TUCSON, AZ – Canada’s Darrell Midgley and Brandon Carlson raced hard and had good finishes in southern Arizona Saturday night. Midgley endured several punctured tires en-route to a 14th place finish at Tucson Speedway. Carlson, making his Team NPP debut, finished the Turkey Shoot 125 in 9th. Despite the tire setbacks for Midgley, the Sidney, British Columbia driver was happy with the way the new car ran in the race. “We kinda screwed up qualifying. We only got one lap because we were late getting into tech.” Midgley qualified 17th. “The second (qualifying) lap would have been a lot better. I don’t think we would have got fast time but we would definitely have started near the front.” Midgley’s charge to the front began at the drop of the green. By lap 40 the driver of the Northern Provincial Pipelines/Alien Race Cars #81 had gained nine spots and was running 8th. “We are really happy with this new car and how it was running.” On Lap 50 Midgley was running 7th while his team mate Brandon Carlson was running 6th.

“I saw the bright blue Mopar sticker in my rear view mirror,” admits Carlson, “he was coming on strong.” Carlson had never run Tucson Speedway before. “Darrell took me aside before the race and gave me some good pointers for this track.” Carlson qualified 13th. At the start of the race there was no hesitancy by Carlson to go three or sometimes four wide. By lap 8 the Victoria, British Columbia driver had cracked the top 10 quickly moving up to 8th. By lap 20 Carlson had made his way to 5th. On lap 41 Carlson moved into second and briefly engaged in a battle for the lead. “My car and Darrell’s car had identical setups. I didn’t hold back at all in this race.” The race was red flagged on lap 51 for a single car crash down the back straight. Both Carlson and Midgley saw a dramatic momentum shift after this incident. For Midgley, his charge to the front halted on Lap 81 when the BC driver came into contact with a lapped car. “When you are laps down you don’t race lead lap cars but that’s the way it goes I guess.” Midgley had his left front tire punctured. Carlson meanwhile started losing track position and was running 10th by Lap 100. “My goal was to finish in the top 10 in this race and I accomplished that.” Midgley meanwhile had two more tire issues before the checkered flag flew but still managed to salvage the race. “Its too bad we don’t race next weekend. This new car was fast tonight.”

>SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 25th
1. #22 Chris Eggleston – Erie, Colorado
2. #12 Bruce Yakey – Greeley, Colorado
3 # 9 Ron Norman – Davenport, Iowa
4. #22 Paul Banghart – Tucson, Arizona
5. # 6 Dane Jorgenson – Tucson, Arizona
6. #51 Sean Bray – Tucson, Arizona
7. #32 Brett Yakey – Greeley, Colorado
8. # 8 Mariah McGriff – Vail Arizona
9. #81 Brandon Carlson – Victoria, British Columbia
10.#20 Brandon Schilling – Tucson, Arizona
11.# 5 Trent Phillips – Hemmingford, Nebraska
12.#25 Brandon Farrington – Tucson, Arizona
13.#11 Matt Levin – Tucson, Arizona
14.#81 Darrell Midgley – Sidney, British Columbia
15.#09 Thane Alderman – Las Vegas, Nevada
16.#88 John Lashley – Tucson, Arizona
17.#31 Brian Pannone – Tucson, Arizona
18.#26 Dylan Jones – Tucson, Arizona
19.#97 Kody Vanderwal – LaSalle, Colorado
20.#39 Brian Harrington Jr. – Tucson, Arizona
21.#34 Rudy Vanderwal – LaSalle, Colorado
22.#10 Ron Searle Jr. – Tucson, Arizona
23.#31 Daryl Fischer – Tucson, Arizona
24.# 7 Ron Eaton – Tacoma, Washington