By Dick Jordan
Taylor Ferns of Shelby Township, Mich. continues to lead the 2011 USAC Mopar D1 Midget championship, which heads back to the dirt Sunday night after a pair of pavement races last week.
Sunday’s outing is at the Kokomo (Ind.) Speedway and Ferns takes a narrow eight-point lead over Jake Blackhurst into the event.
Mario Marietta of Clinton, Ind. and Darren Hagen of Riverside, Calif. won Wednesday night’s two 30-lap USAC Mopar D1 Midget features at the Bryant Heating & Cooling Indianapolis Speedrome on the final night of the 2011 Elite 8 Series presented by IUPUI. Marietta and Hagen each led all 30 laps of their respective races.
Marietta and his Double Star Firearms Beast/Mopar were trailed by Bryan Nuckles, Ali Jackson, Kyle O’Gara and Dalton Armstrong in race one. In race two, Hagen lost the lead to Armstrong on the backstretch on the final lap but regained it coming off turn four to take the checkered flag first in his Liberty Village/McGladrey & Pullen Spike/Esslinger Ford. Armstrong took second ahead of Nuckles, Marietta and O’Gara. Nuckles ended up as the top D1 Midget point scorer in the Elite 8 series.
USAC MOPAR D1 MIDGET SERIES POINT STANDINGS
1-Taylor Ferns-446; 2-Jake Blackhurst-438; 3-Bryan Nuckles-394; 4-Kyle O’Gara-370; 5-Mario Marietta-352; 6-Ali Jackson-346; 7-Morgan Nelson-323; 8-Kyle Hamilton-304; 9-Davey Ray-255; 10-Dave Fuhrman-233.