Thursday 12th August

I have been back in Joliet a few days now after my long haul to Nebraska and Kansas states to catch up with Davey Ray for one of the best midget races of the year, The Belleville Highbank Nationals.

I watched races at Mc Cool Junction the first few nights and checked out Speedy Bill Smiths American Museum of Speed in Lincoln Nebraska which blew my mind. You could seriously spend a week or more in there but the tour only takes around 2 1/2 hours.

Then it was off to Belleville. I met Davey and his family there and we had a few beers and watched the 360 and 410 winged sprints race the night before. The Belleville Speedway has a great atmosphere to it with a fair outside, which has all the classic games to play and farm animals and rides.

During the 2 days of midget racing at Belleville I was lucky enough to help out with the Kieth Kunz Team which had Dave Darland, Henry Clark, and Davey Ray as its 3 hot shoes. I went back to the local residents that was looking after the Kunz Team and dismounted and mounted all their tyres for the racing that night and had a great feed and even bumped into a few Kiwis which was unexpected. This is Belleville though so I should not of been that surprised. 

Davey ended up 5th in the Saturday night A main behind winner Bryan Clauson, Brad Sweet, Jerry Coons Jr and Brad Kuhn. Henry came home 8th and Dave had an incredible run from the back after restarting at the rear twice after slicing a few right rears on the wall. He was up to 4th when the motor started having ignition trouble. I believe he may have won the race though. He was lightning fast. 

Thanks to the entire Keith Kunz Team for having me along. I had a great time.

Sunday 25th July

The last month or so has been pretty busy. Ive mainly been working at the MWR workshop in Joliet. The 2 cars have been in a lot of incidents this season. When weve finished weve won heats and top 3s in features but wrecked a lot of gear in the process.

Rain has been all over the place and rained out a lot of racing but Ive managed to get out and about and see some great shows. The Outlaws at La Salle Speedway must have been the best Sprintcar racing I have ever seen. The 2 Kasey Kahne cars slide jobbed each other lap after lap but eventually Joey Saldana pulled away for the win.

Theres been some changes with promotion at Angel Park but to cut a long story short the weekly Sunday show is not happening at the moment but I did get up there to watch the Saturday and Sunday USAC show and hang out with some of the drivers in the bar after which was pretty cool. Davey had another hard luck run on the Sunday after leading the entire feature he had a drive line failure 5 laps from the end. Brad Sweet won in style after coming from 3rd to win on the white flag lap.

They would be the highlights in the last month. I was at Jacksonille a few nights ago to watch the Powri Midgets. Brad Kuhn had a cracker of a crash wrecking his Beast chassis. Daveys Raypro Chev came 3rd in the feature with David Budres behind the wheel.

Coming up is the week of racing in Lincoln and the Belleville Highbank nationals and maybe a trip to Knoxville for the Knoxville Nationals .

 To view our past race reports Click Here