by Don Martin
Christopher Bell just celebrated last month winning the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Championship and winning the USAC Turkey Night Grand Prix Midget Race at Ventura. The kid turned 23 years of age last Saturday and celebrated with his 10th midget win of the season in just 13 starts at DuQuoin last Saturday night. The event is the Knepper 55 sanctioned by USAC.
Bell driving his Toyota powered Keith Kunz Spike midget earned $3,000 for the win. It was Bell’s first win on the tight 1/5 mile indoor event at DuQuoin. He had been close before but never closed the deal til last weekend. It wasn’t easy for Bell, he fell back to fifth midway thru the race and had to battle his way past Justin Grant and Zeb Wise to get to the leader Chad Boat. He reeled in Chad Boat and passed him with a handful of laps left to get the win. A daring Chase Briscoe finished second coming from the tail. Briscoe came out of nowhere to capture the runner-up spot. Shane Golobic also rallied from tail to take home third. Chad Boat who was fast all night winning his heat race and qualifier earned a fourth place finish. Justin Grant rounded out the top five in the Clauson-Marshall racing stable.
56 cars were on hand for the event promoted by Jr Knepper’s grandson Nick Knepper and his partner Derek Lemaster. The event is very unique, its held at the Southern Illinois Center in DuQuoin, Illinois. The track is a paper clip 1/5 mile oval. The racing is always exceptional, it will race with traction and without making it very slick by time the field hits the checkers.
It is always a good race for teams to tune-up for the Chili-Bowl. You rarely see a field like this, you had Matt Crafton of the NASCAR Truck Series making his midget debut, you have late model driver Brian Shirley on hand. You have a celebrity like Rickie Stenhouse Jr. in the house.
It is a great mix of drivers such as Shane Cottle, Shane Cockrum, Daniel Robinson, Joey Moughan, Tim Crawley, Jake Neumann, Tyler Courtney, Tanner Berryhill, Justin Peck, Parker Price Miller, Gio Scelzi, Thomas Messeraull, Tanner Carrick, Tony Bruce Jr., and Billy Wease to name a few on hand for the event.
I was really impressed with Trey Marcham out of Oklahoma City, OK. He finished second to Chad Boat in a heat and won a qualifier. Also Austin Blair did not make the feature but his getting better and better the kid just needs more laps. He missed the main event by two spots.
A quick note on Christopher Bell good luck to everyone trying to take the Chili Bowl Champ down in Tulsa next month you got your hands full. The kid is just flat out “AWESOME”.
In closing next year, the event will not be up against the dome event in St. Louis and there is even talk of making the show a 2-Day event. Derek and Nick are very passionate about midget racing its in their DNA. The kids don’t have the big bucks and don’t have any corporate sponsorship so lets behind these kids and make this event bigger each year.