INDIANAPOLIS – Jason McDougal will serve as the driver of the Klatt Enterprises No. 6 for all seven dirt events on the USAC Silver Crown Series schedule this year.
Kyle Hamilton will return to the team to pilot the car in the five pavement races on the calendar, competing as McDougal’s teammate as the duo chases a second-straight Silver Crown owner’s championship for car owner Terry Klatt.
“It’s probably the most fun form of racing,” McDougal said of Silver Crown competition. “I get to work with Bob (East) a little more and we’re going to do a little bit more racing together this year. I think we’re both ready and we both know we can get the job done. We trust each other a lot.”
The Broken Arrow, Okla., native will take over the reins of the car from fellow Broken Arrow driver Brady Bacon, who competed for Klatt on the dirt portion of the Silver Crown schedule since 2018, winning twice for the team in 2019 at Williams Grove Speedway and Eldora Speedway.
McDougal speaks admirably of famed car builder, fabricator and mechanic East, and the two will also race on a part-time basis on the USAC midget trail as well in the Klatt No. 4.
Together with the FMR Racing No. 76m midget, the pairing found success in 2019, winning two feature events. Most recently, they enjoyed a spirited charge from the I Main to the D Main during last Saturday’s final night of the Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals in Tulsa, Okla.
East feels the continuity of working together with McDougal on both the midget and the Silver Crown car through the year will translate to success.
“He’s going to run our midget too, and it’s easier to have one guy,” East noted of McDougal. “He did such a good job for us at the Chili Bowl. Brady (Bacon) did a really, really good job for us as well, and I really like working with Brady. He helped us win a Silver Crown owner’s championship and we appreciate that, but it’s just that he went a different direction in the midget and it’s just better team-wise to have the same people, I think.”
With just three starts in his Silver Crown career to his credit, McDougal is relatively inexperienced in terms of his number of Silver Crown starts. However, in each appearance, he’s been dynamite.
McDougal’s Silver Crown highlights include a career-best fourth-place finish in his first Silver Crown run at Eldora in 2018; a charge from 25th to sixth at the Indiana State Fairgrounds in 2019; and a front-row start at Eldora in 2019.
McDougal has USAC winning experience, with two wins each in USAC’s AMSOIL National Sprint Car and NOS Energy Drink National Midget divisions.
He feels that his accumulation of laps will, likewise, transfer in the same manner to the Crown car, a series he has taken a liking to in a short amount of time.
“I’m not wild and out of control all the time,” McDougal said. “I like Silver Crown racing because you can put some thought into it; you’ve got 50 laps and 100 laps instead of 25 and 30. There’s just a little more time, and you’ve got to be a little more relaxed.
“It’s more my speed.”
East feels a good racer is a good racer, and those attributes can only help when McDougal tackles the “Big Cars” in 2021.
“For the inexperience he has, I have that experience,” East said. “So, we can team up together because I’ve been doing it a long time. We’ve won several championships, so I think I can help him on the inexperience part. With everything we’ve done together, we seem to click really well.
“It’s hard to find a guy that’s just likes what you like as far as the way I do things, the way I set things up and the way I do everything. Brady and I had a good relationship like that, and Jason and I have a really good relationship like that.”
McDougal relishes the opportunity to work alongside East and having a teacher as renowned as East to work things out with. He feels they have similar personalities that will only serve to help them as they work together.
“As a kid, I always looked up to what he and (son) Bobby (East) did,” McDougal revealed. “He’s a legend, and the connection we have is almost unreal. We’re both easy-going, so I think racing with each other all year is going to be a really good thing.”