HUDSON, N.H. – Man was Midget Mayhem weekend a blast! Running a midget at four different tracks four days in a row in three different states was quite the experience.
The first three days of Midget Mayhem I ran the No. 88 Creevan Performance Speed2 midget for Mike Creevan. We started with a 30-lap race Thursday at Kentucky Motor Speedway. I qualified fifth, but it wasn’t without a scare as I almost put the car in the wall during the warm-up lap.
Despite qualifying fifth for the race I ended up starting second due to the top-six invert. Right off the rip I took the lead going into turn one and out of turn two. However, Jessica Bean came storming up my inside into turn three taking no prisoners and took the lead.
Within the first four laps I dropped back to fifth fairly quickly, but once I was there I pretty much locked in and ran as hard as I could to learn the car and track as much as possible. I felt like I was getting more and more comfortable with the car during the race. I finished fifth, exactly where I qualified.
The next day we traveled to Highland Rim Speedway in Tennessee. I’ve actually raced a Speed2 midget at The Rim before so it was nice to be able to return to a track with the same car.
I qualified fifth yet again for the race and again started second due to the invert. This race was originally 50 laps, but ended up getting shortened to 40 laps due to delays that were created by the other series that night.
At the start of the race one of my competitors, Sam Mazzo, made a big lunge up the inside of both me and the No. 12 car, who started on the pole. This slowed my momentum massively as I had to avoid the No. 12 car, who was now sandwiched on my inside between us in turn one.
By the time we were exiting turn two and on the back straight I had fallen back to fourth and was stuck on the outside. By the exit of turn four on the first lap I was pushed further back to fifth. By the end of lap five I was passed by Bean and fell to sixth.
For quite a few laps I was left battling with the No. 12 car, who was holding me up, but it was just so hard to pass. Things started to go my way when a caution came out because of an incident with two cars ahead of us. This meant I was restarting fourth on the outside of the second row.
I had a pretty good start because I was able to quickly take third by passing the No. 12 car on the outside through turns one and two. Bean, who was involved in that caution, came up my inside not soon after and yet again pushed me back to fourth.
However, a few laps later another incident occurred with first and second place, with one getting spun out and sent to the back of the field as a result. This landed me in third this time as we came to the green flag.
This time we didn’t even get one full lap in under green before we went under caution again for a stopped car on track. However, when we finally came around to take the final green flag of the race, I was able to hold onto third.
I pulled away from fourth and did my best to stick with the two cars in front of me. They managed to slowly pull away from me during the final 10, but I think I may have had something for second had the race gone 10 laps longer for the original 50 laps.
In any case, I managed to hold onto third, which felt pretty good.
The third day of Midget Mayhem brought a little twist Saturday afternoon at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway when the sheer number of divisions that were running that day meant that we would only get one practice session and one qualifying session before our 30-lap race.
Between these two sessions I ended up with 15 laps on track before the start of the feature. I ended up qualifying sixth out of the nine cars, which meant I would start on the pole for the feature after the invert.
The race start was less than ideal. Similar to the previous two races, I was quickly shuffled back sixth within the first three laps. That came was after I tried to brake late into turn one on the start in order to hold my position.
Unfortunately, I got so little brake pressure that I thought I was going to launch straight into the outside wall. Somehow I managed to get the car slowed down enough to keep it off the wall, but this washed me out so wide mid-corner that I was already getting passed for the lead at the exit of turn two.
I proceeded to get dropped back to sixth on the inside in the first few laps as I was stuck on the outside. You might be noticing a pattern at this point regarding these race starts. I regained my composure and got back to fifth. That’s where I finished, but I did end up getting my fastest lap of the race on the final lap, which proved to me that I was getting faster during the race as I improved my line and driving.
The fourth and final night of my Midget Mayhem weekend saw me head North to race a higher speed, higher horsepower winged NEMA midget at New Hampshire’s Hudson Speedway.
The plan was to take all of my accumulated Speed2 midget knowledge and experience from the prior three days and convert it as quickly as possible to the winged midget so I could maximize my track time.
I did not disappoint myself when I shot out of the proverbial cannon in the first practice session and got my fastest lap of the entire day on my third flying lap. I drove the car harder than I ever had up to that point and I believe the driving I did the previous night helped with that tremendously.
I was third fastest in the first practice, which was a pleasant surprise. I was third again in the second practice, but it didn’t come without a cost as the driveshaft in my car snapped halfway through practice.
Fortunately the awesome Bertrand Motorsports crew and some other NEMA guys were able to get a new driveshaft in the car before we had to line up for our heat race. I started seventh and finished sixth. I only ran at about 60 percent to make sure the car was OK while also scrubbing in our tires for the feature.
I started seventh in the feature based on NEMA’s handicap system. The start was chaotic to say the least as two cars in front of me got tangled together in turns three and four on lap two, with one of those cars flipping. That happened right in front of me in turn three. Luckily both cars washed up the track and I missed them.
Once the red flag was lifted I was set to restart sixth. I went right to racing for fifth, with the driver I was battling actually making a move to take fourth before I could pass him. I took the opportunity and followed him through, allowing me to move up to fifth.
It took me another 15-20 laps to make the move on the driver in front of me for fourth. He held me up for so long that there were only seven laps left in the race for me to run down the driver in third. I actually managed to run the drivers in second and third down, but in the final few laps they pulled away from me and I settled for fourth.
The team was happy with it considering our earlier mechanical woes, but I was a little dissatisfied with just missing out on a top-three finish to cap off the weekend.
Regardless, I have Mike Creevan of Creevan Performance and Tim Bertrand of Bertrand Motorsports along with the rest of the crew to thank for this awesome weekend of racing and can’t wait to see how Midget Mayhem has prepared me for this weekend’s upcoming midget and Silver Crown races at Lucas Oil Raceway!