By Robert Haugh
Heading to Ocean Speedway for the first time in seven years, Midgets will once again shine at the pristine ¼-mile track on the Coastline in Watsonville as the USAC Mopar Western Midgets presented by Morrison VIP Coach are expecting a stellar field on Friday during night one of the 2nd Annual Howard Kaeding Classic.
Leading the list of entries include USAC Mopar Western points leader Shannon McQueen of Bakersfield in the McQueen Racing #7 Spike/Esslinger, second-place points runner and most recent 2012 USAC-WS Midget victor (Madera June 9) Scott Pierovich of Alamo in his #35 Spike/Bob Wirth Mopar, third-place “Nitro” Nick Chivello of Manteca in the Chivello Motorsports #27 Spike/Esslinger, fourth place Jake Swanson of Anaheim aboard his #05 Stealth/Honda and fifth-place David Prickett of Fresno aboard his #15 Neverlift Motorsports/David Prickett Racing Spike/Van Dyne.
McQueen has strung together five consecutive “top-five” finishes while Prickett has “top-six” finishes in all of his 2012 starts.
Other contenders include 2011 USAC-Western Midget champion Cory Kruseman in his #21k Spike/Esslinger, Indiana’s Cole Carter in Mason Cook’s #10c Beast/Mopar, Former USAC-Western Midget champion Alex Schutte of Rohnert Park in Calven Martens’ #28 TCR/Esslinger, former BCRA Midget champion Matt Streeter of Galt in his #14JR Spike/Chevy who claimed a win at Watsonville in June 2004, Fremont’s Shane Golobic in Doug Bock’s #26 Spike/Esslinger, who is coming off of a Midget win last week, Arizona’s Connor Kassik, the 2011 USAC-WS Midgets rookie-of-the-year in the David Prickett Racing/Neverlift Motorsports #115 Spike/Van Dyne, Cody Swanson in the #71 Spike/Van Dyne and Troy Rutherford in Calven Martens’ #86 TCR/Esslinger.
Additional expected entries include Seven-time BCRA Midget champion and multiple-time Midget winner Floyd Alvis in Bob Roza’s #21 Stealth/Esslinger, three-time BCRA Midget champion Nick Foster, Jr. of San Jose aboard his #1 “Blue Bayoo” Beast/Esslinger, Angwin’s Britton Bock in his #67 Spike/Esslinger, Frankie Guerrini III of San Rafeal in the Guerrini Motorsports #63 Stealth/Gaerte, Atascadero’s Randi Pankratz aboard her #8 Edmunds AutoResearch/Fontana, Jimmy Christian of Morgan Hill in a Walker Racing/Bay Muffler Stealth/Esslinger, Ryan Shupe of San Jose in a Walker Racing Stealth/Esslinger, Adam Kaeding in Cliff Blackwell’s #27b Stealth/Gaerte, Danny Ebberts in the Van Dyne Engineering #5 Edmunds/Van Dyne, Ronnie Gardner in Mitchell James’ #68, Malibu’s Greg Edenholm in the Josh Ford Racing #73 Esslinger, Kyle Edwards in his #39 Ellis/Van Dyne, Jimmy Voitel in his #21 Ellis/Chevy II, Bruce Douglas in his #31 Spike/Chevy, Kyle Smith in his #55 Stealth/Pink Chevy, Bakersfield’s Sean Dodenhoff aboard the Dodenhoff Racing #9d EMC/Fontana and Wink Schweitzer in the Dodenhoff Racing #9b Spike/Fontana.
The last Midget race in Watsonville was claimed by Visalia’s Greg Bragg in a Honda-powered mount similar to that of Jake Swanson’s in 2005.
Friday’s program also includes the USAC Western Classic Sprint Cars.
Visit http://www.oceanspeedway.com/Watsonville/ for information on Ocean Speedway Watsonville. Follow the USAC Mopar Western Midgets on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/usacwsmidgets