SCRAFAN.COM - Press Release

KNOXVILLE, IOWA - Defending National Non-Winged Sprint Car Poll "Driver of the Year" Cory Kruseman of Ventura, Calif., has just joined forces with former "Owner of the Year" Keith Kunz for next Saturday's $4,000-to-win Pepsi/Mt. Dew Midget Championship at the Knoxville Raceway. The 'superteam' entry of Kruseman and Kunz,
each being a former winner of the Chili Bowl Midget Nationals race, came one day after the famed track received the entry of winged sprint car driver Ricky Logan of Little Rock, Ark. The versatile Logan, who started his career running NDRA dirt late models, ran the Troy Parsons' Iowa-based midget in this year's Chili Bowl midget championship in Tulsa, Okla.

The Keith Kunz Motorsports entry, a Stanton Mopar-powered Kunz chassis, is sponsored by Stanton Race Engines, Mopar, Kunz Race Cars and ASE. It has entered the tri-sanctioned event as affiliated with the North American Auto Racing Series (NAMARS) from Indianapolis, Indiana.Kunz received the 2000 "Owner of the Year" award for his non-winged sprint car efforts with Jay Drake that season, while Kruseman earned the "Driver of the Year" award in 2001 for his championship with Harlan Willis. Kruseman is also a veteran of U.S. and Australian midget wars.

The Ricky Logan/Troy Parsons Snyder-powered Twister midget car is sponsored by Parsons Concrete, Lucas Oil Products, and Advanced Building Contractors. It is the first entry for the 'Road to Belleville' event that is non-affiliated, as it does not regularly compete with either NAMARS, Badger Midget Auto Racing Association (BMARA), nor the
Midwest Auto Racing Association (MARA). Logan is a regular in the winged 410-cubic-inch sprint car division at Knoxville, and has already competed this year at the Western Springs Speedway in Auckland, New Zealand, in which he qualified for this year's Kele World Sprint Car Challenge.

The track has had indications recently that more non-affiliated midget car entries will be received in the next seven days from other veterans of the popular O'Reilly Auto Parts Chili Bowl Midget Nationals event, which is held every January in the Tulsa Expo Center. Any midget car which meets the common set of BMARA/NAMARS/MARA rules is eligible to compete in the $23,225 event. Knoxville Raceway officials are very pleased that many midget teams are using this event as a 'tune-up' for the early August Belleville Midget Nationals at the legendary Belleville High Banks in Kansas. Entries are posted at www.knoxvilleraceway.com.

In addition to the Pepsi/Mt. Dew Knoxville Midget Championship on Saturday, June 1, Knoxville's regular 410-c.i. sprint car racers will be in competition. That includes Ricky Logan, Terry McCarl, "Skip" Jackson, Kerry Madsen, Don Droud (Jr.), Brooke Tatnell, Larry Ball (Jr.), David Murcott, Travis Cram and over 25 other talented drivers. The Friday night, May 31, program will consist of the tenth annual Goodyear Masters Classic winged 360-c.i. sprint car races for drivers age fifty-plus, and midget car hot-laps. Among the competitors will be Masters champions Jerry Crabb of Iowa, Roger Rager of Minnesota, and Terry Pletch of Indiana, and Masters challengers Ken Lange, Johnny Parson (Jr.), Bill Utz, Larry "Smokey" Snellbaker, Shelby Steenson, Carl "Midge" Miller and Tommy Scott. The Friday and Saturday night race tickets are all general admission, although the track ticket office can be reached at 641-842-5431