USAC: Westfall, Lehmann, Ted Hines &Lang big winners in the Dome

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

Matt Westfall, Donnie Lehmann, Ted Hines and Michael Lang were the big winners in today's official drawing for positions for Saturday night's Indy Racing and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway present "Thunder in the Dome XVII" USAC Midget car race at the RCA Dome in downtown Indianapolis, Ind. Each drew "pole" starting positions for their respective team quarterfinal races.

Hines and Lang are former RCA Dome winners, Hines winning in 1991 and Lang in 1996, while Westfall's best finish in two previous appearances is a fifth and Lehmann's best finish in five tries has been a ninth.

The 48-driver field for Saturday night's events is now set and faces 20-lap quarterfinals before advancing to 40-lap Team features. The 100-lap finale will pit the top-12 drivers from each Team feature.

Defending RCA Dome race winner Johnny Parsons drew sixth in his quarterfinal, while former race winners Jim Hettinger (2nd), Mike Streicher (7th), Kevin Besecker (11th) and Russ Gamester (12th) met with varying degrees of success.

Present at today's draw were Kasey Kahne and Derek Davidson, who passed Indy Racing tests last November at Texas Motor Speedway, plus Parsons, 2000 USAC Dirt-Track Regional Midget Car Champ Lang, 2000 Speedrome Midget Car Champion Daryl Campbell and Justin Marvel. Davey Hamilton, although not a participant in Saturday's race, was also on hand to talk about competing in all four divisions of next week's Pennzoil "Copper World" Indy 200 at Phoenix, Ariz.

Gates open to the public at 4 pm Saturday, with a USAC driver autograph session starting at 4. A 20-lap Mini-Cup race at 4:30 and a 20-lap Go-Kart race at 4:50 precede pre-race ceremonies. The first USAC Midget car race starts at 6:20 pm.

Text Provided By Dick Jordan

Editors Note: To view hundreds of hot racing photos and art, visit The Racing Photo Museum and the Visions of Speed Art Gallery.