Montpelier Motor Speedway To Host USAC National Sprints and USAC Indiana Midget Week Events in 2016

The United States Auto Club (USAC) will make a pair of noteworthy stops during the 2016 season to the historic Montpelier Motor Speedway on April 23rd and May 31st. The first USAC event will bring the always popular and ultra competitive Amsoil USAC National Sprint Cars series to the east central Indiana bull ring on Saturday, April 23rd. The stop will serve as the first USAC national sprint car appearance at the 113 year old racing facility. A second USAC appearance is slated for Tuesday, May 31st and will showcase the first night of Indiana Midget Week an event featuring 6 consecutive nights of Midget racing spread throughout Indiana speed plants. USAC Midget Week routinely draws the best Midget and moonlighting Sprint drivers from across the United States, New Zealand, and Australia.

In USAC Sprint Car competion, Rocklin, California’s, Robert Ballou (a 2014 Montpelier Motor Speedway Feature Winner) picked up the 2015 Amsoil National Sprint Car Championship edging Dave Darland, Chase Stockon, Brady Bacon, and Jon Stanbrough while retiring driver, Tracy Hines, picked up the 2015 USAC National Midget crown. California’s Rico Abreu picked up the 2015 USAC Indiana Midget Week title edging Bryan Clauson by a single point.

Kokomo, Indiana’s Shane Cottle and legendary car owner, Paul Hazen, swept Montpelier Motor Speedway non-wing competition in 2015. USAC regular top 20 drivers Ballou, Dave Darland, Jon Stanbrough, Kevin Thomas Jr., Justin Grant, Jerry Coons Jr., Landon Simon, and Logan Jarrent all made 2015 Montpelier starts. In Midget competition, Chett Gehrke, Spencer Bayston, Justin Peck, and Shane Hollingsworth all scored Midget feature wins at Montpelier while Gage Walker won the MMS Midget Track Championship.

The Montpelier Motor Speedway, which began racing in 1903 and hosted its first automobile race in 1915, is one of America’s oldest remaining racing facilities. Sprint car racing first came to Montpelier in the late 1940’s in the form of “Big Cars”. While the east central Indiana ¼ mile clay oval has a historic past, the facility has seen many major modern upgrades the past four seasons including new restrooms and bleachers along with the addition of many safety features such as a new catch fence system along with a new front stretch wall, lighting system, and runoff area. The Montpelier Motor Speedway commonly competes weekly on Saturday Nights with its popular Modified and Stock Car divisions, and is also the host to the popular Montpelier Motor Speedway Midget series.

USAC is one of the oldest running sprint car sanctioning bodies in the country. The who’s-who of USAC is a list of some of the greatest drivers in the history of the sport. Former national sprint car champions include Parnelli Jones, A.J. Foyt, Johnny Rutherford, Gary Bettenhausen, Levi Jones, Rich Vogler, Kenny Shrader, Dave Darland, Jack Hewitt, and current NASCAR stars Tony Stewart, J.J. Yeley, Jeff Gordon, Cole Whitt, Kasey Kahne, Ryan Newman, Josh Wise, and Kyle Larson all competed as USAC regulars. 2015 Indianapolis 500 starter Bryan Clauson is also a two-time USAC sprint car champion.

Full event details, ticket information, and event times will be posted atwww.MontpelierMotorSpeedway.com . The Montpelier Motor Speedway can also be found on Facebook at Home of the Montpelier Motor Speedway www.Facebook.com/MontpelierMotorSpeedwayand Twitter @Montpelier Track.