18 States Represented At Junior Knepper 55
Story By: RICHIE MURRAY /USAC SERIES MEDIA
Photos By: RACERSGUIDE.COM PHOTO FILES
INDIANAPOLIS IND.- December 17, 2016- Saturday’s Junior Knepper 55 not only represents one of the final events of the racing season, it also represents an opportunity for drivers from diverse racing backgrounds to converge on one facility – DuQuoin’s Southern Illinois Center – to test their abilities against each other on the sixth-mile indoor venue.
With much of the nation’s racing schedules clear this weekend, drivers from coast-to-coast will suit up and strap in for a one-off, no-holds-barred challenge in which drivers need not worry about points racing. It all comes down to just one night and one race track separating one driver, one steering wheel and one heavy right foot from hoisting the Knepper 55 trophy.
The home state of Illinois leads the way with 21 of the 74 pre-entered drivers, including last year’s Knepper 55 top-10 finishers Tim Siner (Dupo) and Daniel Robinson (Ewing).
Indiana brings 13 competitors to DuQuoin with World of Outlaws star Joey Saldana (Brownsburg), 2016 ARCA Racing Series champ Chase Briscoe (Mitchell) and 2016 Indiana Sprint Week feature winners Tyler Courtney (Indianapolis) and Brent Beauchamp (Avon).
Nine come from nearby Missouri in which Herculaneum’s Tony Roney hails from. He finished fifth in DuQuoin’s spring race.
Five standouts are making the trip out from the left coast state of California. Spring DuQuoin winner Shane Golobic leads a group of Golden State quintuplets that brings two-time Chili Bowl winner Cory Kruseman, four-time USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car winner Thomas Meseraull and multiple-time USAC champion Ryan Bernal.
Other states represented by multiple entries include Ohio (5), Iowa, Oklahoma and South Dakota (3) and Texas (2).
Nine states have a lone representative: Kansas (Tony Bruce, Jr.), Louisiana (2016 Knoxville Nationals winner Jason Johnson), Mississippi (NASCAR regular and defending race winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr.), New York (two-time ALMS Sports Car champion Chris Dyson), North Carolina (NASCAR K&N Pro Series West winner Nick Drake), North Dakota (eight-time World of Outlaws champ and nine-time Knoxville Nationals winner Donny Schatz), Oregon (Bricen James), Wisconsin (David Budres) and Wyoming (Mark Chisholm).
Coming into Saturday’s event, 25 states and three countries had been represented in the 2016 USAC Midget National Championship. Among the 18 different states entered include five that are making their debut on this year’s series entry list: Louisiana, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota and Oregon.
Indiana leads all states with 30 different drivers taking indoor USAC Midget victories including the very first race in the history of the series on Jan. 8, 1956, won by Roanoke’s Gene Hartley, at the Fort Wayne (Ind.) Coliseum.
Illinois follows up in second with 15 victories, but none since Rich Corson’s win at Fort Wayne in 2005. Among the other states on USAC’s indoor win list are California (13), Ohio (7), Michigan and Missouri (4), Wisconsin (3), Iowa (2) and Mississippi, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Texas (1).
Saturday marks just the eighth indoor race on dirt in USAC’s history and just the fourth full-midget race. Sleepy Tripp won at Nevada’s Reno Livestock Events Center in 1988 and 1990 while Stenhouse and Golobic have taken the last two at the Southern Illinois Center in 2015 and 2016, respectively.
Kelly Drake won a TQ Midget feature in Reno in 1988 while Robbie Ray and Brad Loyet won Ford Focus Midget features at the Southern Illinois Center on consecutive nights in 2005.
