RACINBOYS EXCLUSIVE By Ray Cunningham -- Starting this Tuesday, July 10th at Red Dirt Speedway in Meeker, Oklahoma, and ending July 15th at Sweet Springs Motorsports Complex in Missouri on Sunday night, midget drivers from across the nation will converge on the Heartland for 7 races in six days in USAC and POWRi competition.
PHOTO CREDIT: John Lee of High-Fly'n Photos -- http://www.highfly-nphotos.com
Five of the races will be under USAC’s National Midget sanction, including the race at Meeker and Sweet Springs, as well as a Wednesday night encounter at Beloit, Kansas, and a double header at Fairbury, NE. on Friday and Saturday. Meanwhile POWRi National, West, and the Allstar Series will converge also on Friday and Saturday night at Valley Speedway in Grain Valley, Missouri. Giving open wheel fans in the Heartland area a great opportunity to see many of today’s brightest stars in exciting midget racing action.
It all kicks off Tuesday night at Meeker, Oklahoma, where USAC Midgets will run in the Sooner state for the first time in 43 years. On Valentines Day weekend in 1975, USAC came for a two day event that drew some of the most iconic racers of the era, including Gary Bettenhausen, Pancho Carter, Mel Kenyon, Tom Bigelow, and Sleepy Tripp. California’s Tripp would win the second day’s feature held indoors at the arena on the Oklahoma State Fairgrounds in OKC that hosted the National Finals Rodeo from 1965-1978.
The driver who looked more at home on a surf board than in the cockpit of a midget during that time with his long flowing blonde hair, would win his second feature of the “75 campaign that day, and by year’s end would win 11 more on his way to his first USAC Midget Title. Fast forward to 2018 where some of the greatest stars of this era will also be in attendance at the race being promoted by long time Okie Midget racer Cody Brewer, and his wife Melissa.
Top of that list is former USAC Midget Champ Christopher Bell, who has won many prestigious midget races over the last five years including the Belleville Midget Nationals, the Turkey Night Grand Prix twice, and the Chili Bowl twice. Bell from Norman, OK. Is also the defending NASCAR Truck Series Champion, and currently sits in 4th place in points in the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2018. Other competitors from the Sooner state will include two-time USAC Sprint Champ Brady Bacon of Broken Arrow, and Collinsville’s Tyler Thomas among others.
On Wednesday the USAC Midgets will return again to the Solomon Valley Fairgrounds in Beloit, Kansas, for the Chad McDaniel Memorial. Named in honor of the Concordia, KS. Midget driver who lost his life at Knoxville, IA in a racing accident in 2009. “Chado” as he was affectionately known, was a very popular and upcoming midget racer at the time of his death. His good buddy, and fellow competitor Garrett Hood along with Nathan LaBarge will be promoting the Beloit race that featured the late Bryan Clauson winning in 2016, and Christopher Bell winning last season.
Kansas racer Tucker Klaasmeyer will be racing in that one, as well as Meeker, Valley Speedway with POWRi, and back with USAC at Sweet Springs. The Paola racer is having his finest racing season in midgets to date, driving in 2018 for Keith Kunz, and KKM Motorsports. Klaasmeyer recently won his fourth POWRi National Race of the year at Fairbury, Illinois, the most in the series so far this year. The USAC Midget trail then travels to Nebraska, for a doubleheader at the Jefferson County Speedway in Fairbury on Friday and Saturday. This is the third year for the midgets to compete there. With all three being promoted by Cody Brewer and company.
The community has supported this race so well over the last two seasons, Brewer decided to expand it to two races in 2018. Arizona’s Chad Boat (second in USAC points in 2018), won the inaugural event in 2016, his first USAC Midget win on his way to winning the Belleville Nationals. With 2016 USAC Midget Champ Tanner Thorson winning last year. And to top of the USAC portion of the proceedings,
USAC will run for the first time ever at Sweet Springs, Mo. for the John Hinck Memorial Midget event on Sunday, July 15th. In the past the Hinck Memorial has been one of the biggest events on the Micro Midget calendar, but this year will feature the mighty midgets of USAC. Drivers expected to compete in all five USAC shows are, USAC point leader Logan Seavey, who won the Powri National title in 2017, Boat, Bacon, and defending USAC Midget Champ Spencer Bayston from Lebanon, Indiana, currently third in USAC standings behind Seavey, and Boat, with “Sunshine” Tyler Courtney, Kevin Thomas Jr., and many more expected.
At Valley Speedway on Friday and Saturday nights the Powri National Series comes to the Missouri oval for the second time in 2018 to race with the Powri West Series, and the Allstar POWRi Series. The first time around in May, USAC point leader Seavey took the win over POWRi, and USAC Midget veteran Zach Daum. The Valley double header will have a local feel as well.
Besides the previously mentioned Tucker Klaasmeyer of Paola, and his teammate, Californian Holly Shelton, POWRi West Point leader Kory Schudy of Springfield, Mo. driving the Jon Sawyer Racing #28 will be in attendance. Kory won at Valley Speedway last year in Allstar competition, and has
been in control of the West point standings for most of the 2018 campaign. Kory will not be the only Schudy at Valley over the weekend. His father, two-time Allstar Midget champion Pat Schudy, will also be in competition in his distinctive Ruby Red #7s machine.
Others to watch at Valley will be Wesley Smith of Nixa, Mo. who has 2 wins in POWRi West Midget action in 2018, along with 2 Allstar Midget wins, and a win in the Powri WAR Sprint series this year. Smith driving the family owned #44 Midget is no stranger to victory lane at Valley, he has won the majority of his 15 Allstar Midget features there since 2015, and finished 9th place in May racing against the National boys and girls of the series. Riley Kreisel of Warsaw, Missouri, won the midget track championship at the Grain Valley dirt track in 2016.
This season Kreisel has concentrated on winning the Powri WAR Sprint Championship. So far it’s working out nicely for the young chauffeur who won his first Allstar Midget feature at Valley at age 15. In 2018 Riley has won two features in POWRi WAR Sprints, and is the point leader going into the stretch run for the series driving the Rick and Deb Smith #90. Riley will however take the family owned midget out of the trailer for the first time since the May race at Valley to run at Grain Valley, and Sweet Springs. The Sweet Springs bull ring is special to the #93K bunch. It’s the place where he and his father Richard, along with his Uncle Stanley, have all raced many times over the years.
The Allstar POWRi Series which has Valley as its home track in 2018, will have point leader Chad Winfrey driving the Delty Winfrey #321 at Valley and Sweet Springs, as well as 2018 feature winners Chase Porter, Broc Hunnell, and 2017 Allstar runner up Luke Howard at both venues. With 2017 Allstar Champ Dustin Gilbert, and Morgan Frewaldt as likely competitors as well at Valley. Wherever you attend the midgets over this next week as they make stops in Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, and Missouri, you will have the opportunity to see some of the finest cars and drivers in the sport today. Enjoy!