FOCUS RACE #500 AT NORTH VERNON THURSDAY


Thursday night’s “Indiana Midget Week” USAC racing event at Twin Cities Raceway Park in North Vernon, Ind. is expected to include a significant milestone in the history of USAC’s Ford Focus Midget program, which debuted just seven years ago. It marks the 500th race in a program which has witnessed events at 81 tracks in 24 different states!


 


It’s also the initial Ford Focus race at the 3/8-mile dirt oval, where Joe Liguori of Tampa, Fla. will try to protect a 19-point lead over Tyler Cottongim in the Midwest Ford Focus point standings.


 


The initial USAC Ford Focus race at Bakersfield (Calif.) Speedway in 2002 was won by Josh Lakatos and the first 498 races (the Ford Focuses are scheduled to race Wednesday night at Plymouth, Ind.) have produced 142 different winners. That figures out to a brand new winner every third or fourth race!


 


Indiana’s Tate Martz is the all-time victory leader at 25 wins, while Chase Scott racked up 21 and James Robertson 16. Ventura (Calif.) Raceway has hosted the most races, 38, while 31 have been held at Irwindale (Calif.) and 29 at Anderson, Ind. California leads the way with 168 total races, while 101 have been held in Indiana and 40 in North Carolina.


 


Thursday night’s Twin Cities events include the Mopar National Midgets in round two of this year’s “Indiana Midget Week,” the first appearance of the USAC Midgets at Twin Cities since Jay Drake’s 2000 victory.