Pickens & Ray Enter Pepsi/Mt. Dew Midget Nationals
Thursday, May 26, 2005
The field for the fourth annual Pepsi/Mt. Dew Knoxville Midget Nationals just got stronger with the official entries today of 2005 O’Reilly Chili Bowl Midget Nationals Rookie of the Year, Michael “Slim” Pickens of North Shore City, New Zealand, and Badger Midget Auto Racing Association point leader Davey Ray, originally of Davenport, Iowa. To date, fifty-six (56) midgeteers have entered the two-day show, June 3-4, representing the Badger (BMARA), Gateway (GRI), Rocky Mountain (RMMRA), Midwest (MARA), and American Racing Drivers (ARDC) clubs. Pickens will wheel William “Butch” Dahlke’s Mopar-powered number 99 Stealth midget as a teammate to Brian Claas of Oregon, Wisconsin, while Loves Park, Illinois, resident Ray will pilot the Lars Lein-owned Esslinger-powered Spike midget number 2X.
Amongst the other recent entrants are Tony Rossi of Northglenn, Colorado, Donnie Lehmann of Springfield, Illinois, Frank Polimeda of Fort Lee, New Jersey, Don Droud, Jr., of Lincoln, Nebraska, Brad Kuhn of Avon, Indiana, Eric Wilkens of El Mirage, Arizona, Kevin Doty of Burlington, Iowa, Ron Kuhn of Lees Summit, Missouri, and Russ Harper of Laramie, Wyoming. They join previously entered hot-shoes like Wally Pankratz, Mike Hess, Danny Stratton, Scott Hatton, Chad DeSelle, Craig Carey, Johnny Rodriguez, Ray Bull, Andy Mason, Joey Montgomery, Brandon Waelti and Rick England.
The Pepsi/Mt. Dew Knoxville Midget Nationals is two separate nights of (non-winged) midget car racing, with the preliminary night’s feature being called the Pepsi/Mt. Dew King Doodlebug Classic. The Saturday night feature is the national championship event for the five midget car sanctioning affiliates, and will be run in conjunction with the track’s weekly winged 410-cubic-inch sprint car class. The Friday night show will include a full program for drivers age fifty and over in the winged 360 c.i. sprint car division, with the feature winner being declared the Hoosier Tire Midwest Masters Classic champion. Jimmy Sills of Elverta, California, is expected to defend his Masters Classic title this year during the sixteenth annual National Sprint Car Hall of Fame (NSCHoF) induction weekend. Talented drivers Gerry Robison of Pennsylvania, James Bevan of Kansas, Rick England of Kansas, and Jerry Potter of Missouri are all looking for quality rides for the Hoosier Tire Midwest Masters Classic.
The National Sprint Car Hall of Fame induction banquet will be held on Saturday afternoon on the Marion County Fairgrounds. For more information on the midget and sprint car racing, visit the track’s web-site at www.knoxvilleraceway.com. For more info on the induction weekend, visit www.sprintcarhof.com.
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