By Dick Jordan
A USAC Midget “tripleheader” has been scheduled for July 2 at Grundy County Speedway in MorriIs, Ill. The Mopar National Midgets, Midwest Ford Focuses and Midwest Young Guns will all compete on the 1/3-mile paved oval in celebration of the nation’s 235th birthday the same weekend.
The event creates back-to-back Independence weekend events for the Mopar National Midgets, which will also compete at the Toledo (Ohio) Speedway on July 1.
Grundy County Speedway opened on Memorial Day, May 30, 1971, replacing the defunct Mazon Speed Bowl as a destination for Northern Illinois oval track racing. Located at the Grundy County Fairgrounds, it has hosted a variety of events in its 41 years, with such notables as Dale Earnhardt, Darrell Waltrip, Bobby Allison and Mark Martin having competed there. The first USAC appearance came in 2006, a regional Midget race won by Joliet, Ill.’s Jim Anderson.
The July 2 race, which will be co-sanctioned by STARS (Short Track Auto Racing Series), will be the first at Grundy County for USAC’s Mopar National Midgets, although the track has hosted numerous regional races in the past five seasons.
“We are pleased to add Grundy County to our 2011 racing schedule,” says USAC Developmental Racing Director James Spink. “We’ve had some memorable events there in recent years and the addition of the National series is sure to extend that record of success,”
“Our participants look forward to the unique challenges presented by the Grundy County oval and we anticipate a hotly-contested race on July 2,” says new USAC National Series Coordinator Dave Brzozowski. “The racing there is always top-notch and fans will get plenty of racing with this tripleheader.”