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Windom Poised To Attack Texas In USAC National Midget Series Pavement Debut |
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Friday, 06 April 2007 |
(INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – April 4, 2007) – Chris Windom - a 16-year-old phenom, and one of the hottest race car drivers in short-track racing today - is headed to Kyle, Texas, this weekend for the "Allstate Lightning 100" Presented by Toyota USAC National Midget Car Series event at Thunder Hill Raceway, to be contested on Saturday, April 7th.
A tremendous field of 28 cars is pre-entered already for Saturday’s "Allstate Lightning 100." It’s the second appearance for the series at the track which hosted last October’s USAC 40-lap debut. Located on approximately 38 acres, Thunder Hill is a three-eighths mile, D-shaped track with a curved front straight (much like the larger tracks at Texas Motor Speedway and Daytona International Speedway). As such, it offers short-track drivers yet another different kind of track.
Windom, who plans a full schedule of racing this year in both the USAC
National Sprint and Midget Car Series’, as well as racing locally in
Indiana when his schedule allows, has already had a busy year of racing
early in the 2007 season.
"We started off with a lot of work heading into the Chili Bowl," Windom
said of the beginning of his 2007 season. "That went really well, as I
finished seventh in the 'A Main' after starting 23rd in a race that’s
probably one of the most competitive environments of any race anywhere
in the world. When we headed to Florida for non-winged Sprint car races
at East Bay Raceway Park, we had mechanical problems early on, but it
ended up being an interesting trip. At Manzanita, we had problems in
both the Sprint car and Midget. In the Midgets, we started pretty far
back in the feature, but ended up finishing pretty good. So we came
back to our shop in Indy and tried to figure how to improve both our
Midget and Sprint car programs, and got ready for the USAC/CRA events
in Las Vegas. We qualified fourth and fifth on respective nights, and
ran pretty well, at least in the second feature, where we finished
eighth, which was a good finish for us."
Windom was on a roll and ready for the meanest track on the circuit,
Tony Stewart’s Eldora Speedway, in Rossburg, Ohio, which had a USAC
Sprint show scheduled for late March, but the event did not happen due
to the rain and snow in north central Ohio that is so common during
this time of year. With more than 75 races scheduled for 2007, the team
had to get ready for the next round – the upcoming event at Thunder
Hill Raceway.
"We were getting ready for Eldora, but the show got cancelled due to
weather concerns, so we shifted our focus to the pavement midget race
in Kyle, Texas, this weekend," Windom explained. "I have looked at
pictures of the Texas track on the Internet, but have not seen it in
person. I have not run a full pavement midget yet, but I ran Kenyon
Midget cars all last year and was pretty comfortable with them on that
type of surface (Windom won the 2006 USAC Pavement Kenyon Midget Car
Series Championship). So that will be a new challenge for me – to run
Thunder Hill in a National Midget car. We tested at Anderson a few
weeks ago and ran pretty well, so I have a better idea of how that full
midget will feel."
The USAC National Midget Car Series has produced some of the top
open-wheel and stock car racers, and continues to be home to some of
America’s great racing talent. During its 11-month season, USAC hosts
some of the most competitive racing in the country, due in part to the
variety of tracks on which it races and the quick reflexes necessary to
maneuver the 900-pound, front engine midget cars. NASCAR veterans Jeff
Gordon and Tony Stewart, as well as open-wheel legends A.J. Foyt and
Mario Andretti had stellar USAC Midget careers.
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