By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Du Quoin, Illinois (December 6, 2021)………The schedule of events have been revealed for the final dirt midget race of 2021 on Saturday night, December 18, at the Southern Illinois Center in Du Quoin.
The USAC Midget Special Event welcomes the 8th running of the Jason Leffler Memorial presented by Fatheadz Eyewear indoors for the first-time ever on the 1/5-mile dirt oval. The previous seven editions of the $8,000-to-win event have taken place at Wayne County Speedway in Wayne City, Ill.
Saturday’s lineup presents a complete program for Midgets with pits opening at 10am Central, pill draw at 11:30am, the drivers meeting at 2:30pm, hot laps at 3pm and opening ceremonies at 5pm with racing to follow, utilizing a format similar to the Chili Bowl with drivers accumulating points based on their advancement and finishing position during the heats and qualifying races, which will seed the starting lineup for the 50-lap feature.
Indoor pit stall rentals for midgets are $40 each (10’ x 10’ stall) which can be reserved until December 8 by messaging the Jason Leffler Memorial Race Facebook page.
Micro sprint preliminary events will take place the night before, on Friday, December 17, at the Southern Illinois Center, featuring Winged Outlaws, Non-Wing Outlaws, A Class (Wing), Restrictors and Junior Sprints with hot laps, heat races and semi-features while all main events will be held on Saturday.
On Friday, pits open at 10am Central with pill draw at noon, the drivers meeting at 4pm, hot laps at 4:30pm and racing to follow.
The thrills of midget racing on a dirt bullring in southern Illinois remain unchanged with the event’s new venue. The Leffler Memorial has featured seven different winners in its previous seven editions. Since the dawn of the event in 2013, a new winner has emerged on each and every occasion.
The event honors the life and memory of Leffler, the four-time USAC National driving champion (1997-98-99 Midget & 1998 Silver Crown) who lost his life in a sprint car accident at New Jersey’s Bridgeport Speedway in June of 2013.
Ten previous USAC-sanctioned midget events have been held at the Southern Illinois Center, including four in recent years during the month of December. Those wintertime classics were won by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (2015), Tyler Courtney (2016), Christopher Bell (2017) and Thomas Meseraull (2018). Daniel Robinson captured a USAC Midwest Regional Midget victory at SIC on September 1 of this year.
Tickets for the Jason Leffler Memorial Presented by Fatheadz Eyewear are now on sale at https://sneed-motorsports-llc.ticketleap.com/.