DUQUOIN, Ill. – Dave Mac Motorsports will expand to two midget entries this season, fielding a second car for 17-year-old Oklahoma micro sprint racer Kaylee Bryson.
Bryson from Muskogee, Okla., will make her debut with the team during Saturday’s Shamrock Classic inside the Southern Illinois Center, as a teammate to fellow Sooner State teenager Cannon McIntosh.
She will be one of a handful of drivers doing double duty in DuQuoin, racing in both the micro sprint and midget portions of the Lauren Stewart-promoted, USAC-sanctioned indoor event.
Following the Shamrock Classic, Bryson plans to challenge for POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget League rookie of the year honors, while McIntosh takes aim at the series championship.
“We’re just trying to give people a chance, you know?” team owner David McIntosh told SPEED SPORT. “Kaylee’s someone that I feel like has talent, and I think you can gain more with a two-car team … and narrow the gap of knowledge than when you only have one car to work on and gather notes with.
“When you figure out one car, sometimes you can put some things that work on the second car after that, or vice versa. It’s a new thing and a new situation for us, but we’re definitely excited about it.”
The opportunity for Bryson to join the DMM operation came about due to her past competition against the McIntosh family at Port City Raceway and other local micro-sprint tracks in the state of Oklahoma.
“We were approached by her family, but we’ve raced with Kaylee a long time in the local Port City (Raceway) micro scene and she and Cannon are pretty close in age,” the senior McIntosh noted. “She was looking for an opportunity and we felt like it was a good fit for us. She’s very talented and I think she just needs a situation where she can get some eyes on her and others can see what she can do.
“If you just stay around locally, you can be competitive, but until you’re actually out on that stage … you just don’t know,” he added. “That’s the cool thing about the position that we’re in, that we can hopefully build this deal up with a couple of kids and compete on a stage like the one that POWRi and USAC provides us.”
Despite a quick expansion from fielding one car to a full two-car team, David McIntosh believes that both of his drivers will be able to contend for top finishes relatively quickly.
“I think we’re going to hit the ground running. There’s obviously a learning curve for Kaylee, who’s never run a midget, but I think her curve will be a lot smaller than what you’ve seen some other drivers have recently,” he said. “She runs three classes a night in micros – Outlaw, Non-Winged and A-Class – so she’s got the track time and got the laps. Yes, there’s a difference between running midgets and running micros, but she is a race car driver and I believe she’ll be just fine.
“The tough part with Kaylee is probably going to be slowing her down, actually, but that’s a good problem to have.”
For her part, Bryson is looking forward to teaming up with the McIntosh family and making her debut on the national stage this weekend in DuQuoin.
“I’m really excited to be joining this team and getting the opportunity to debut on Saturday during the Shamrock Classic,” Bryson said. “The opportunity to race alongside Cannon as a teammate, after we’ve raced against one another for so long, is going to be really cool.
“I’m also excited about their association with Toyota and TRD; they’re in a great position as an organization right now and I can’t wait to get started in DuQuoin and see how we progress together.”