 12 and 26.

July will see three race dates, kicking the month off on Friday, July 2 followed by two Saturday races on the 17 and 31.

The season will wrap up in August with back-to-back weeks of marquee events for UPIR. The first comes Aug. 22 with the U.P. State Fair race, an event that regularly provides wild action.

UPIR wraps up its season the next week on Aug 29 with Championship Night. In 2020, multiple classes had title battles last until the last lap of the last race, like the Bink’s Coca-Cola Sport Modifieds. In that championship fight, Lonnie Dalgord edged Matt Valiquette by the slimmest of margins, three points — the equivalent of one position on the track.

The same can be expected for 2021.

With eight races in place for the season, the track is looking at possible additional dates for the season.

“The board is still working, along with many other groups, to hopefully add a few more dates to our schedule,” the track posted to social media. “However, we wanted to provide you with the dates that we know we will be racing for sure as of now.”