Shaw hoping to transition in Kenyon Midget Series

BJ Shaw stepping in to the JK Racing Kenyon Midget. (Aaron Skillman photo)

By Ken de la Bastide

With a six year history in kart racing, BJ Shaw is looking to make the transition into car racing with the Kenyon Midget Series. He started racing karts six years ago and last year ran the Formula 1600 series.

“When that season ended I was asked by Ayrton Houk's dad about racing in the Kenyon Midget Season,” he said.

Shaw said the biggest challenge was getting adjusted to just turning left and setting up the cars and learning to set up the cars for each track.

“I learned a lot over last year,” he said. “The one thing I noticed last year was how tight the competition was.”

“We ran his car for a few races and I had fun,” Shaw said. “I started at the (Indianapolis) Speedrome and what I was doing was being cautious and learning the car. I got up to speed very quickly.

At Anderson a year ago Shaw did a lazy rollover during the feature event, but continued to race and finished 12th.

“Anderson is one track where I'm looking for redemption because last year I got upside down,” Shaw laughs. “We had such a good car that day and I'm really excited to get back out there and compete.”

Shaw said he is looking forward to the dirt tracks on the schedule because he has never raced on the dirt before.

“That will be all new to me,” he said.

Shaw said the double header weekend in Michigan at Berlin and Kalamazoo are tracks he has never raced at before and is looking forward to the opportunity.

“My main goal is to do better than I did last year and get better at each race,” he said. “I want to get comfortable in the car and hopefully compete for a championship at the end of the year. I think that's a reasonable goal for me.”

Shaw, 18, attends University High School in Indianapolis and plans to attend Ball State University.