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USAC National Midget Series Race, 16th St. Spewedway, Indianapolis (05/22/97)

23 May 1997

Jason Leffler managed to stay out of trouble and win the USAC National
Midget Series race at 16th Street Speedway on Thursday night. The race
was stopped eight times, including two red flags for the flips of Dane
Carter and Donnie Beechler.



The rough track conditions may have led to some of the on track
trouble. John Heydenreich, who was by himself at the time, bicycled
his midget through turn one and almost ended up on his roof because of
the huge rut coming off turn one.



While work continues on turning the old baseball stadium into a state
of the art racing facility, track crews will need to address the
problem of the rough racing surface. With four races held at the new
facility, racers say they've yet to see a smooth surface on the track.



Even with the rough surface, there was great racing throughout the
field. Leffler led the last half of the 30 lap feature but was
consistantly pressured Dave Darland, Jay Drake and Donnie
Beechler. Beechler and Leffler raced side by side for several laps
with Beechler making a clean pass for the lead with two laps to
go. Beechler came out of turn four too hot, hit the wall just before
the flagstand and tumbled his midget down the frontstretch. He was
unhurt.



When the green replaced the red, Dave Darland, who had been running in
second, stopped on the track bringing out the yellow one more time.



With the race boiled down to a one lap shoot-out, Leffler held on to
his lead with Jay Drake right on Leffler's bumper in second
place. John Heydenreich was able to capitalize on the restart by
passing Tracy Hines for third on the last lap.



HEAT WINNERS: Heydenreich, Sills, Darland, Leffler



LAST CHANCE RACE WINNER: Titus



KELLY'S PUB TOO SEMI WINNER: Kruseman



FEATURE RESULTS: (30 laps) 
 1. Leffler
 2. Drake
 3. Heydenreich
 4. Tracy Hines
 5. Caruthers
 6. Pierce
 7. Knepper
 8. Welpott
 9. Bridges
10. Darland
11. Hewitt
12. Kruseman
13. Beechler
14. Malone
15. Ted Hines
16. Elliot
17. Sills
18. Lundgren
19. Parsons
20. Carter

David Reininger -- The Auto Channel