Editor’s Note: Holley Hollan, 17, is a rookie in the NOS Energy Drink USAC National Midget Series. Beginning June 5 through June 10, Hollan will be sharing her experiences with SPEED SPORT readers while competing during Indiana Midget Week.
Hollan drives the No. 67k Toyota-powered midget for Keith Kunz Motorsports. Below is her first diary entry, recapping Tuesday night’s opener at Montpelier Motor Speedway in Montpelier, Ind.
While her first diary will be free to the public, the remainder of the series will be available to SPEED SPORT premium subscribers only. You can subscribe to become a premium member of SPEEDSPORT.com today for just $19.95/year by clicking here.
MONTPELIER, Ind. – For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Holley Hollan. I’m 17 years old and I’ve been racing since I was five, so I’ve been running micros for the past 12 years, really.
It’s definitely been a ride to get to this point. Last year was actually my first time racing a midget, and now this season I’m running full time for Keith Kunz Motorsports in USAC and POWRi and representing one of the biggest teams in the sport. It’s a really cool feeling.
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This is actually my first Indiana Midget Week; all of this is new to me this year, because I’ve been in school up to this point, but graduated high school recently after finishing up a year early. Because of that, this is my first time at all of the tracks we’re racing this week, with the exception of Kokomo.
Our night Tuesday night in the opener at Montpelier (Motor Speedway) actually started out pretty well. We qualified seventh in flight one, two tenths off the fastest time in our group, but from there the track just went away and no moisture came about. With those conditions, we really struggled from then on.
The more the track went away, it seemed like we went away, too. We finished sixth in our heat, two spots out of transferring to the feature, and just got stuck in traffic in the B-main and finished 12th.
I think that adapting as the track changes is something that I do need to learn, being a rookie, particularly with throttle control as the track gets slick. When it was faster on the top, though, we were there.
For Tuesday being my first time at Montpelier, even though we didn’t make the feature, I’m decently happy with how we did. We showed speed in qualifying and my teammate, Logan Seavey, won the main and I think we’re right there and can make some noise as we keep learning.
To know that as a team, we won the first night of Indiana Midget Week with Logan and that our cars finished first and second, it’s reassuring and pushes you to your limits as a driver because you know what the equipment is capable of and you want to get that maximum out of your car each night as well.
We’re disappointed with our results on the No. 67k, but you have to have nights like we did at Montpelier to appreciate the good ones when the come along. I’m looking forward to the rest of the week and glad we’re not ending on this note.
Hopefully we can gain some momentum from here!