The Columbus Speedway Go-Kart Racing which holds events at the Bartholomew County 4-H Fairgrounds has named their division champions for the 2019 racing season.
In the flathead 350 class, Colton Lucas of Columbus was the top point man. Jeremy Wade was second with Robbie Young, Owen Barr, Brandon Albert and Joshua Bryant trailing Lucas.
In the flathead 390 class, R.T. Lowe of Columbus took the point title over Kyle Thayer, Travis Wilburn, John George and Michael Wade. Lowe also won the pred division over Billy Dalton and Tyler Hurt.
Another Columbus native, Johnny Smith, won the clone 380 class over Corey Vanover, Mike Sullivan, David Smith, Robbie Young, Kevin Cunningham and Jordan Hiner.
Brandon Malone of Columbus captured the points championship in the vintage division over Billy Dalton and Kyle King.
Columbus’ Elijah Knoke took the top honors in the jr. 1 division over Bradley Brown, Zoey Watkins and Trent Roell.
Jentry Cash of Brownstown was the top rookie division driver with Jamison Reed and Jacob Thayer finishing second and third in the final points.
Kevin Cunningham of Greensburg was the top competitor in the rwyb class topping the points over Gary Cunningham, Matt Arrington and Josh Cash.
Travis Wilburn of Milan also won two division titles. Wilburn won the clone 435 class over Jarrod Morrison and Nathan reed. The Ripley County driver also took the clone 400 class over Mike Sullivan and Collin Voss.
Corey Vanover won the clone 340 division over Johnny Smith, Devyn Marcum, Danny Steinham and Brian Gellhouse
Ryan Roell of Dillsboro was the top point racer in the jr. 3 division.
The awards banquet will be held tonight at the Southwest Fire Station on State Road 58 in Ogilville. The doors will open at 5 p.m. For more information contact Tim Reed at 812-603-8704.
Clay wins UMRA
midget title
Cory Clay of Morgantown won the 2019 UMRA King of the TQ Midgets Championship. Clay edged out Joey Paxson of Connersville for the title. Defending series champion Matthew Hedrick of Rushville was third this year in the final standings with Ron Combs of Greensburg and Matt Lux of Shelbyville rounding out the top five drivers.
The rest of the top 10 were Robbie Roland of Carthage, Johnny Goff of Fortville, Tate Martz of Rushville Ashlea Albertson of Indianapolis and Anthony Lawrence of Brownsburg.
Completing the top 20 this year were Johnny Kringas, Austin Nigh, Johnny Heydenrich, Stephen Davis, Layne Beard, Tony Stewart, Aaron Percell, Emerson Axsom, Rick Robinson and Stephen Arnold.
The 2019 awards banquet will be held on December 7 at the Indiana Grand Casino in Shelbyville.
Schatz seeks another title for Stewart
For a third consecutive season, 10-time and defending World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series champion, Donny Schatz, is a series winner at the Port Royal Speedway ‘Speed Palace’ in Port Royal, Pennsylvania. The victory, an $8,000 share, raised Schatz’ season win total to 11, now within eight points of the 2019 World of Outlaws championship, which ends this weekend with the World Finals action at The Dirt Track at Charlotte in Concord, North Carolina.
Schatz, driver of the Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Racing/Toco Warranty/Ford Performance/Curb Records/Sage Fruit/Absolute Automation & Security/No. 15 sprint car, was practically invincible during his Friday night visit to the Juniata County Fairgrounds with his only ‘defeat’ occurring during qualifying time trials; timing fifth overall in the first of two qualifying groups.
Before conquering all 30 laps during feature competition, Schatz earned victories during his respective heat race and dash.
Unfortunately, Schatz was unable to work for a Nittany Showdown sweep, as Mother Nature stepped in and forced Saturday’s World of Outlaws program to be cancelled.
“We just got to focus on what we do,” a modest Schatz said in Victory Lane at Port Royal Speedway. “There isn’t anything I can do to affect what he does. We never won a championship worrying about who we’re racing against or what they were doing. Obviously, what these (Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Racing) guys are doing is working. They made all the right changes to the car.”
Donny Schatz and Tony Stewart Racing will conclude their quest toward Schatz’ 11th World of Outlaws championship tonight from The Dirt Track at Charlotte in Concord, North Carolina. The annual World Finals will cap the 2019 Series schedule headlined with a $12,000-to-win program.
With only eight markers separating Donny Schatz from championship leader, Brad Sweet, the Fargo North Dakota-native will not only need to finish ahead of Sweet during each of the World Finals programs, but he will certainly need to distance himself from the Kasey Kahne Racing entry in the final feature rundowns.
The World Finals which also features the late models and big-block modifieds will be available live on pay-per-view on DirtonDirt. To order the PPV go to dirtondirt.com for more details.
Former USAC Champ passes away
Former USAC National Midget Car Champion Mike Streicher passed away on November 6. Streicher was a well-known race car driver, fabricator, and in recent years had taught college at the University of Northwestern Ohio. He was 62.
Streicher won the 1991 USAC National Midget Car championship driving for his family owned team in a car he built. After his driving career Streicher built midget car chassis with his own company, Hawk Chassis, which continued to win races all over the country.
More recently Streicher taught classes and served as an “assistant coach” for the Motorsports team at UNOH.
The week in
racing history
From 20 years ago in 1999 the Brownstown Speedway named their track champions as Jim Curry (late models), Tim Clark (street stocks), Randy Petro (modifieds) and Sam Chastain (bombers) were named champions in their respective divisions.
Also, from 1999 Dave Darland was awarded the USAC National Sprint Car championship and Jason Leffler took the USAC National Midget crown. Willie Sallee won the street stock track championship at Twin Cities; Pete Abel won the sprint car title at Lawrenceburg Speedway and Derek Scheffel won the Bloomington Speedway track championship for the sprints.
