For more information:
Linda Mansfield, Restart Communications
E-mail: LKMRestart@gmail.com
Cell: (317) 201-0729

 

Gas City Hosts USAC Indiana Midget Week
And Gas City Sprints Doubleheader This Friday Night

GAS CITY, Ind., June 7 — This Friday night Gas City I-69 Speedway hosts one of the most anticipated races of its season with its leg of the 18th annual Indiana Midget Week for the USAC NOS Energy Drink national midget series. Adding more excitement to the night will be the addition of non-wing sprint cars to make an open-wheel doubleheader.

Michael “Buddy” Kofoid of Penngrove, Calif., is the early favorite, as at press time he had won two of the three completed Indiana Midget Week features. He is also the defending winner of this event on Gas City’s quarter-mile dirt oval. Approximately 30 other midget drivers from around the country will vie to be the one who pulls into victory lane after the checkered flies at the conclusion of the 30-lap midget feature Friday night.

With a USAC NOS Energy Drink national midget feature victory for Kofoid on June 2 prior to Indiana Midget Week, he became the first driver to win four of the division’s races in a row since Kyle Larson in 2012-2013.

Only seven previous drivers in the 67-year history of USAC national midget racing have strung together four feature victories in a row: Shorty Templeman (1956), Mel Kenyon (1969), Rich Vogler (twice, in 1979 and 1988), Kevin Olson (1987), Billy Boat (1995-1996), Dave Darland (2003) and Larson (2012-2013). Kenyon signed autographs in Gas City’s new “Rumble in Fort Wayne” Autograph Zone last Friday night. Darland has two top-three finishes in non-wing sprint car features at Gas City already this year, and Larson won Gas City’s Indiana Midget Week event in both 2013 and 2020. After taking the checkered flag in 2013, Larson accidentally tipped his midget over onto its side while doing donuts in celebration. He climbed out, scrambled up onto the overturned car, and waved to the crowd enthusiastically. He didn’t have as memorable a victory lane celebration in 2020, but he came from 14th to win the feature that night. Who finished second? Kofoid.

Kofoid leads the Indiana Midget Week point standings at press time followed by Justin Grant (Avon, Ind. by way of Ion, Calif.); Thomas Meseraull (Waveland, Ind., by way of San Jose, Calif.); Kyle Cummins (Princeton, Ind.); Mitchel Moles (Raisin City, Calif.); Bryant Wiedeman (Colby, Kan.); Kaylee Bryson (Muskogee, Okla.); Taylor Reimer (Bixby, Okla.); Jacob Denney (Galloway, Ohio) and Jade Avedisian (Clovis, Calif.).

It’s possible that the winner on Friday night at Gas City is the first woman to win a USAC national midget feature. Several women are expected to enter, including Bryson, who advanced 18 positions from her 22nd-place starting position to finish fourth in round three of Indiana Midget Week last Sunday night in Haubstadt, Ind.

Another driver to never count out is Shane Cottle of Kansas, Ill., a multi-time Gas City sprint car track champion and the 2005 and 2006 Indiana Midget Week titlist. He may enter both divisions, and he knows Gas City like the back of his hand. He finished second in the sprint car feature at Gas City last Friday night.

If Kofoid has garnered most of the headlines in the midgets recently, who will win the 25-lap non-wing sprint car feature Friday night at Gas City is anyone’s guess. In the three races held so far this year there have been three different winners: Tye Mihocko of Phoenix, Ariz.; Meseraull, and defending track champion Scotty Weir of Marion, Ind.

Going into Friday’s races Weir leads the current track sprint car point standings followed by Colten Cottle of Kansas, Ill. (Shane’s nephew); Matt Goodnight of Muncie, Ind.; Korbyn Hayslett of Troy, Ohio and Kyle Shipley of Lebanon, Ind.

The pits will open at 3 p.m. Friday night and the grandstands will open at 5 p.m. Hot laps are scheduled for 6:30 p.m.

Tickets and pit passes will be sold at the gate. General admission tickets are $30, student tickets are $10, and kids 12 and under are free. A pit pass costs $35.

Gas City I-69 Speedway is located on State Road 22, approximately a half-mile west of exit 259 of Interstate 69, about halfway between Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, Ind.

For the complete 2022 schedule and more information see the track’s website at gascityI69Speedway.com and also follow its social media outlets. The track is on Twitter (@GasCitySpeedway), Instagram (@GasCitySpeedway) and Facebook (GasCitySpeedwayOnTheGas).

Linda Mansfield/Restart Communications
E-mail: LKMRestart@gmail.com
Cell: (317) 201-0729