Nazareth: Midget preview

East Looks To Add To 2004 Success at Nazareth

Bobby East of Brownsburg, Ind. is the winningest USAC driver this season and is on his way to his first USAC National driving championship. He leads the USAC National Midget Car Series to Nazareth (Pa.) Speedway this week for the USAC "tripleheader" held in conjunction with the Indy Racing League's Firestone Indy 225.

East has won a dozen races in various USAC racing series and his lead in the National Midget Car Series stands at a comfortable 212 points! He has already chalked up series victories at Terre Haute, Ind., Rossburg, Ohio and Belleville, Kans. and added a "special event" triumph at Irwindale, Calif. His Terre Haute win came in the prestigious "Hut Hundred," while the Rossburg win came in the "Buckeye Nationals" and the Belleville win was in the "Belleville Midget Nationals."

East finished fourth in last year's Nazareth feature behind winner Dave Steele, who holds the 30-mile Nazareth race record, set last year. Ron Gregory set the 1-lap Midget qualifying standard of 135.808 mph drivers will aim at when Midget qualifying gets under way at 4:10 pm Friday. The 30-lap Midget feature is set for Saturday at 2 pm.

Steele won both the Midget and Sprint races at Nazareth in 2003 and returns to defend both titles. He has won feature events in all three USAC National racing series in each of the last four years.

Josh Wise currently ranks second in the 2004 National points. He also finished second in USAC's 2003 Western Midget Car final standings.

USAC NATIONAL MIDGET CAR SERIES STANDINGS
1.-Bobby East-929
2.-Josh Wise-717
3.-Tom Hessert-524
4.-Brad Kuhn-514
5.-Davey Ray-492
6.-Teddy Beach-482
7.-Dave Darland-464
8.-Ron Gregory-455
9.-Dave Steele-430
10.-Cole Carter-426

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