DUQUOIN, Ill. – The field for Saturday’s Shamrock Classic has risen to 45 entries as the NOS Energy Drink USAC National Midget Series prepares for battle at the Southern Illinois Center.
New Shamrock Classic entries include those of Trey Robb for Dave Mac Motorsports, Kyle May for his family-owned team, Logan Faucon and Chris Urish for car owner Tom Casson, and Trey Gropp for Mounce Motorsports.
Urish was victorious in dramatic fashion at the adjacent Magic Mile of the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds in 2013, capturing his lone career USAC Silver Crown Champ Car Series triumph during the Ted Horn 100 in 2013.
The fifth annual Shamrock Classic includes two past event winners in Justin Grant (2017) and reigning victor Cannon McIntosh.
Justin Grant, the 2017 Shamrock winner, will pilot a car for RAMS Racing. He captured victory one year ago with the Rick Young-owned operation during the Indiana Midget Week round at Gas City I-69 Speedway.
Meanwhile, McIntosh will compete as one of three expected entries from the Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports team, alongside standout rookie-of-the-year contenders Buddy Kofoid and Daison Pursley.
Five-time series winner Zeb Wise is on the provisional entry list, but is expected to compete in a 410 sprint car in Pennsylvania with Sam McGhee Motorsports.
Each of this year’s two NOS Energy Drink USAC National Midget Series winners are entered for the Shamrock Classic.
Hayward Motorsports will field drivers Tanner Thorson and Gage Rucker. Thorson, the 2016 USAC National Midget champion, was victorious in the USAC season opener at Bubba Raceway Park in Ocala, Fla., in early February.
Chris Windom leads the NOS Energy Drink USAC National Midget Series standings entering the event following a victory on the second night of the Winter Dirt Games in Ocala.
The 2016 USAC Silver Crown and 2017 National Sprint Car champion was ninth in his first career Shamrock Classic start a year ago.
Reigning series champion Tyler Courtney, a seventh-place finisher in last year’s event after starting 21st, is entered.
Courtney is also a past victor in USAC midget competition at the sixth-mile indoor dirt oval, capturing the non-points special event Junior Knepper 55 in December of 2016.
Petry Motorsports has filed Shamrock Classic entries for Kevin Thomas Jr., who scored the team’s first two triumphs with the series last year at Kokomo (Ind.) Speedway and Arizona Speedway, and 2017 USAC National Midget Series Rookie of the Year Tanner Carrick.
Brady Bacon, the 2014 and 2016 USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car champion, is undefeated thus far in USAC national features in 2020, sweeping both nights of an AMSOIL USAC National Sprint Car Series doubleheader at Bubba Raceway Park in in mid-February.
Bacon is one of just two drivers to have started in the feature event of all four previous editions of the Shamrock Classic, with fourth place finishes in both 2016 and 2017 serving as his best. He also took 14th in 2018 and 18th in his most recent start in 2019.
Oklahoma’s Tyler Thomas, a winner in both AMSOIL USAC National Sprint Car and NOS Energy Drink National Midget competition during his career, will drive his familiar No. 91T, entered by Brian Thomas.
Reigning NOS Energy Drink USAC National Midget Series Rookie of the Year Andrew Layser comes into the event off his best series result of third in Ocala. He finished eighth in his Shamrock debut in 2019.
Tyler Nelson, a USAC regional midget winner at Gas City (Ind.) I-69 Speedway in 2019 and a Shamrock Classic starter in 2018, is entered as well.
He will be joined by last year’s USAC Western States Midget titlist Robert Dalby, five-time USAC Western States Midget champion Ronnie Gardner and 2017 USAC Gulf Coast Midget champ Kyle Jones, all of whom are vying for their first Shamrock Classic starts.
A slightly different format will greet competitors at the Shamrock Classic. No qualifying will be held and officials will set heat race lineups with a “draft,” similar to those used at DuQuoin’s Junior Knepper 55 in 2018 and the 2019 BC39 at the IMS Dirt Track.
To view the complete entry list, advance to the next page.