Editor’s Note: Holley Hollan, 17, is a rookie in the NOS Energy Drink USAC National Midget Series. From June 5 through June 10, Hollan will be sharing her experiences with SPEED SPORT subscribers while competing during Indiana Midget Week.Â
Hollan drives the No. 67k Toyota-powered midget for Keith Kunz Motorsports. Below is her second diary entry, recapping Wednesday night’s events at Gas City I-69 Speedway in Gas City, Ind.
GAS CITY, Ind. – Hey guys, Holley Hollan here after the second night of Indiana Midget Week at Gas City I-69 Speedway, and we definitely made some progress compared to where we were at Montpelier.
Gas City is a small, tight little track and just like most of the rest of the places we’re going to this week, it was my first time racing there.
We started out the night really strong, though, qualifying 10th-quickest and setting ourselves up in a really good position for our heat race.
The heat race was a big moment for me and for the team, as we got the jump from the outside pole and led all the way for my first USAC heat race victory!
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Coming off a rough night at Montpelier, winning that heat race finally gave me a chance to breathe and realize that I do have speed at these new tracks. Locking myself into the feature directly out of the heat race was a big relief, especially given the amount of cars we had at the race track – enough for a C-main.
By the time we got to the feature, things were a little bit tricky because we were buried back in the lineup. We started 17th and were able to make it up to 14th at the finish, despite being bottled up in traffic. All in all, it was just good to be able to roll the car back onto the trailer in one piece.
This experience has been fun so far. Because there’s such a short amount of time between hot laps and qualifying to figure out the track, it can be tricky on a newer driver, but I like that challenge. The entire Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports team works day and night to give us all fast race cars, and being part of such a dedicated organization pushes me to be my best every time I hit the race track, for sure.
Everyone in the KKM pit area is all in and each person on the crew is the definition of a team, because they all work together toward our common goal of winning races and chasing championships.
I want to say a special thanks to all of the members of the Toyota Racing family, especially everyone representing Toyota who came out to support our team at the race track last night at Gas City. We couldn’t do any of what we do without them and their support to grassroots racing is unbelievable!
I’m already looking forward to making my first laps at Putnamville tonight and hoping to keep building on the momentum we’re starting to put together here. Hope to see everyone at the race track!
Hollan’s prior entry can be accessed via the link below: