DANNY DRINAN, MICHAEL LANG ENTER IKON OFFICE SOLUTIONS 100
Speedrome Competition Heats Up as... DANNY DRINAN, MICHAEL LANG ENTER IKON OFFICE SOLUTIONS 100 June 11, 2003 Speedway, IN Inspired by Scott Thoman's recent back-to-back Speedrome wins in his new Drinan Esslinger MidgetCar, legendary chassis builder Danny Drinan will himself wheel one of his new creations in this week's "Thursday Night Lightning" MidgetCar event at the Indianapolis Speedrome. Drinan, who has won at virtually every major MidgetCar racetrack in the country throughout his storied career, has never raced at Indy's super competitive 1/5 mile paved oval. A private test session conducted late last month at the Speedrome to simply provide for a 'systems check' on Drinan's new 'speedway car' proved that his new mount not only felt right at home on the industry's shortest venue, but that the driver (Drinan) so enjoyed his test laps that he has decided to run his purpose-built large track car in this week's Ikon Office Solutions 100. "I have always concentrated on building 'speedway cars' to win at the 1/2 mile and larger tracks. Our recent success with SST Racing [Thoman's team] on the short tracks has compelled me to change my focus towards the lucrative short track market", said Drinan. "I had always considered small places like the Speedrome as sort of 'bump and grind' environments where a lot of equipment gets torn up. But after spending considerable time there this season, I was impressed by how clean these guys race each other and how competitive those races are. Then I had so much fun testing, and the car ran so well - even with an IRP set-up - that I've sort of been infected!" Drinan has also entered this Saturday's Championship MidgetCar Series event at Grundy County Speedway in Morris, Illinois co-sanctioned by UMARA and NAMARS. Drinan's initial foray into Speedrome competition will be no easy task, however, as the "Master of the Speedrome", Michael Lang will be on hand to challenge for Thursday's increased purse in Mike Reed's formidable #7 Beast Pontiac. Reed's black 7 is the same car Lang drove to victory late last year indoors at Ft. Wayne. Lang has won multiple MidgetCar championships at the Speedrome over the last decade, at times seemingly unbeatable week after week. With savvy veteran racers like Lang and Drinan set to mix it up with the Speedrome's super competitive field, this week's event promises to be one of those classic short track battles that race fans will not want to miss!