Reigning Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series champion Jade Avedisian is splitting her racing time this season between the dirt and asphalt road courses.
Avedisian, who is the winningest female driver in national midget history with seven victories, is focusing on the GR Cup sports car series, while also planning to compete in approximately 40 national midget events across the various sanctioning bodies.
This week, the 17-year-old Californian will be focused her Keith Kunz Motorsports midget as the USAC sanctioned Indiana Midget Week kicks off on Tuesday night at Circle City Raceway in Indianapolis.
She enters the week still looking for her first USAC triumph.
“To win in USAC would mean the world to me,” she told Toyota PR representatives. “I’ve been trying for a long time now. I ‘ve just had a few slip away. I feel very confident about this year. We just need to put ourselves in positions to have a shot at it later in the night. I think we have very good chance to win at least one and, hopefully, a few. I’m going to try learn from the races I let get away last year and execute a little better this year. Hopefully, we can get one during USAC Indiana Midget Week.”
Avedisian has a simple approach to going back and forth between two very different types of cars.
“I just take it week by week,” she explained. “When I have a GR Cup race, I need to focus on that from Monday through Sunday and when I have a dirt race, I just have to put all my focus there. I can’t really take the two and mix them, I feel like they are just so different. I need to have a different mindset for each car and each weekend and separate the two of them.”
Avedisian is enjoying adding road racing to her résumé.
“Road course experience in general is something good,” she said. “I need to learn at some point, and I feel it’s a great opportunity to get that experience now rather than later on down the road. I had little to no road course experience entering this season. To have a full year in the GR Cup is really exciting and I’m definitely looking forward to learning more about road courses.”
Avedisian, who signed a multi-year agreement with TRD and Toyota during the offseason, is clearly on a path toward NASCAR racing.
“Racing on Sunday is definitely my primary goal right now,” she said. “I’ll still do about 40 midget shows along with the full 14-race GR Cup schedule this year. It’s my first year with a little bit of mixture in the types of cars I’m driving and I’m super excited and, hopefully, we’ll have a great year.”