McDOUGAL TABBED FOR THE DIRT WITH KLATT’S SILVER CROWN TEAM
By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Speedway, Indiana (January 20, 2021)………Jason McDougal will take on the role as the driver of the Klatt Enterprises No. 6 for all seven dirt events on the 2021 USAC Silver Crown schedule while Kyle Hamilton will pilot the car in the five pavement races on the calendar.
“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 had competed for Klatt on the dirt portion of the Silver Crown schedule since 2018, winning twice for the team in 2019 at Williams Grove and Eldora.
McDougal speaks admirably of famed car builder, fabricator and mechanic, East, and the two will be competing 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 a two feature events and, most recently, enjoyed a spirited charge from the I-Main to the D-Main during last Saturday’s final night of the Chili Bowl Midget Nationals in Tulsa, Okla.
East feels the symbiosis and continuity of working together with McDougal on both the midget and the Silver Crown car throughout 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 really 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 may be relatively inexperienced, so to speak, in terms of the number of starts (3), but in each appearance, he’s been dynamite. Highlights include a career-best 4th place result in his first Silver Crown run at Eldora in 2018; a charge from 25th to 6th 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 and feels that his accumulation of laps will, likewise, transfer in the same manner to the Crown car, a series he has really taken a liking to in a short amount of time.
“I’m not wild and out of control all the time,” McDougal stated. “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, especially when having a USAC Hall of Fame inductee by the name of Bob East in his corner.
“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 him to work things out with, and feels they have a similar personality that will only serve to help them as they work together.
“As a kid, I’ve 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.”