[JessicaJ]

2nd Half of Midget Week Yields Tough Results for Walker
By Jessica Jenkins

USAC Indiana Midget Week brings out the best drivers in the country, which makes for some really good racing and an exciting show for the fans. It is a great thing for young drivers as they get to see how more experienced drivers race. But it makes it that much harder to be able to move up through the field.

Going into the second half of Midget Week, Gage Walker was coming off his best finish of the week at Lincoln Park Speedway. Rolling into Bloomington Speedway he qualified 28th, slotting him in the seventh place of heat 4. He did not stay back there long and moved up to fourth place by the end of the heat, transferring him straight to the Feature. Based off his qualifying run, Walker started 22nd and fought hard all race with the intense racing in the middle of the pack. He finished 16th and bettered his finish from one year ago by two positions.

Walker and his family owned-team were ready for Lawrenceburg on Saturday night, but a huge storm system moving into Indiana canceled all activities for the day. Instead, they shifted sights to Kokomo Speedway for the finale of Midget Week. He put his car 21st in hot laps before qualifying 19th. He then started off in second place for heat three and barely missed the cutoff to make the Feature when he finished fifth. So he lined up outside row 3 for the Semi and moved up to fourth, easily making it into the Feature. Walker started from the 18th position, but just 2 laps in, a car came spinning down in front of him and ran straight into the right front of the red #7x. That caused the 18-year-old to spin around where he then got hammered by another car head-on. There was no chance of firing back off and Walker’s night was done before it’d really begun, finishing 21st. Walker was fine, but the car they pulled back home to Indianapolis wasn’t in such good shape. The frame was destroyed and for the time being they will be using their backup until a new one is built.

Overall, Walker finished 18th in Indiana Midget week points with 168. His next USAC race will be June 17-18th in Arkansas at Riverside International Speedway. However, he has put together a last minute deal to race at Macon Speedway on Saturday.

For more information on Gage Walker and for updates as he races, like his Facebook fan page at Facebook.com/GageWalkerRacing. You can follow him on Twitter @GageWalker7 and visit his website at GageWalkerRacing.com as well!