By Jay Hardin Track Enterprises Staff

August 10, 2023-Springfield, IL-Twenty-three-year-old Midget standout and Oklahoma University student Taylor Reimer of Tulsa is the latest rookie to join Venturini Motorsports and make her ARCA Menard’s Series debut on the clay of the legendary Springfield Mile.  The pilot of one of Keith Kunz Motorsports Midgets in USAC, POWRi, and Xtreme comes to the August 20 Dutch Boy 100 with a wealth of dirt track experience and a team that has won six Springfield races in the last ten years.

Reimer began racing go karts at the age of six and eventually worked her way into micro sprints, becoming the winningest female driver in the history of Port City (Oklahoma) Raceway.  Taylor took a six-year break from the sport before returning.  Driving midgets with a goal of one day racing in NASCAR, she made her Chili Bowl debut in 2021 and raced for DMac Motorsports before joining the Kunz operation in 2023.

This season, she has (at press time) six straight top 5 finishes in the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series, where she is sixth in the championship.  She is also ninth in the USAC National Midget standings and fifth in the POWRi Midget League point standings.  While she has yet to visit victory lane in a midget in 2023, she has numerous top 5 and top 10 finishes.  While pleased with the consistency that puts her in contention for multiple titles, Reimer is hungry for that first win.

She will step into a car capable of winning the Dutch Boy 100 and a team that can help her navigate her first laps in a stock car on a dirt mile.  Venturini won the Springfield event in 2013, 14, 18, 19, 21 and 22.  Teammate, Toni Breidinger, made the transition from midgets to stock cars.  Teammate Jesse Love has dirt track experience and won last year’s race.  Reimer will have plenty of coaches before she exits pit lane for practice on the morning of August 20.

Reimer also joins a long list of female participants in the Dutch Boy 100.  The best finish for a female driver at Springfield was the second of Hallie Deegan in October of 2020.  Deegan led one lap near the end of the COVID postponed event.

Reimer would like to take that record from Deegan, doing so means a trip to victory lane.  Her quest starts August 20 at the Illinois State Fairgrounds on stock car Sunday.  ARCA practice begins at 10 a.m., General Tire pole qualifying at 11 and the Dutch Boy 100 in memory of Allen Crowe at 1.

The event is all part of a huge weekend of racing that begins Friday night, August 18 at Lincoln Speedway featuring MOWA Sprint Cars, Saturday afternoon, August 19 with USAC Silver Crown and Sportsman at the Illinois State Fairgrounds, Saturday night at Macon Speedway with USAC National Midgets, and Sunday afternoon, August 20 with the ARCA Dutch Boy 100 and the Sportsman Nationals at the Illinois State Fair.

Advance tickets for the Illinois State Fair races are available by calling the Track Enterprises office at 217-764-3200, by calling the Illinois State Fair box office at 217-782-1979, or by stopping by the Illinois State Fair box office. Advance sale discounted tickets for the ARCA Menards Series event on Sunday, August 20 can be purchased in Central Illinois area Menards stores for a price of just $20.