DUQUOIN, Ill. – Dave Mac Motorsports has added a second car to its assault on this weekend’s fifth annual Shamrock Classic, taking place Saturday inside the confines of the Southern Illinois Center.
Team owner Dave McIntosh has tabbed Trey Robb, from Newcastle, Okla., to pilot the squad’s familiar No. 08 Spike/Toyota during the $5,000-to-win, 50-lap NOS Energy Drink USAC National Midget Series event.
Robb, a veteran of micro sprint competition in the Midwest, will make his return to midget competition for the first time in more than a decade and is excited about the shot he’s been afforded.
“This will be my first midget race in 10-plus years and I can’t think of a better car to be driving,” noted Robb, who will steer the same chassis that Michael Faccinto drove to a Chili Bowl preliminary night podium finish in January during the Shamrock Classic. “Thanks to Dave (McIntosh) and Cody (Cordell, crew chief) for putting together a top notch car and giving me this opportunity.”
Robb will be teammates with Ace McCarthy, who is running the full POWRi National Midget League schedule for Dave Mac Motorsports, during the DuQuoin weekend special.
From the ownership side, McIntosh is not only eager to bring Robb into the fold, he’s looking forward to putting the car that won last year’s Shamrock Classic – the No. 08 – back on the DuQuoin dirt Saturday.
“It started with us having a car available, but I think Trey has been itching to get back in a midget,” McIntosh told Sprint Car & Midget on Thursday. “I think it’s been quite some time since he’s been in one. So we talked, and we had a great car available that probably should have been locked into the Chili Bowl A-main if not for circumstances … so we got it together and now we’re ready to go.
“I’m excited and ready to go rip with both Trey and Ace,” he added. “Obviously with Trey running the No. 08, we know what that car did last year with Cannon (McIntosh) behind the wheel, so we’re hopeful we can go out and replicate that again this weekend.”
With McCarthy running his familiar No. 28 for the POWRi season, McIntosh added that it was meaningful to him to be able to put the family’s No. 08 – which has made waves in recent years with his son, now-Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports driver Cannon McIntosh – back on the track again.
“That number is important to me and my family and just the tradition of racing, for four generations now. So it’s exciting it’s going to be there,” Dave McIntosh noted. “Ace has got his reasons for his (No.) 28, so I didn’t want to put pressure on him to get away from his number. But with Trey coming in, it’s good. We’ve got the No. 08 back on the race track now, so I’m excited for it.”
Though McIntosh will field two cars of his own this weekend in DuQuoin, he knows that both of his drivers will race directly against his son, as Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports looks to reclaim the Shamrock Classic crown it first held two years ago, when Logan Seavey won the event as a rookie.
That means there’s a balance between team owner and father, but McIntosh is more excited to see how the event plays out than anything else – and he also knows that his personal goals as a car owner mean he’ll be up against his son more often than not as the season rolls along.
“I can’t be prouder of my kid, and I tell everyone that. He’s had help getting to where he is now, through history, life and racing since he was a kid, but he’s kind of paved his way,” McIntosh relayed. “He’s in a great position to do great things with Keith (Kunz) and Pete (Willoughby). But I’ve got my own goals in mind. I’d love to get my name, as a car owner, in a Hall of Fame one day. Those are things that I look forward to. And I’m gonna strive to get my team to compete at the highest level, just like the other top teams do.
“We’ll see where it goes here and see where it ends up, but every journey starts somewhere, and for us, the next chapter starts this weekend with Trey and Ace and we’re ready to get it started.”