By Bryan Gapinski
Belleville, Kan., July 22— Two-time Belleville Midget Nationals Champion Jerry Coons Jr. is among the early entries for the 35th Annual Belleville Midget Nationals on Aug. 2-4 at the Belleville High Banks. For the third straight year the event will be officiated by the National Championship Racing Association (NCRA) and The Belleville High Banks Race Committee.
Coons will be trying to become the events first three-time winner. Coons will be driving the Joe Dooling owned Spike/Ford-Esslinger No. 63, and has finished second and third in Saturday’s feature the past two years. Chet Gehrke, C.J. Johnson, Don Droud Jr. and Terry Goodwin have also filed entries. All four drivers have made previous starts in Saturday Night’s Championship feature.
Midget Racing on the quarter-mile dirt oval for the first time, highlights Thursday Aug. 2 with a 30-lap midget race and JayHusker Micro Series event. Action switches to the half-mile track on Friday Night Aug. 3, and with qualifying, heat races, pole dash, semi feature and a preliminary night feature event.
Saturday Aug. 4 will feature preliminary races to set the starting field of twenty-four positions in the 40-lap feature. A check of $12,000 awaits the winner, with the feature paying $700 to start. The United Rebel Sprint Car Series will also participate in both days with the running of the inaugural 305 Sprint Nationals.
General Admission tickets for all events are sold first-come first-served on race day at the ticket gate. Reserved Seating tickets is available for the Belleville Midget Nationals. General admission available only if the event is not sold out, and available only on the day of the race at the track ticket office (bottom 3 rows only).
Tickets can be ordered by going to the tracks website, or logging onto The TicketForce website (direct link to Belleville events) : http://tickets.ticketforce.com/eventperformances.asp?evt=1031 .