USAC Pepsi/Mt. Dew Midget Nationals Excitement Added by TV, Affiliates & Mopar
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
“USAC Thunder” on The Outdoor Channel, the $5,000 Mopar Challenge Bonus, and American Racing Drivers Club (ARDC), Midwest Auto Racing Association (MARA), Rocky Mountain Midget Racing Association (RMMRA), and the Southern Midget Racing Series (SMRS). The excitement of those affiliations is generating a real post-Chili-Bowl “buzz” regarding the United States Auto Club (USAC)-sanctioned Pepsi/Mt. Dew Knoxville Midget Nationals, June 2-3, at the half-mile Knoxville Raceway.
Said Knoxville director of racing Ralph Capitani this week at the RPM Promoters Workshop in Florida, “It’s funny, but even the other promoters here realize that our early June weekend in Knoxville is going to be huge for midget car racing in the States. This entire event, from the Thursday night practice and the Friday night $1,650-to-win King Doodlebug Classic preliminary show through the Saturday night $3,350-to-win finale, is going to be very team- and fan-friendly! And because of that, I wouldn't be surprised to see some real international involvement during this weekend before all is said and done.”
While USAC and its National Midget Car Series will be the sanctioning body for the fifth annual event, four additional regional sanctioning organizations have agreed to be affiliated with the two-day show on the Marion County Fairgrounds. ARDC in the East and RMMRA in the West have both agreed to be non-points affiliates, while two Midwestern clubs, MARA and SMRS, have committed to being full-points affiliates. Said ‘Cappy’, “We expect the presence of these affiliates will boost our car count by twenty or so, but more importantly, we are excited about the quality of competition that they bring to the table. Champions like Ray Bull of Pennsylvania, Donnie Lehmann of Illinois, Tony Rossi of Colorado, and Joe Boyles of Missouri add a lot of diversity to our national championship program and we’re really proud to welcome them back in 2006.”
The Outdoor Channel is bringing its “USAC Thunder” television cameras, with emcee Jack Arute, to Knoxville for the Saturday night Pepsi/Mt. Dew-sponsored Knoxville Midget Nationals. The Knoxville show will air on Saturday, July 1, at 5 p.m. Eastern time. Interestingly, on Saturday afternoon, June 3, the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame will be hosting its seventeenth annual induction ceremonies, guaranteeing that many past and present sprint car racing champions will be on-hand during the weekend of the Knoxville Midget Nationals.
Finally, Mopar has partnered with Knoxville Raceway to offer the Mopar Challenge Bonus for the Pepsi/Mountain Dew Knoxville Midget Nationals event. If the winner of the Saturday feature utilizes a Mopar powerplant, that driver will receive a $5,000 MoPowered bonus check, courtesy of Mopar. All entrants competing with Mopar power are eligible for the Mopar Bonus Challenge. Leading the competition will be Tony Stewart Racing Enterprises' Josh Wise of California, the 2005 USAC National Midget Car Series champion. He'll be joined by Team Mopar's Levi Jones of Illinois, Kyle Nicholas of Florida, Teddy Beach of Ohio, and 2004 King Doodlebug and Knoxville Midget Nationals champion Jerry Coons, Jr., of Arizona. Mopar is based in Center Line, Mich., and is the exclusive original equipment supplier of parts and accessories for Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep® vehicles.
For more information on the Knoxville Raceway and the June 2-3 Pepsi/Mt. Dew Knoxville Midget Nationals, individuals are urged to visit www.knoxvilleraceway.com. For more information on the NSCHoF induction weekend, people are encouraged to visit www.sprintcarhof.com. For more information regarding Mopar, the Mopar Challenge Bonus, or USAC Racing, log on to www.moparspeed.com, www.mopar.com, or www.usacracing.com. The other midget car sanctioning affiliate web sites are as follows: www.mararacing.com, www.rmmra.org, www.smrsmidgets.com and www.ardcmidgets.com.
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