Inaugural tony stewart midget classic
 

INAUGURAL TONY STEWART MIDGET CLASSIC
(INDIANAPOLIS) February, 14, 2015 - The Indianapolis Speedrome is proud to announce that on the night of Saturday, July 25, 2015, the historic fifth mile oval will be hosting the INAUGURAL TONY STEWART MIDGET CLASSIC.
The race will feature a 100 lap main event broken into 2 segments: 75 laps, and a 25 lap dash to the finish, with a 20 minute break in between the two.
Tony Stewart earned his very first USAC midget feature win in 1991 at the Speedrome, and went on to become the Speedrome USAC Midgets Rookie of the Year the very same year. “The Indianapolis Speedrome is a special place for me because it’s where I got my first USAC Midget win,” Stewart said. “It’s a huge honor to have a race named after me. I always enjoyed racing there and I’m sure Larry Curry will make this race enjoyable for the competitors and fans.”
Indianapolis Speedrome Managing Partner, Larry Curry says, “We are all very excited to have the opportunity to have such a great event in honor of Tony Stewart at the Speedrome.” Curry went on to say, “I was very lucky to have Tony as my race car driver, as well as work for him. He is a very special person, and one that I feel very lucky to refer to as a friend.”
For more event details, contact Larry Curry at 317-437-3600, or email: speedromelrc@gmail.com, or log onto www.speedrome.com.

What rules are going to be used to govern this race?

Is this a Kenyon Midget or Full Midget show?

Re: Inaugural tony stewart midget classic
 

That's the Brickyard 400 weekend so there should be a lot of NASCAR fans in town looking for a race to attend. And it will likely be a better show than anything that's going on at IMS on that Saturday. The Nationwide race has been pretty uneventful since it left Raceway Park. It's a pretty smart move on the part of the Speedrome.

Re: Inaugural tony stewart midget classic
 

Full Midget show

Re: Inaugural tony stewart midget classic
 

It would be neat if it was $5000 to win/ $1000 to start...buy your tire at the track...wheel base rule...drive line rule....first car to the checker wins!:16

Rules and pay outs ?

Re: Inaugural tony stewart midget classic
 

anyone want to give an old fat guy a ride?

Roy,Steve and I have already talked about putting the pavement setup back on the car. Would love to put the Butler car back together for this one but will probably see if we can put your old car in the show..

This is an awesome Race. Glad Tony brought a race there again. Can't wait

How many cars everyone think will be here? That's good starting money for making the feature .

Re: Inaugural tony stewart midget classic
 

I don't see an official post about start money, just an "It would be neat if"...

Tony didn't bring the race, Larry Curry did and named it after tony

Re: Inaugural tony stewart midget classic
 

IMO this is a race that COULD be the determining factor for what pavement midget racing will look like in the future. There are a ton of pavement midgets around either laying in disrepair, idle, or just moth balled and getting them out for a short track race in July could open up other dates at the speedrome, anderson, ect in 2016. A strong showing of cars and a decent fan turnout would likely put the same race back on the schedule in 2016 and let us all get back out and have some more fun with one of the coolest cars in open wheel (my personal opinion! :-)), pavement midgets. I'll have one car there and hope to see a big enough turnout to start a resurgence of these cars. Who knows, maybe we could all wish for a 5 race mini series in the summer of 2016 on a weds or thurs night. (Wishful thinking but rome wasn't built in a day and it's a start)

Food for thought if you own a car...

-Will getting it out for this race mean that next year I might have reason to get it out a few more times?

-Will racing this race, if you're not a fan of speedrome, mean that maybe next year i'll have other tracks to race a one-off show?

-Does the math ever make sense? Look at this event as a fun night to do some racing and have some nascar fans and drivers in the stands, there will be plenty of guys testing to hand down some really good scuff tires to folks wanting to race but not have a huge tire bill. (I have 5 sets of wheels with really good scuffs on them, i'll gladly give tires to anyone wanting to race in addition to whatever we burn up testing)

-Speedrome isnt a chassis dyno. Ask guys like Billy wease, Rex Norris, Brad Kuhn... they have all had success in tons of different engine configurations and will tell you stagger and grip is more important than grunt.


There is not bringing back a dead horse, the days of going to Milwaukee Mile and PIR isn't going to happen again but maybe we can use a little DNA from the past and breed a new horse that works in today's field. The only chance of bring it to life is to let each cell grow until it can multiple.

In other words, lets all band together to get one race alive and well, then see if a second one, third, fourth, fifth, ect can survive then maybe 3-5 years down the road blend them with a few dirt races... Holy S***, we just made a cool indiana midget series!

Re: Inaugural tony stewart midget classic
 

I will not say that I know anything for certain... but some things did come up in a conversation with a person that would know...SO....the official announcement of purse and so forth will most likely come out after the 1st tire test. The sooner the better...guys will not get totally interested until confirmation that this is indeed going to be a big event....If presented and promoted as something ....stand back because this event could be huge!!! Wish the best for USSA as this event could be what takes them to the next level!

Does the Speedrome still have that built in profit maker they like to call a "pit license" that they make everyone entering the pits purchase? If they do hopefully they lift the requirement for this one night. I live out of state now but used to love watching midgets run at the spreedrome. My dad and I used to go every Friday night and watch the likes of Michael Lang and my childhood hero Rich Vogler dominate. I'll be back regardless. Can't wait.

Re: Inaugural tony stewart midget classic
 

This is SO COOL!! I go back to watching Bev Griffiths win the 1st ESPN race and it was can't miss TV from then on. The biggest drawback for Pavement Racing is, IMHO Tires. If a Tire Company would make an AFFORDABLE......REPEATABLE Tire, i believe this could take right off. They CAN do it, It's all about Nylon vs Rayon and the amount of winds inside the casing. I was on the BCRA board for a few years so i know from where I speak. When we opened up our tires to allow A/R's our members went from paying $175 for a hoosier that we could maybe get 3 heat cycles with to a $105 R/R that had minimal drop off for as many as 3 nights. Not blaming hoosier here, whatever Tire Company is "in the house' is gonna ya give junk 'cause you have no other choice. In addition, all tires are NOWHERE near the same. The difference on the Durometer between Hoosiers I purchaced from Norm Rapp and tires that my friend Chris Walker bought from out here was 15 Points!! (75 to 60) They both said MG 7.8 but that's where the similarities ended. I believe the answer for all pavement racing is an open tire rule.

It was Bev Griffis!