Yung Money Win's #46 at MillBridge!

Kyle Larson closes out his year of racing with a victory in the second of 2 A-mains at Millbridge Speedway in Salisbury, NC.

This caps off a year the likes we may never see again. Larson won 2 USAC Silver Crown races on two 1 mile dirt tracks, he won a pile of winged 410 races, he won winged 360 races, several midget races and yes, he beat the best DLM drivers/teams in the business in just his 2nd dirt late model start! Read it and weep all you DLM pizza delivery car fans suffering from DLM tunnel vision! LOL!

This was a great show despite the last minute covid restrictions. Larson finished 0.0089 seconds behind Chase Briscoe in the first 30 lap A-main. Had there been another lap or two Larson would have won that one, too.

Really hope this event catches on and becomes an annual Christmas season tradition.

Congratulations Yung Money! Rumble, young man, rumble!!!!

Huge huge huge huge accomplishment

I realize this may not be the biggest of his wins, but I went out to Millbridge yesterday and was pleasantly surprised how good the racing actually was. Slide job after slide job, may not have had a huge turnout but the track can only handle a dozen midgets anyway. Afternoon show and track held up well, both races would have been very close finishes if it wasn't for a caution at the end of the second. Hats off to Millbridge, I thought the show went very well.

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Originally Posted by EvelB7

I realize this may not be the biggest of his wins, but I went out to Millbridge yesterday and was pleasantly surprised how good the racing actually was. Slide job after slide job, may not have had a huge turnout but the track can only handle a dozen midgets anyway. Afternoon show and track held up well, both races would have been very close finishes if it wasn't for a caution at the end of the second. Hats off to Millbridge, I thought the show went very well.

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Couldn't agree more, Evel! Glad to hear you went to watch in person. We watched the live PPV on Speed51 and, while picture quality was very good, the announcers indicated that the broadcast was being produced by a skeleton crew. The camera angles were not as they should have been and no matter what part of the running order they were concentrating on they reverted to a speed shot of the cars coming off of turn 4. It was impossible to get a clear perspective of the racing until they went back to the overhead view.

As I said earlier I really hope this catches on in the future. I realize it can be a bit nippy in Carolina in December but we certainly hope they can make this event into a yearly holiday season tradition. Those of us in Illinois and some surrounding states had a great Christmastime tradition for over 10 years going inside the Southern Illinois Center at the Du Quoin State Fairground in Southern Illinois. It was a great USAC National Midget show year in, year out and we only missed one in all the years they ran it. St. Louis is less than 2 hours from Du Quoin and they began the midget invitational in the dome and it killed the December Du Quoin show. The racing at Du Quoin was much better than the dome! Hopefully this deal at Millbridge can pick up where Du Quoin left off. The dome is not much of an alternative, for sure.

Ashly and Jeremy that run Millbridge are from the St. Louis area and actually helped get the dome thing off the ground the first year. They originally did the indoor race at PRI in Indy (that was a rough show); what they have done with Millbridge has been amazing to see over the last 10 years or so.

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Originally Posted by EvelB7

Ashly and Jeremy that run Millbridge are from the St. Louis area and actually helped get the dome thing off the ground the first year. They originally did the indoor race at PRI in Indy (that was a rough show); what they have done with Millbridge has been amazing to see over the last 10 years or so.

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Evel, I'm not privy to whether or not there was any dialog between the people who run the deal at the dome and the Knepper family (the Knepper family promoted the indoor midget show in Du Quoin) when the midget invitational thing got started at the dome. What I do know is when the schedules came out the 2019 USAC National Midget event at Du Quoin in December was not listed. I asked Kirk Spridgeon, who is one of the USAC competition directors, at PRI what happened and he said the people who run the dome thing scheduled on the very weekend in December that Du Quoin was traditionally scheduled. If the people who run the dome and the Knepper family had an agreement or if they just scheduled on top of Du Quoin is something I've never been able to find out.

Ashly and Jeremy were out of the dome piece after the first year, all Cody. I would assume there was no communication, but that is pure speculation on my part. Shame they didn't work together, bad spot to put the racers in for sure. Racers (and I mean promotors as well) sometimes can't seem to put the good of the sport ahead of short term personal gain....

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Originally Posted by EvelB7

I realize this may not be the biggest of his wins, but I went out to Millbridge yesterday and was pleasantly surprised how good the racing actually was. Slide job after slide job, may not have had a huge turnout but the track can only handle a dozen midgets anyway. Afternoon show and track held up well, both races would have been very close finishes if it wasn't for a caution at the end of the second. Hats off to Millbridge, I thought the show went very well.

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I have been there 4 or 5 times over the last few years and I agree 100% with your thoughts. I have seen it very crowded as well. I’m not huge into the rich kid stuff but I do like having an open wheel facility not to far from home.

Millbridge does have a lot of the 'rich kid' thing, however there are some great racers at the track each and every race. Cool to see guys like Brad Noffsinger, Mike Bliss, and Josh Wise hanging out and working with kids on a Wednesday night. I actually appreciate that just maybe it could be a start for the next Kyle Larson or Christopher Bell (both of whom frequent the place).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by EvelB7

I would assume there was no communication, but that is pure speculation on my part. Shame they didn't work together, bad spot to put the racers in for sure. Racers (and I mean promotors as well) sometimes can't seem to put the good of the sport ahead of short term personal gain....

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The impression I got from talking to Spridge at PRI last year was that there was no dialog between the Knepper family and the dome people, but that's just an assumption on my part. I will refrain from passing judgement until I ascertain whether the dome people intentionally killed the Du Quoin show without regard to the Knepper family and their long term promotional efforts of the December show in the Southern Illinois Center. Spridge and Levi Jones, both are comp. directors of the 3 National USAC divisions and they know. The next time I get a chance to speak with them we'll ask about it. That doesn't mean I'll get a direct and totally truthful answer.

You hit it on the head regarding some racers and promoters not cooperating for the overall good health of the sport. I reckon it's been that way for longer than I've been an observer of the sport.

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Originally Posted by EvelB7

Millbridge does have a lot of the 'rich kid' thing, however there are some great racers at the track each and every race. Cool to see guys like Brad Noffsinger, Mike Bliss, and Josh Wise hanging out and working with kids on a Wednesday night. I actually appreciate that just maybe it could be a start for the next Kyle Larson or Christopher Bell (both of whom frequent the place).

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What exactly do you mean by "rich kid" thing, Evel. Just curious.

It's cool to see names like Noffsinger, Bliss, Wise, Bell and Larson connected to a little joint like Millbridge. All indications are that this little track is making a name and reputation for itself. Good for them!

Millbridge has had quite a few 'celebrity' type racers, a good example would be Joe Gibb's grandson, Kyle Bush's kid, Larson's son, etc.. You will see a mix of the average family working together on their karts to the 12 year old 'driver' who has multiple people paid to work on their stuff. The names have brought quite a bit of exposure to the track, but it has also upped the price to compete at the same time. Overall they have done a great job of growing the sport without completely alienating the little guy.