Darland to compete at Powercom Park

Darland Joins Drivers Doing "Double Duty" at Beaver Dam
Yeley's Might Be Next Hat in The Ring!

Dave Darland of Lincoln, Ind. is the latest driver to be entered for both ends of this Saturday's USAC "doubleheader" at the Raceway
Powercom Park in Beaver Dam, Wisc.

It's been six years since USAC raced at the track and this will be only the third USAC Sprint/Midget "doubleheader" ever in the Badger State! In 1982 Ken Schrader swept both ends of a Sprint/Midget program at Beaver Dam and in 1997 Jimmy McCune (Midgets) and Dave Steele (Sprints) were the winners at Madison International Raceway in Oregon, Wisc.

Darland joins Josh Wise, Tony Elliott and Tom Hessert as "double duty' drivers for this weekend's Beaver Dam program, while defending USAC Triple Crown Champion J.J. Yeley has secured a Sprint car ride and is hoping to compete in both ends too.

Saturday's program is USAC's 150th Sprint/Midget "doubleheader" since it began in 1956. Drivers have been able to score "sweeps" on only 18 occasions and Darland and Yeley are among the 13 drivers who have accomplished the feat. The last to do it was Dave Steele at Nazareth, Pa. last year. The last to do it on dirt (it's happened 10 times) was Yeley at Fremont, Ohio in 2002.

A pair of 30-lap feature events are on tap at the 1/3-mile dirt oval, with practice at 1:30 pm, qualifying at 3 and racing at 4.

Drake, Wise and Elliott are all coming off impressive victories within the past year. Wise won last year's "Belleville Midget Nationals" at Belleville, Kansas, while Elliott won last October's "Western World Open" Sprint race in Arizona. Drake won Sunday's USAC Valvoline National Sprint Car opener at Anderson, Ind., beating five-time "Little 500" champion Eric Gordon to the flag.

--USAC--