Belleville, IL – POWRi and Grundy County Speedway officials have entered into a multi-year agreement to sanction pavement midget racing at the Morris, Illinois Grundy County Speedway under the POWRi Pavement Midget Series banner.

“I have been working on putting this together for the last couple of years with Bob Guess,” said Neil Gacke, POWRi Pavement Series Director. “This is a great opportunity because we are going to start out strong right out of the box, implementing ideas to maintain parity and costs.”

The series will start with a 10-event schedule with races being held on either a Friday or Saturday. A complete schedule will be released at a later date. The purse will feature a progressive payout, ranging from $700 to $1500 to win in the initial phases of the series, with payouts increasing as the series grows.

“This will give pavement midget racing a much needed shot in the arm,” commented Jason McCord, POWRi Director of Competition. “There are several competitors with cars just sitting around. With the open engine rule, teams can’t afford not to show up.”
The official rules for the series will be released by February, however POWRi and Grundy County Speedway officials wanted to debut this news as soon as possible to help teams, drivers, and fans start preparing for 2018. Open practice at the Speedway is slated for April 2018.

“With the structure POWRi has suggested, we are confident that the track will operate in the black,” said Bob Guess, Grundy County Speedway Treasurer. “We already have several sponsors that have come aboard to keep pavement midget racing alive.”
The rules that are readily available include:

-All engines must be normally aspirated, internal combustion, four cycle reciprocating piston-type, incorporating a maximum of six cylinders. Only one spark plug per cylinder will be allowed. This is an open engine rule.

-POWRi is a Hoosier Tire League and entrants will be required to run Hoosier Tires. POWRi is working with Hoosier on an economical tire that will survive multiple heat cycles.

-The series will be a setup as a “come one, come all” organization in order to bolster car counts in the initial phase.

-There will be a year-end point fund and a POWRi membership is required to compete for points and the championship point fund.

“After meeting with POWRi, we feel very confident that if anyone can get this off the ground and up and running, that it is POWRi,” said Scott Carter, Grundy County Speedway Board General Manager. “They have some really good ideas on how to make this work and bring back fans and teams who enjoy pavement midget racing.”

For further information, visit www.powri.com, “Like” POWRi on Facebook and follow “POWRi_Racing” on Twitter.