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USAC Midgets: The Week in Review/Preview

26 May 1998

Ricky Shelton of Huntington Beach, Calif. now leads two USAC Midget racing series as he tries to add to his 1996 USAC TQ Midget and 1997 USAC Western States Midget championships.

Shelton won Thursday night's National/16th Street event at the 16th Street Speedway in Indianapolis, Ind. in the Willoughby Keco/Stealth/Esslinger. That put the 20-year-old phenom atop both the National and 16th Street Series points. He trailed Critter Malone for the first 12 laps, then led the last 28 to beat Robby Flock, Michael Lang, Jimmy Sills and Donnie Beechler to the flag. Nine flips spiced the action but Roger McCluskey, Jr.'s broken arm was the only injury.

Tracy Hines was the fastest qualifier and won the Kelly's Pub Too "last call" semi.

Saturday night's scheduled 53rd Budweiser "Night Before the 500" classic at Indianapolis Raceway Park was rained out and run Sunday night. Dave Steele of Tampa, Fla. was the fastest qualifier, then took home the feature trophy in his Beast/ASE/Wynn's/PRI Pink Ford, leading the final 36 laps of the 50-lap race. Teammate Jason Leffler led the first 14 laps and finished second, ahead of Jay Drake, Ronnie Johncox and Shelton, whose point lead stands at 30 over Hines and Drake going into a June 13 race at 16th Street.

The weekly 16th Street Midget Series resumes this Saturday night with a 30-lap feature planned on the 1/4-mile dirt oval, while the Indianapolis Speedrome's weekly Midget Series resumes Thursday night with a 50-lapper on tap.

National Midget Standings: 1-Ricky Shelton-200; 2-Tracy Hines-170; 3-Jay Drake-170; 4-Jason Leffler-164; 5-Jimmy McCune-138; 6-Ronnie Johncox-117; 7-Jerry Coons, Jr.-117; 8-Dave Steele-104; 9-Ted Hines-92; 10-Chris Shultz-82. 16th Street Midget Standings: 1-Ricky Shelton-60; 2-Donnie Beechler-55; 3-Critter Malone-54; 4-Andy Pierce-51; 5-Michael Lang-49; 6-Roy Caruthers-47; 7-Jeff Hampton-41; 8-Jerry Coons, Jr.-35; 9-Jay Drake & Tracy Hines-34..

Speedrome Midget Standings: 1-John Sluss-1,000; 2-Dean Franklin-500; 3-David Fuhrman-250; 4-Brad Kuhn-200; 5-Jerry McPherson-180; 6-Shelby Howard III-160; 7-Gregg Cory-140; 8-J.D. Nash-130; 9-Dave Coffman-120; 10-Daryl Campbell-110.