The pinnacle of Midget Racing in the US is the USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget Series, and 16-Year-Old Will Armitage showed he was ready for the big stage this past weekend at the 6th Running of the Shamrock Classic.
Having only made his first career National Midget start at the Chili Bowl Nationals a short time ago, Armitage knew the USAC event would be a massive challenge for himself, but was still confident in his abilities heading into Friday night.
“Going into the weekend I expected a good run out of myself.” Armitage said. “But there were a lot of things to put together in a short period of time for a National race like the Shamrock.”
The weekend began with Hot Laps on Friday, and Armitage struggled with a tight racecar and an extremely slippery Southern Illinois Center track surface. The lack of effective laps at speed meant the 57A RAB Racing crew would go into the night’s heat races essentially blind as far as the car’s handling.
Will lined up 6th in his Friday heat race, and immediately powered around the outside of 5th starting Ryan Timms, who then slowed on the exit of turn two to bring out the first caution. Timms then moved to the rear of the field, and Armitage grabbed his 5th starting spot for the ensuing double-file restart. When the green flag dropped, the Athens, IL native stuck the bottom of turns 3 and 4 and rocketed into 4th place in front of Zach Boden and behind Jerry Coons Jr. For the remainder of the heat, Armitage hounded Coons for 3rd, but eventually had to defend from a hard charging Ryan Timms, and held on for a 6th to 4th run which locked the Bill Ecker owned 57A team into the night’s A Main.
“Friday night we struggled early but found our stride in the heat race, allowing us to transfer to the A Main.” Armitage said. “It felt great to lock in straight out of the heat, but once the feature started we caught a string of bad luck that we couldn’t control.”
Several incidents that Will had no control over and a minor parts failure were the high(low)lights in his first career USAC A Main start. However, the 57A team now knew the speed was there, and planned to capitalize on that pace on Saturday’s $10,000 to win finale night.
Saturday’s format changed the usual heat races to “Qualifiers” which lined up based on cumulative passing points from Friday’s events. Will found himself starting 3rd in the fourth and final qualifier of the night.
Passing Kendall Ruble on the initial getaway, Armitage began hounding Matt Lux’s machine for the lead, with a hard charging Justin Grant in his rearview mirror. Then, Grant made a huge dive to the inside of Lux in a bid to go 3rd to 1st, and Armitage followed the RMS Racing 2J through and momentarily grabbed the lead from the current USAC National Midget point leader. Grant would retake the lead from Will, and the two set a blistering pace out front. Grant took the qualifier victory, with Armitage finishing a strong 2nd. Once again locking into the night’s A Feature.
“Saturday I went in with a lot of confidence after knowing we could have been better with some luck.” Will stated. “Running in that heat race right behind JG [Justin Grant] I knew we found something.”
The Saturday night feature went much better for Armitage and the 57A team. An up and down race saw the 16 year old driver rise as high as 7th and as low as 16th, but a stout car and solid attacking through traffic saw the RAB Racing machine move up the order against some tough competition time and time again.
“Once the feature started we were battling with Jerry Coons Jr. for a while,” Armitage said. “But once I got around him I got run over coming into turn one, which basically ruined any chance we had at a Top 5 finish.”
The youngster from Athens eventually crossed the line in 10th position, marking Will’s first career USAC National Series Top 10 finish in only his second start.
“All in all, I can’t thank Bill Ecker, RAB Racing and my entire crew for their efforts. We proved a lot this weekend.” Armitage said about his weekend in Du Quoin. “Huge shout out to XKGLOW and Armitage Collision Repair for coming on specifically for the Shamrock Classic, it was definitely one to remember!”
Will Armitage Racing looks to the upcoming Illinois racing season for their next events. Stay tuned for schedule updates on Will’s social media channels.
A full 2022 schedule for Will Armitage Racing will be released in the coming weeks.
Will Armitage would like to thank his 2022 partners for their continued support!
XKGlow
Armitage Collision Repair
Alliance Community Bank
Meteer Manufacturing
Gillmore Allen Insurance
Box3 Media
You can follow Will's 2022 campaign on his social media! You can find Will Armitage Racing on Facebook at Will Armitage Racing (group), Twitter at @armitage_will7 and on Instagram at @will_armitage_7. You can also follow his PR with Box3 Media on Facebook, @box3_media on Instagram, and @box3_racing on Twitter.
357Studios Photo
Commentaires