DU QUOIN, Ill. — Forty-two cars and drivers are entered for the two-night Shamrock Classic presented by Dooling Machine Products inside the Southern Illinois Center Friday and Saturday night.
The USAC midget doubleheader features two complete programs with features concluding each night of action — a $2,000-to-win 40-lapper on Friday night and, a $10,000-to-win, 50-lap finale on Saturday night.
Both races are special events, meaning zero points will be awarded toward the national championship.
It‘s quite a turnover of talent throughout the field with just 17 of the 42 drivers in the lineup previously making a Shamrock Classic feature start. Two past winners of the event lead the charge — Justin Grant in 2017 and Cannon McIntosh in 2019.
Grant won the event five years ago, his first aboard a midget in USAC competition. The current USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship point leader and winner of the first two events at Florida‘s Bubba Raceway Park, has also posted an additional two more 5th place results at the Shamrock Classic in 2018 and ‘19.
McIntosh has started on the pole in each of the last two editions of the Shamrock Classic in both 2019 and ‘20. The 2021 event did not take place due to COVID-19 restrictions. Like Grant, though, McIntosh picked up his first midget win under the USAC banner during the 2019 Shamrock Classic.
Shane Cottle led the most laps (28) and scored a runner-up finish in the inaugural Shamrock Classic in 2016, his only previous start in the event. Thomas Meseraull finished right behind Cottle in that 2016 race, winding up third in what remains his lone previous Shamrock Classic start as well.
However, he is a former winner in USAC Midget competition at the Southern Illinois Center, picking up the Junior Knepper 55 victory in 2018.
USAC career Triple Crown champion Jerry Coons Jr. finished third in the 2017 race. Four-time USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Champion Brady Bacon is the only driver to make feature starts in all five previous runnings of the Shamrock Classic, finishing a career-best 4th in both 2016 and ‘17. Two-time POWRi champ Zach Daum also notched a best of fourth in 2019 and was 10th in the first race back in 2016.
A whole slew of Shamrock Classic Rookies are on board for their first run in the event, 25 of them in fact, including hot shoes, champs, veterans and young lions. Among those at the forefront are a pair of USAC National Midget feature winners in Kyle Cummins and Ryan Timms, the youngest winner in USAC National Midget history. Jacob Denney, the two time and defending USAC Midwest Thunder SpeeD2 Midget titlist, is entered as well.
Three CB Industries cars are entered, all of whom are making their first Shamrock appearances. Current USAC National Midget leading Rookie of the Year candidate, Mitchel Moles, finished fifth in last winter‘s Jason Leffler Memorial USAC Midget Special Event at the Southern Illinois Center. He‘s joined on the team by event and series rookies Jace Park and Dominic Gorden.
A two-time USAC Regional Midget event winner in 2021, Chance Crum, finished third last winter in the Leffler Memorial while Bryan Stanfill finished eighth last September at Du Quoin‘s indoor dirt oval. Stanfill, like Coons, has won USAC sanctioned feature events in four different decades.
They are among a number of Shamrock first-time feature starting hopefuls who own previous midget racing experience at the Southern Illinois Center. Also on the list are Rylan Gray, Brayton Lynch, Will Armitage, Sean Robbins and Zach Boden.
Decorated three-time Badger Midget champion Chase McDermand is set for his first Shamrock Classic run as are TQ Midget standout Matt Lux and R.J. Corson, son of the 2005 Fort Wayne, USAC indoor midget winner Rich Corson.
Chris Baue is back in the midget ranks for the Shamrock along with the racing Camfields — Dalton, Dave and Devin, as is Cam Horton and Brad Wyatt, plus Austin Shores, Logan Anderson and Thomas Harris.
This weekend will mark the 173rd and 174th indoor events in USAC Midget history. USAC‘s first ever sanctioned event occurred on January 8, 1956, at Fort Wayne, Indiana‘s Allen County War Memorial Coliseum, won by Gene Hartley. Rich Vogler owns the most USAC indoor midget wins with 10.
Additionally, these races are the 18th and 19th indoor midget races held on dirt, the first being at the Houston Astrodome on March 8, 1969, and won by Gary Bettenhausen.