Placerville Speedway to host the "richest" midget race on Nov. 19-20
TULSA, Okla.—“See you in Placerville,” Christopher Bell said to USAC officials following the announcement of a $100,000 purse for the inaugural Elk Grove Ford Hangtown 100.
On Wednesday, plans were unveiled for the two-day midget show—November 19-20—on the quarter-mile dirt oval, and event that will feature what's billed as “the richest two-day purse” in the history of midget racing.
The Elk Grove Ford Hangtown 100 will feature both USAC National and Light Up the World Western States Midget drivers competing in the first 100-lap race for the series in seven years.
"Midget racing is my true love," Elk Grove Ford's Matt Wood said. "I'm so excited to partner with Scott and Kami Arnold with Placerville Speedway, Mike Larson, and the entire USAC team to put on this event. The support even prior to this announcement has been unbelievable.”
Tanner Thorson, who grew up 80 miles from Placerville Speedway, believes the opportunity to race 100 laps for a $20,000 top prize will be “bad ass."
“It will be good,” Thorson added. “California needs to get its midget game back up. Talking to Lee (Lindgren, crew chief) and Clyde (Lamar, team owner), midgets were a big thing back in the day. Now you barely see them. You have low car counts and the pay isn’t big out there.
“I think it will be pretty cool to have a big paying race and to have USAC continue to go out there year after year.”
The Hangtown 100 marks the first time USAC national midgets will race at Placerville Speedway. The Western States midgets have raced four times, starting with local Jimmy Sills winning in 1996, followed by Ronnie Gardner (2016) and Shane Golobic both in 2013 and 2017.
The two-day Placerville show doubles the count of California midget races on the 35-race schedule which kicks off in Ocala, Fla., at Bubba Raceway Park starting on Feb. 8.The Hangtown 100 marks the ninth new event on the USAC calendar this season.
"USAC Midget racing is as thrilling right now as it's ever been and a huge event such as this just adds to that excitement," USAC Series Coordinator Levi Jones said. "It's an honor for us to be involved in this race and to bring another major USAC event to the West.”
Although the format has yet to finalized, the focus will be on passing with a modified Trophy Cup format using a pill draw and draft which allows teams to choose their starting spots for the heat races. In addition to $20,000 for the winner of the Hangtown 100, an additional $20,000 is available for the driver who amasses the most points over the two-day event. USAC-licensed teams will receive appearance points but no performance points for heats and features.
“It’s really going to help the western swing for us,” said USAC Midget championship owner Keith Kunz. “We went out there for one race there for a while, then they added two and now this year we have six. To put on an event like this for us is huge. The dollar amount is kind of deserving. Everybody says we run for nothing and so, it’s neat to see promoters step up and actually go out and promote really hard and put on something like this.
“There’s just so much interest in midget racing right now, and that’s due to the NASCAR kids that are coming back and running that have made it—Ricky (Stenhouse Jr.), Kyle (Larson) and Christopher (Bell)—all those guys, Alex Bowman. There’s so many of them that have moved on but are able to come back. It actually goes back to Tony (Stewart)—and that gets us the media attention for the grass roots racing that they know and love. And that’s what makes these events successful.”
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