WHEATLAND, Mo. — Ayrton Gennetten turns 26 on Saturday and gets to celebrate his birthday doing what he loves, which is going fast in a 410 winged sprint car.
The ultimate present, of course, would be to unwrap a feature victory at the 14th annual Impact Signs, Awnings & Wraps Open-Wheel Showdown Presented by Heritage Tractor at Lucas Oil Speedway.
Gennetten will have plenty of family and friends on hand as it’s a “home” appearance of sorts, as he’s from about an hour and a half away in Versailles.
“It’s really important to have a lot of races close to home on our schedule,” Gennetten said. “That’s what is so great about the POWRi deal, having so many 410 races close to home. It’s a big thing to me, having my family there. Stuff like that makes it a little more exciting knowing you can race in front of family, friends, fans and sponsors.”
Gennetten is set to continue his pursuit of a third straight POWRi 410 Outlaw Winged Sprint championship as he has a 40-point lead over Joe B. Miller entering the weekend, which begins on Friday at Lakeside Speedway. With two wins and top-10 finishes in all nine POWRi 410 events, Gennetten is pleased with the consistency of his season.
The third-generation open-wheel racer said he obviously would like to have more than two wins in a schedule that’s seen him race 30 times overall, including last week’s Knoxville Nationals where he fell just short of making the big show.
“It wasn’t bad,” Gennetten said of Knoxville. “We tore a car up at Pevely the week before and blew a motor at Oskaloosa two nights before Knoxville. It wasn’t an ideal week, but it was one of those things where every time you go you learn something. I think we learned a little something about our race car and that will help us get a little better for what’s coming up this week.”
Gennetten said the team has been gaining speed “and at the end of the day that’s what you want.” He noted that three nights at the Kubota High Limit Series at Lucas Oil Speedway in late June, in which he was a top-10 qualifier in two of the nights with feature finishes just outside the top 10 all three nights were educational.
“Lucas Oil is a beautiful facility. When they get the track right, it produces some really good racing,” Gennetten said. “I feel really optimistic coming there this weekend. We were pretty strong at the High Limit, just missed the set-up a little bit. I think we’ve learned from then to now to be better so I’m obviously excited to go back.
“This is kind of a tuneup for the Hockett (Memorial) and to use it as kind of a steppingstone to that would be great. I’m real excited for this weekend. It’s one of the few times I get to race on my birthday.”
If he’s able to widen his POWRi points lead, even better. Winning a third straight championship is a goal.
“Coming into the season it’s always your goal, especially if you’re gonna run something like that, to try and win it,” Gennetten said. “With the point fund being so healthy this year, it would be really nice to win it again. Also, to have so many guys running it and such a good level of competition, it makes it that much more a goal to get it done and add another tick on your résumé.”
