Will Circle City crown another first-time winner
(Aaron Skillman photo)
By Ken de la Bastide
The Kenyon Midget Series has visited the Circle City Raceway four times and there has never been a repeat winner on the quarter-mile dirt oval. In fact the Indianapolis track has produced first-time series winners in the last two visits by the United State Speed Association. Tanner Tecco won in the second visit to the track in 2023 and Jalen Cox emerged victorious in the first trip this year.
Jackson Macenko won at the track in 2021 and Aryton Houk was the winner in the first race there last year.
Current point leader Ryan Huggler has never finished outside the top ten at the track and has three KRJ Race Products heat wins at Circle City. “It's becoming one of my favorite tracks,” Huggler said. “The first time we went there I was awful. But after running some laps I have gotten better,” he said. “I could have finished better in the last race but I hit the tractor tire in the infield.”
Huggler said Circle City is a bigger version of the US24 track outside of Longansport the series used to visit. “Circle Circle is a uniform track,” he said.
Huggler said he didn't expect to be chasing points this year, but with the point lead after three races is keeping track of them. “The three races in Michigan will be important,” he said of the championship chase.
Buddy Hollmeyer has a second place finish this year and in 2023 came home in sixth and eighth place at Circle City.
Landon Brown is coming off his best performance at Anderson Speedway setting fast time during qualifying and finishing third. He finished eighth in the first trip to Circle City after making contact with one of the infield tractor tires. “We ran really good there until I hit a tractor tire,” Brown said. “We had a lot of speed and I love the challenge the track offers.”
Brown is currently leading the rookie of the year point standings and is second overall. “I'm figuring the car out a little bit,” he said. “Testing at Anderson helped and I think I have the Circle City track figured out.”
Rookie contender Trisdon Brown finished third at the first Circle City outing this season. It was Brown's first-time racing on dirt. “It's the only time I've raced on dirt so to finish third was a surprise,” he said. “Circle City is a track where you run the bottom, but you have to be willing to run some different lines. For the first time on dirt, it was a lot of fun,” Brown said. He is currently fourth in the overall point standings and trails Landon Brown by 19 points for the Redline Ace rookie of the year honors.
———————-
The Kenyon Midget Series races at Circle City Raceway on Friday August 9th.