SIDNEY, BC – Darrell Midgley and his race team were all smiles as they returned home to British Columbia after a pretty decent race weekend in The Golden State. At the inaugural Winter Showdown 250 at Kern County Raceway Park, Midgley finished thirteenth in his Northern Provincial Pipelines Ltd/Alien Race Cars #81 Dodge. Close to 60 pavement Late Model teams packed the pits at the Bakersfield, California race track from February 26th to March 1st. “The best of the best [in short track racing] were there,” acknowledges the Sidney, British Columbia driver, “we were pretty pleased with our performance. I think we exceeded our expectations.” With only 36 cars scheduled to start the $25,000 to win event, Midgley admitted early on that making the big show would be extremely tough. “We were right on the fringe for both of our practice sessions and for qualifying.” Midgley was 36th and 37th fastest in practice and qualified 34th. “We pulled out a ninth place finish in our heat which locked us into the big show. Just making it in was huge for us.”

Finishing 13th in the Winter Showdown was not without its challenges. “At the halfway point of the race we narrowly missed a big crash. The little bit of contact we had knocked out my rear brakes. We ran the last half of the race with only front brakes.” Midgley, who was the only Canadian to transfer to the Showdown, also ended up being the top finishing car out of the Northwest. “I’m pretty proud of my team for this.” Midgley will be back in California the first week of April to compete again. “We are going to be at Irwindale Speedway on April 11th to race in the NASCAR K & N Pro Series.”

Bakersfield, California

Spears SRL Southwest Tour Series
WINTER SHOWDOWN 250
>Sunday, March 1st
1.(2) #26 Bubba Pollard – Senoia, Georgia
2.(3) # 5 Dalton Sargeant – Boca Raton, Florida
3.(1) #43 Derek Thorn – Lakeport, California
4.(11)#21 Blain Rocha – Oakdale, California
5.(5) #26 Preston Peltier – Concord, North Carolina
6.(17)#11 Dustin Ash – Las Vegas, Nevada
7.(30)#12 Colby Potts – Stockton, California
8.(32)#99 Linny White – Colton, California
9.(26)#77 Toni McCray – Highland, California
10.(12)#89 Bobby Hodges – Carson City, Nevada
11.(13)#75 Jeremy Doss – Upper Lake, California
12.(27)# 8 Noah Gragson – Las Vegas, Nevada
13.(25)#81 Darrell Midgley – Sidney, British Columbia
14.(9) # 6 Dominic Ursetta – Arvada, Colorado
15.(35)#71 Christian McGhee – Ontario, California
16.(15)#29 Greg Voigt – Goleta, California
17.(7) #17 David Mayhew – Bakersfield, California
18.(22)#20 Tracy Bolin – Valley Springs, California
19.(6) #16 Jacob Gomes – Manteca, California
20.(14)# 5 Will Gallaher – Santa Rosa, California
21.(16)#19 Brandon White – Eureka, California
22.(20)#22 Jonathan Gomez – Buhl, Idaho
23.(24)# 6 Donny St. Ours – Arvada, Colorado
24.(31)#33 M.K. Kanke – Frazier Park, California
25.(29)# 5 Ryan Wells -Hingham, Montana
26.(33)#57 David Ross – Colton, California
27.(10)#22 Chris Eggleston – Thornton, Colorado
28.(19)#51 Carlos Vieria – Livingston, California
29.(4) #18 Jim Pettit – Prunedale, California
30.(21)# 7 Johnny White – Bakersfield, California
31.(8) #31 Jason Fraser – McKee, Washington
32.(23)#66 Darren Bucklen – Greeley, Colorado
33.(34)#34 Scott Walker – Prosser, Washington
34.(36)#37 Mike Longton – Yakima, Washington
35.(18)#05 Eric Schmidt – Roseville, California
36.(28)#37 Keith Spangler – Landera Ranch, California