USAC to Sanction '06 Pepsi/Mt. Dew Knoxville Midget Nationals
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
A new era will begin at Knoxville Raceway on June 2-3, 2006, as the United States Auto Club (USAC) will sanction the fifth annual Pepsi/Mt. Dew Knoxville Midget Nationals, which includes the King Doodlebug Classic. According to Knoxville’s director of racing Ralph ‘Cappy’ Capitani, “We are very excited that USAC will be returning to the Marion County Fairgrounds in 2006 with their National Midget Series after an absence of over 36 years. At the same time, we are very appreciative of the efforts of the Badger (BMARA), Gateway (GRI), Rocky Mountain (RMMRA), Midwest (MARA), and American Racing Drivers (ARDC) clubs and teams over the past four seasons, and hope they will continue to support this truly ‘national championship’ event.”
Continued Capitani, “When you look at USAC’s National Midget Series champions over the last fifteen years, you see names like Jeff Gordon (1990), Tony Stewart (1994, ’95), the late Kenny Irwin, Jr. (1996), Jason Leffler (1997, ’98, ‘99), Kasey Kahne (2000), and J.J. Yeley (2003). Clearly this series is a top rung on the ladder to NASCAR stock car racing. The addition of the prestigious USAC brand to this lucrative $33,000 two-day event fits perfectly into Knoxville Raceway’s strategy of offering reasonably-priced national championship events at a world-class venue.”
The Pepsi/Mt. Dew Knoxville Midget Nationals is two separate nights of non-winged midget car racing, with the preliminary night’s $1,500-to-win, 20-lap feature being called the Pepsi/Mt. Dew King Doodlebug Classic. The Saturday night $3,000-to-win, 25-lap feature is the national championship event, and will be run in conjunction with the track’s weekly winged 410-cubic-inch sprint car class. The Friday night show will include the race for drivers age fifty and over in the winged 360 c.i. sprint cars, with the feature winner being declared the Hoosier Tire Midwest Masters Classic champion. The June 2-3, 2006, open-wheel racing events at the half-mile dirt track are the nightly highlights of the seventeenth annual National Sprint Car Hall of Fame (NSCHoF) induction weekend in Knoxville.
An interesting note is that the last USAC midget car feature run on Iowa dirt was held at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines on April 1, 1982. That 40-lap main event was won by Doug Wolfgang, a five-time winner of the Knoxville Sprint Car Nationals and an inductee into the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame. The last USAC National Midget Series event in Iowa was held on May 16, 2003, on the pavement at the Hawkeye Downs Speedway in Cedar Rapids. That race was won by J.J. Yeley.
“Knoxville Midget Nationals” Champions:
2005 - (none; rain)
2004 - Jerry Coons, Jr., Tucson, AZ
2003 - Chad DeSelle, Sun Prairie, WI
2002 - Mike Hess, Petersburg, IL
“King Doodlebug Classic” Winners:
2005 - Danny Stratton, Fontana, CA
2004 - Jerry Coons, Jr., Tucson, AZ
2003 - Craig Carey, Riverton, IL
2002 - (none)
United States Auto Club (USAC) Midget Car Feature Winners at Knoxville Raceway:
7/31/68 - Bill Vukovich, Jr., Fresno, CA, 40 laps
6/19/69 - Bob Tattersall, Streator, IL, 40 laps
7/23/69 - Bob Tattersall, Streator, IL, 30 laps
|