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Originally Posted by Charles Nungester
Holly was the first woman to podium in a USAC national event. She's done it at least twice this year and maybe more. She likes the bigger fast tracks. At Lawrenceburg it was all Bayston, Thorson and Rico could do to pass her. There were at least 28 lead swaps in those thirty laps and she fought off and took it back all but one time on lap 28 in which Rico got her and as she was recovering Thorson slid by too..
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Holly Shelton is one just three female drivers to record a top-five finish in a dirt USAC National Midget feature event. She’s joined by the late Jeri Rice and Sarah McCune as the only ones to accomplish the feat.
Tucson, Arizona’s Rice recorded a 5th place finish at Eagle (Neb.) Raceway on Aug. 2, 1988 and Perrysburg, Ohio’s Sarah McCune was a 5th place finisher at Tri-City Speedway in Granite City, Illinois on June 4, 2003.
Shelton has the best finishes of any female driver in a USAC National Midget feature – pavement or dirt – since Taylor Ferns from Shelby Township, Michigan took 5th on the pavement at Fountain, Colorado’s Pikes Peak International Raceway on June 29, 2013.
No female has ever won a USAC National Midget, National Sprint Car or Silver Crown feature. The best ever finish for a woman in a USAC National event was a 2nd, earned by McCune at a midget race at Winchester (Ind.) Speedway on Sept. 19, 1999.
Other top-fives earned by ladies throughout the history of USAC National Midget racing include Zionsville’s Bev Griffis, who finished 3rd at Winchester on April 7, 1991, and Westfield, Indiana’s Stephanie Mockler - the only other female driver besides McCune to score multiple top-fives in USAC National Midget competition – who took a 3rd at Indianapolis Raceway Park on May 27, 2006 and a 5th at Toledo (OH) Speedway on July 6, 2007.