DUQUOIN, Ill. – Past Shamrock Classic winners Justin Grant and Cannon McIntosh are among the latest entries for the fifth annual NOS Energy Drink USAC National Midget Series event on March 7 at the Southern Illinois Center.
The list of competitors for this year’s Shamrock Classic has grown to 33, with more entries continuing to be filed for the race at the sixth-mile indoor dirt oval.
Competitors can enter the Shamrock Classic presented by Dooling Machine Products Midget event at this link until Thursday, March 5 at noon ET.
After that deadline, entries for the midget division will increase to $100.
Early entry is highly suggested as officials prepare to set heat race lineups with a draft, similar to those used previously at DuQuoin’s Junior Knepper 55 in 2018 and the 2019 BC39 at the IMS Dirt Track.
Grant, the 2017 Shamrock winner, will pilot a car for RAMS Racing, with whom he captured a victory one year ago during the Indiana Midget Week round at Gas City I-69 Speedway.
Reigning Shamrock victor McIntosh will compete as one of four entries from the Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports team, alongside five-time series winner Zeb Wise and standout Rookie of the Year contenders Buddy Kofoid and Daison Pursley.
Additional entries come from Hayward Motorsports and drivers Tanner Thorson and Gage Rucker. Thorson, the 2016 USAC National Midget Series champion, was victorious in the 2020 season opener at Bubba Raceway Park in Ocala, Fla., in early February.
Petry Motorsports has filed Shamrock Classic entries for Kevin Thomas Jr., who scored the team’s first two triumphs with the series in 2019 at Kokomo (Ind.) Speedway and Arizona Speedway, and Tanner Carrick, the 2017 USAC National Midget Rookie of the Year and last year’s USAC Most Improved Driver.
Collinsville, Oklahoma’s Tyler Thomas, a winner in both AMSOIL USAC National Sprint Car and NOS Energy Drink USAC National Midget competition during his career, will drive his familiar No. 91T, entered by Brian Thomas.
Earlier entries for the Shamrock including reigning series champion Tyler Courtney, also a past victor in USAC midget competition at the sixth-mile indoor dirt oval. Courtney captured the non-points special event Junior Knepper 55 in December of 2016.
Brady Bacon, the 2014 and 2016 AMSOIL USAC National Sprint Car Series champion, is undefeated thus far in USAC national features in 2020, sweeping both nights in an AMSOIL USAC National Sprint Car at Bubba Raceway Park in Ocala, Fla. in mid-February.
Bacon is one of just two drivers to have started in the feature event of all four previous editions of the Shamrock Classic, with fourth place finishes in both 2016 and 2017 serving as his best.
Chris Windom leads the NOS Energy Drink USAC National Midget Series standings entering the event following a victory on the second night of the Winter Dirt Games in Ocala.
The 2016 USAC Silver Crown and 2017 National Sprint Car champion took ninth in his first career Shamrock Classic start a year ago.
Among the other early Shamrock Classic midget entries include reigning NOS Energy Drink USAC National Midget Rookie of the Year Andrew Layser, who comes into the event off his best career series result of third in Ocala.
Layser finished eighth in his Shamrock debut in 2019.
Tyler Nelson, a USAC Regional Midget winner at Gas City (Ind.) I-69 Speedway in 2019 and a Shamrock Classic starter in 2018, is entered as well.
Nelson will be joined by last year’s USAC Western States Midget titlist Robert Dalby, five-time USAC Western States Midget champion Ronnie Gardner and 2017 USAC Gulf Coast Midget champion Kyle Jones, all of whom are vying for their first Shamrock Classic starts.
To view the full Shamrock Classic entry list, advance to the next page.