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USAC: Topeka spotlight on youngsters Kahne & Boone at Coca-Cola Classic on Dirt

6 June 2000

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

The MCI WorldCom National & Western Midget Car Series converge at Heartland Park Topeka in Topeka, Kans. Saturday night to kick off the 1/2-mile dirt track's "Coca Cola Classic on Dirt." A 30-lap feature event will conclude the night's racing program, which gets under way with practice at 6 pm. Qualifying is scheduled for 7 and the first race is at 8.

Twenty-year-old Kasey Kahne of Enumclaw, Wash., fresh from his spectacular nationally-televised "Night Before the 500" victory at Indianapolis Raceway Park, leads the National standings going into Saturday's events, while nineteen-year-old Bobby Boone of Palmdale, Calif. is the leader in the Western Midget Car Series standings. Boone posted a victory earlier this year at Irwindale, Calif., while Kahne scored three Western victories early this season.

Saturday's race will award points toward both series championships, one of only 10 events so-structured in the year 2000.

The race marks USAC's first-ever appearance at the Martin "Cat Power" Speedway, but not the first at the Heartland Park Topeka complex. Craig Taylor, Greg Moore and Clay Collier all won USAC Formula 2000 races on HPT's road course in the early-1990s.

USAC MCI WORLDCOM NATIONAL MIDGET CAR SERIES STANDINGS

1. Kasey Kahne 151
2. Jay Drake 146
3. Jimmy McCune 138
4. Ryan Newman 126
5. John Heydenreich 121
6. Dave Darland 118
7. Michael Lewis 116
8. Ryan Scott 108
9. A.J. Fike 103
10. Steve Paden 83

USAC MCI WORLDCOM WESTERN MIDGET CAR SERIES STANDINGS

1. Bobby Boone 408
2. Rick Hendrix 354
3. Thomas Meseraull 343
4. Shane Scully 338
5. Danny Ebberts 333
6. Wally Pankratz 331
7. Steve Paden 309
8. Bryan Stanfill 280
9. Josh Wise 248
10. Kasey Kahne 233

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.