Editor’s Note: Holley Hollan, 17, is a rookie in the NOS Energy Drink USAC National Midget Series. From June 5 through June 10, Hollan will be sharing her experiences with SPEED SPORT subscribers while competing during Indiana Midget Week.
Hollan drives the No. 67k Toyota-powered midget for Keith Kunz Motorsports. Below is her fifth diary entry, recapping Saturday night’s events at Lawrenceburg Speedway in Lawrenceburg, Ind.
LAWRENCEBURG, Ind. – The fifth night of Indiana Midget Week at Lawrenceburg Speedway was crazy for us in a lot of ways, and not just because of some of the moves we saw on the track!
It was tough sledding for our No. 67k SiriusXM Bullet/Toyota. The night started out a bit rough in qualifying, and it’s proof of how tough it is as a rookie to go to new tracks and have to get up to speed quickly, especially with qualifying being such a critical part of the night.
That’s one of the lessons I feel like can’t be stated enough, is how important your qualifying laps are in the USAC format. If you don’t quite get it right there, you’re buried pretty deep, so those two laps truly set up your entire night. We just didn’t have what we needed in qualifying on top and ended up 23rd.
Because we cut a right-rear tire in our heat race, we had to start deep in the B-main, and started 10th in the B and just got to seventh to pick up the final transfer spot into the main event. That was tough, but it was a little bit fun to have a hard battle with my teammate Tanner Carrick in that one as well.
In the feature, we passed five or six cars, which was some good experience for me, but I made some mistakes later on and got tight on the cushion. We fell back to 17th, but it’s tricky for some of the best.
This track definitely teaches you that you have to learn fast when you’re racing with these USAC guys. There’s no time to waste. You can make four good laps, and one bad lap will kill you. Consistency is everything and making good, clean laps adds up.
It’s constantly the best competition and even just making it to the feature at this point in the week isn’t easy. I’m not thrilled about our Saturday, but I know that I don’t have much to hang my head about either.
This has been a tough week, but I know we’re still learning and I just have to keep pushing. Hopefully the rain holds off and we can race at Kokomo, because I’ve been there before and I’m optimistic!
UPDATE: Just after press time, the Indiana Midget Week finale at Kokomo Speedway was rained out.
Hollan’s prior entries can be accessed via the links below:
Entry No. 1: Rough Start For Hollan
Entry No. 2: Heat Win Gives Hollan A Boost