{"id":49527,"date":"2025-11-15T08:05:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T13:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/?p=49527"},"modified":"2025-11-12T09:44:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T14:44:15","slug":"the-left-turn-147","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/the-left-turn-147\/","title":{"rendered":"The Left Turn"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Abby Hohlbein after a heat race win at Lawrenceburg Speedway. Photo credit USAC Thunder Midgets.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By: Ron Burt<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are some of the details regarding the restructured format for this year\u2019s Midget program for The Rumble in Fort Wayne, December 19th & 20th. They have been released to participating teams and they\u2019ve had positive reactions from drivers, teams and fans. Rather than two complete racing programs, with neither having a bearing on the other, this year\u2019s chase on the 1\/7-mile purpose built concrete oval inside Fort Wayne\u2019s Allen County War Memorial Coliseum Expo Center will see a progressive format, culminating with Saturday\u2019s Burco Molding Race to 100.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new design has the team\u2019s guessing. The new format will add a new element to the annual event, but it will be the same for everyone and exciting for the fans to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friday, December 19th it starts with single car qualifying runs, which will then split the field into odd\/even sets.  Each set will stage their own heat races and main event, with points accumulated from every position earned. Those points will then determine the starting line-ups for Saturday\u2019s heat races to finalize the 100-lap finale.  As an incentive, the top two finishers from each of Friday\u2019s 30-lap main events will automatically transfer to Saturday\u2019s 100 lap feature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jacob Denney 2025 Extreme Outlaw Midget Champion Photo Credit Jacob Denney Racing.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Saturday\u2019s feature will have two breaks built in after laps 35 and 70, before the final 30-lap shootout to determine the winner. Driver and team strategy will come into play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 While new in structure, the Race to 100 is a throwback of sorts to the days of racing on the adjoining Coliseum hockey rink floor. The idea was conceived by Randy Burrow (Noblesville, IN) who will be entering 3 cars into this year\u2019s Rumble. The change will be good, and it never hurts to stir the pot and go back to 100 laps of feature racing. Many things with cars have changed since the early days of the Rumble in Fort Wayne. Driver seats with head rests\/shoulder support or cars with power steering did not exist in the 1970\u2019s and 80\u2019s. It makes it a little easier for today\u2019s drivers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joining the Midgets over Dec. 19th and 20th weekend will be the non-winged and winged 600cc Midgets, multiple classes of Go-Karts, Quarter Midgets and Wedge Karts. I hope to announce some of the nationally known drivers that will participate in the coming issues before the Rumble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keeping on the subject of Midget racing, Toyota driver Jacob Denney wrapped up the Xtreme Outlaw Series title with his 11th win of the season at Millbridge Speedway Tuesday, November 4th, With the Xtreme crown, Denney becomes just the third driver ever to win two national midget championships in the same season joining Cannon McIntosh and Brad Kuhn. The Galloway OH driver started the season with a feature win and ended 2025 back in victory lane with the championship. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several drivers that compete in the USAC Thunder Midgets are doing well Nationally. I try to follow these drivers, and they are not only holding their own in big races, but they\u2019re also getting wins over established USAC drivers. One of the most improved USAC Thunder Midget drivers Abby Hohlbein this year was able to harness her skills and talent to her race car. She won heat races, set fast qualifying times and pushed her cars to the limit. Last June she even got a ride in an AMSOIL USAC Sprint Car and competed on the Eastern Storm Tour and raced against some of top racers in USAC. Not bad for a teen from Putnum County. Until next week, keep your wheels down. Ron out!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Ron Burt Here are some of the details regarding the restructured format for this year\u2019s Midget program for The<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":49528,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/LT-Abby-Hohlbein-after-a-heat-race-win-at-Lawrenceburg-Speedway.-Photo-credit-USAC-Thunder-Midgets.jpg?fit=666%2C515&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2YQd9-cSP","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-29 14:29:30","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49527"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49530,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49527\/revisions\/49530"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}