News

East Survives Indiana Midget Week

Brownsburg, Indiana (June 15, 2009) – After a tough week of racing at four of Indiana’s toughest dirt tracks in five nights, Bobby East is ready for the USAC National Midget Car Series to get back to the pavement. East, a proven winner on the dirt in some of USAC’s biggest and most prestigious events, fought numerous issues throughout the week but stays poised to start a march to the title once the series returns to the pavement at Iowa Speedway on June 19.

“It was a tough week,” East said. “We had some motor issues early in the week and it seemed like we were just about over the hump and we had a U-joint break at Kokomo. Our Ford motors are strong and we have a lot of confidence we’ve found what was giving us trouble. With that U-joint, we’re lucky it wasn’t any worse than it was. We knew all along that this would be one of the roughest stretches for us this year. But we also knew if we made it through and were in contact with the points leaders we’re going to be in the hunt. We have four pavement races in a row coming up and then the Belleville Nationals. Those usually some of our better tracks, so we’re really excited to get Indiana Midget Week behind us and move on to Iowa, Toledo, ORP and Anderson.”

East opened Indiana Midget Week with a solid tenth place finish in the Klatt Enterprises No. 4 Ford Racing Technology/Beast Chassis/ClubSport Esslinger Ford/Beast at the Gas City I-69 Speedway. Rain postponed Thursday’s event at Twin Cities Raceway Park, and East struggled with engine issues at Bloomington Speedway relegating him to a 24th-place finish. East recovered to finish eleventh at Lawrenceburg Speedway on Saturday night before the U-joint failure left East a disappointing 20th in the finale at Kokomo Speedway on Sunday.

East stands sixth in the USAC National Midget Car Series standings 134 points behind leader Brad Kuhn after 13 of 37 events.

The next USAC National Midget Car race for Bobby East comes up June 19 at the 7/8-mile Iowa Speedway followed by a return to the National Sprint Car Series at the 3/8-mile Kalamazoo Speedway on June 20. East also looks forward to USAC Silver Crown and National Sprint Car Series races at the ¾-mile Richmond International Raceway on June 26 and 27.