The USAC Midgets go indoors for the first time since 2007 this Saturday night, December 19, as the Southern Illinois Center on the grounds of the DuQuoin (Ill.) State Fair plays host to the inaugural “Junior Knepper 55.”
The 55-lap, non-points USAC “special event” honors the famed car owner Walter “Junior” Knepper, who fielded the familiar yellow number 55 in USAC National Sprint and National Midget competition for several years, scoring a combined 58 series victories with drivers Bob Wente, Tom Bigelow, Mel Kenyon, George Snider, Dana Carter, Rich Vogler, and Steve Knepper behind the wheel.
The Nick Knepper/Derek LeMaster promotion begins a new tradition at the Southern Illinois Center with the newly-created event, but midget racing is not new to the indoor facility in DuQuoin. Recent winners indoors at DuQuoin include Joey Saldana (2014), Tony Stewart (2012), Bryan Clauson (2011) and Casey Shuman (2010).
Saturday night’s race marks the 166th USAC Midget race held indoors dating back to Gene Hartley’s victory in the very first USAC-sanctioned race at the Fort Wayne (Ind.) Memorial Coliseum on January 8, 1956. Michael Lang won USAC’s last indoor midget race in the state of Illinois at Chicago’s Rosemont Horizon in 1991. Sleepy Tripp won the most recent USAC Midget race held in DuQuoin, Illinois in 1979, taking a 50-lap feature outdoors on the “Magic Mile” located adjacent to the Southern Illinois Center. Tripp also won the most recent USAC indoor midget race on dirt in 1990 at the Reno (Nev.) Livestock Events Center. Saturday night will also be the first USAC-sanctioned race held indoors since a 2007 midget feature won by Tony Stewart at the Fort Wayne (Ind.) Expo Center.
Nearly 50 drivers and cars have already been pre-entered for Saturday night’s event including some of 2015’s most accomplished USAC drivers that include AMSOIL USAC/CRA Sprint Car champion Damion Gardner, USAC Midwest HPD Midget titlist Alex Watson and Bob Stroud Memorial National Midget “Rookie of the Year” Spencer Bayston. Past USAC series champions Bryan Clauson, Cory Kruseman, Travis Young, Josh Lakatos and Brad Loyet are entered as well as past USAC National feature winners Hunter Schuerenberg, Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Chris Urish and Matt Westfall.
The pit gates open for the “Junior Knepper 55” at 8am Saturday, while spectator gates open at 5pm. The program is set to begin with hot laps at 6pm and racing is scheduled to start with preliminary events at 7pm. General admission tickets for adults are $20 with tickets for children 6-12 set at $10, while children 5 and under get in free. Pit passes are $35.
TheCushion.com will broadcast the event live on Saturday, December 19 and can be purchased for $22.99 ($20.50 for Premium and VIP Members).
- administrator on Dec 14, 2015
- Article Date: 12/14/2015