From USAC
Indianapolis, IN — (December 19, 2012) — Bobby Santos III, Kyle O’Gara, Ross Rankine and David Byrne comprise the first four entries for USAC’s 2013 season-opening USAC National Pavement races February 17-18 at New Smyrna Speedway in New Smyrna Beach, Fla.
The debut of USAC racing at the half-mile paved oval located just west of the Atlantic Ocean opens USAC’s 2013 calendar and begins a week which also includes USAC AMSOIL National Sprint racing at Bubba Raceway Park in Ocala, Fla. February 21-23.
Rankine, of Willard, Ohio, was among 2012 USAC Champions saluted at the recent December 7 “Night of Champions” in Indianapolis, Ind. He captured the USAC Midwest Pavement and Dirt Ignite Midget titles, winning six times on the dirt and three on the pavement. He is among a three-car contingent fielded for New Smyrna by RW Motorsports of Lederach, Pa.
Rankine, who will make his first USAC National Midget start at New Smyrna, also is a three-time USAC .25 Midget Champion, winning the 2009 Senior Honda and 2010 Light 160 and Senior Animal titles. “I ran with the USAC .25s in 2009 and won one of the inaugural races at Tampa but the full Midget will be a new experience,” says Ross. “I had a chance to test it recently at Columbus (Ohio) Motor Speedway and the test went really well. I’m looking forward to the half-mile. The biggest oval I’ve been on previously was at Ace Speedway in North Carolina.”
RW, which earned the 2012 USAC Traxxas Silver Crown Car Owner title with five feature wins in eight outings, also has Santos and O’Gara on its Florida team. Santos, of Franklin, Mass., scored two Silver Crown wins and an Iowa Speedway Midget win in 2012. O’Gara, of Beech Grove, Ind., won D1 Midget features in 2012 at Morris, Ill. and Kalamazoo, Mich.
“We’re very excited about the 2013 season,” says RW’s Steve Weirich. “We had an impressive run on the big pavement at Iowa Speedway last year and would like nothing better than a similar repeat at New Smyrna. (RW cars ran 1-2-3 with their Midgets at Iowa in 2012 with drivers Santos, Mario Clouser and Brad Kuhn). We’ve got a great team and as far as the bigger tracks, I say the bigger the better. Our team is intact from last year and our engine package should give us a great result.”
Byrne, of Shullsburg, Wisc., competed in selected 2012 events in USAC’s National and D1 Midget series. In addition to plans to compete in all the 2013 USAC National Pavement races, Byrne will also continue his pursuit of USAC’s Traxxas Silver Crown pavement events.
The Sunday and Monday Midget races at New Smyrna are the first for USAC’s National Midget Series in the Sunshine State since a 2005 race at Orlando’s Speedworld won by Josh Wise.