NOAH GASS TO GUN FOR USAC SPRINT ROOKIE OF THE YEAR IN 2021
By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Speedway, Indiana (January 25, 2021)………As one of the youngest business owners you’ll ever be introduced to, 17-year-old Noah Gass has heard a familiar mantra in his time – “the only way to learn is to be out in the field.”
Those words spoken by Noah’s father, Randy, have translated to the racetrack where the Mounds, Okla. native will take on the USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car tour full-time in 2021 to compete for Rookie of the Year honors with the series in his father’s No. 20G, a Triple X chassis powered by a Claxton Chevy and carrying sponsorship from Arrowhead Electric, Food Safety Group, DMI, Inc. and Noah’s own Big G Transport trucking company.
Gass has been a familiar sight on the USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget trail over the past two seasons, making a total of 11 starts in 2019-20. His USAC Sprint appearances have been less frequent, however, with him making just one previous feature start, which came, interestingly enough, at Bubba Raceway Park in Ocala, Fla., where Gass launches his 2021 pursuit on Feb. 11-12-13.
Prior to the midgets, Gass cut his motorsports teeth in a sprint car, competing weekly near his Oklahoma home at Creek County Speedway while racing with OCRS and traveling to compete around the region and the bordering states.
Although Gass does retain plans to participate in around 10 or so midget events in the coming year, after winning the USAC Wingless Sprints Oklahoma season opener in June of 2020 at Monarch Motor Speedway in Wichita Falls, Texas, Gass got the itch to return his main focus to sprint car racing for 2021.
“Every time I’ve gotten on track (in a sprint car), I’ve felt more and more competitive,” Gass stated. “So, we said, well heck, we might as well go sprint car racing. So, (for 2021), we said ‘let’s go USAC racing.’ We want to be the best so let’s go race against the best.”
Gass’ weekday morning routine begins with online education for his high school during the first half of the day, then uses the second half of the day to operate Big G Transport with his business partner, learning the tricks of the trade and being a sponge to absorb as much experience and learning lessons as he can that he can use down the road, in much the same manner he does when slinging dirt versus stiff competition.
As far as his growth process in the sport, Gass pointed to personal consistency and for he and his team to develop a system and pin a routine down in order to mold themselves into the kind of team they aspire to be, to routinely compete up front. But that’s part of the process and Gass welcomes the challenge.
“It all goes back to, if you want to be the best, you’ve got to race against the best.”
Gass joins previously announced Rookie of the Year contenders Paul Nienhiser and Carson Garrett as full-time competitors on the USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car tour in 2021, which begins on Feb. 11-12-13 at Bubba Raceway Park in Ocala, Fla. for Winter Dirt Games XII. A practice night on Feb. 10 for the series precedes the three-straight full nights of racing.
Tickets will be available at the gate on race day. No pre-order is necessary.
