Large California Tour For The USAC National Midget Division

The USAC National Midget Division is headed west for the 2 weeks leading up to Thanksgiving weekend! They're racing at some very nice and storied venue's. Kyle Larson is scheduled to be driving his own midget at Placerville for the 3 night Hangtown 100 and Merced for the 2 night USAC Midget and winged 360, then on to Ventura for the 81st annual running of the Turkey Night Grand Prix. I believe Kyle Larson is expected to run the Turkey Night Grand Prix in addition to the previous 2 venue's. Chase Elliott will be racing out west, as well. I'm betting this is the first time ever that the previous 2 NASCAR Cup Champions will race midgets in the same events.

The USAC National Midget season finishes up indoors in the Southern Illinois Center on the Du Quoin State Fairgrounds in Du Quoin, Illinois.

Here's the west coast lineup:

Nov 16 Bakersfield Speedway Bakersfield, CA
Nov 18 Placerville Speedway Placerville, CA
Nov 19 Placerville Speedway Placerville, CA
Nov 20 Placerville Speedway Placerville, CA
Nov 23 Merced Speedway Merced, CA
Nov 24 Merced Speedway Merced, CA
Nov 27 Ventura Raceway Ventura, CA
Dec 18 (SE) Southern Illinois Center Du Quoin, IL

The media releases have Larson doing double duty at Merced with the Works #57 and his own #1k midget, and Elliot running Tarlton's #21 360, both running together under the KLR banner at P'ville for the 100, with no mention of Chase running a KLR #9 at Merced.

That show tonight at Bakersfield, or as we called it it lovingly, "the okie bowl" should be a good one. Dang good track for midgets, odd that it is on a Tuesday.


LMM

The USAC Midgets have put on terrific shows on their first two stops on the Western tour running, I believe , 40 nonstop laps at Bako the first night with Buddy Kofoid the winner and a 30 lap caution free main last night at P,ville.
The 15 year old Okie sensation, Ryan Timms, led wire to wire last night and another young Okie, Cannon McIntosh, kept him honest with a pretty close second. Kyle Larson came from deep in the field and ended up 7th but wasn't really a contender.
Tonight's Hangtown show is looking iffy as of this afternoon with showers off and on all over the region but hopefully they get it in. The Saturday finale is in little danger with clear skies all around us. CIRF and company are probably having a ball at Placerville. It's a very unique 1/4 red clay bowl in a hole with track entrances and exits going up and down the hills. I've raced at more tracks around the country than I can count and honestly can't recall a one with the character of Placerville. It was our home for many years in the '80s with the wedge Late Models and a couple in the '90s with the Mods and it was always challenging and a lot of fun.
It's also got one of the best spots of any place to spectate and that's from the turn 4 pit grandstands, well worth the price of a pit pass.

Hey over4T, we're having a ball!

In it's own unique way Placerville is as cool as Ventura but without the Pacific Ocean a stones throw away. You guys have some very cool racetracks in Cali!

We had hoped the weather would be a little warmer but we'll take what we get!

Looking forward to night #3 of the Hangtown 100 weekend. Larson had 'em covered Friday night, for sure. There are some teenagers really turning heads in the USAC Midgets these days. There is no lack of talent in the pipeline.

Enjoy Ventura CIRF, saw about 50 shows there thru the years, way back when the track was flat and so much smaller, saw Vogler work over the field one night.


Late Model Mark

CIRF, Glad you're having a good time. It should be better tonight with clear skies and temps from 62 to 43, pretty good for November for guys from the Midwest. The track should also be much better with a chance to work it all day without the rains we had off and on all day yesterday.

You can see from the configuration why rain is a bear to deal with there; no place for the water to go but to the track. I thought Scott did a good job prepping the track considering, although that humongus cushion in 1 & 2 plus the drop off sure bit a lot of guys. Larson was fearless up there and his car control is beyond belief.

There's some real talent in the midgets right now although very few know what business Gillette or Schick are in and Kyle Larson is the old veteran at 29. Makes me feel like Father Time at my age. The kids were, obviously, in awe of getting to race with him. Should be a terrific show tonight and the A main will be fun to watch on Flo as there's only a slim chance that I will be able to make it in person, just got too much on today's plate. Enjoy.

My first Midget show was in 1965, dang I feel I have been around a minute or 2

4T, were the wedge Late Models you refer to the POSSE group? Saw them many a time with Jim Trynan and Lee Olibas being fast.


Late Model Mark
Talladega Announcer

The 100 lapper was a pretty good race. Not epic but entertaining, nonetheless!!

Given the circumstances the track prep was very good at Placerville! But it was COLD! I sure hope SoCal is a bit warmer when we head down there for Turkey Night but given Ventura's reputation it's doubtful.

I hope the young lady the flipped down the front straight is okay. She took a nasty tumble, for sure.

As you guys well know Larson was way off his game in the 100 lapper. I've only seen him as out of sorts as he was last night one other time and that was in the Chili Bowl finally several years before he finally won it. That night he spun unassisted twice.

It's on to Ventura for Turkey Night by way of southern Oregon to see some immediate family and spend Thanksgiving. Really wish Turkey Night was still actually on Turkey Night!! I understand why they moved it to Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend but having the race on Thanksgiving Night seemed to add some charm to the whole deal.

LMM, The P'ville wedge cars weren't sanctioned by POSSE, same cars with several regular POSSE drivers, but a regular class at Hangtown until their demise in the very early '90s. Drivers including Dennis Binstock, Ron Fleenor, Dennis Ahart were champs there and also won with POSSE. Unfortunately I wasn't in either catagory and a top 4 was a great night for me.

Couple of quick POSSE stories...the one time they ran at Grass Valley's Ernie Purcell Speedway Jim Tryon in his Ford engined wedge broke the winged 360 Sprint car track record by, I think it was, .2 seconds. Crowd couldn't believe it. Though my home track I wisely decided to sit that one out as I was struggling that year with a new torsion bar front end car in the regular LM class and would have gotten run over. Jim, who was from the Petaluma area, now lives in Grass Valley, long retired and I ran into him at a friend's muffler shop a couple of years ago.

At Merced for a POSSE show around '91 I found that no one had put my firesuit in the trailer. Had my helmet but no suit so went scrounging to see if anybody had a spare. Only guy that did was Lee Olibas and he just grinned and loaned it. Well, Lee was around 5'6" and maybe 140 pounds and me just about 6', 215 pounds you can see where this is going. Suit cuffs were halfway to my elbows and knees and I could hardy breath when zipped up. When I got in the car the crotch nearly turned me into a soprano. First time ever I was glad to have problems and fall out of a race early. Very hot central valley day and soaked with sweat they almost had to cut me out of it. Think Lee won that race as he did very often with POSSE. Great guy but we never forgot my suit again.

Loved those cars and was sad when they died off. Things were awesome through the corners and a real adrenalin rush to drive.

Hey over4T, you know of any good places in Ventura/Oxnard to stay for a couple of nights? We're going to roll into the Ventura area sometime Friday. Early in afternoon is the plan. We don't have anything lined up and would appreciate any pointers you might send our way!

CIRF, I tried to get some stuff off last night but a quick power outage erased the whole thing (curse PG&E) and it was too late to start over so I'll try to PM you today. Keep in mind that I haven't been down that for about 15 years though my sister still lives down there. Don't think the rest of 4m cares about my travel guide.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by over4T

CIRF, I tried to get some stuff off last night but a quick power outage erased the whole thing (curse PG&E) and it was too late to start over so I'll try to PM you today. Keep in mind that I haven't been down that for about 15 years though my sister still lives down there. Don't think the rest of 4m cares about my travel guide.

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I understand that you haven't been down that way, racing or otherwise, for a long time but I thought it was worth a shot, nonetheless. I'll keep an eye on my PM's.

Don't spend a lot of your time on this, I just thought you might have been down there or otherwise had some useful information.

Thanks a ton.