Chris Windom and his Windom Motorsports sprint car team are taking the weekend off from racing with USAC to head to two of Indiana’s most challenging racing facilities, Gas City/I-69 Speedway and Kokomo Speedway, for their weekly programs.
While USAC runs Iowa Speedway in Newton, Iowa, on Saturday, 16-year-old Windom is too young to compete at that track this year. All participants racing in the USAC divisions need to be at least 18 years old to race at that particular facility. With the highly competitive USAC National Sprint Car Series filled with other aggressive, young drivers, missing a race for any reason becomes critical as the season progresses and points are being tallied.
“Not racing in Iowa this weekend definitely will hurt us in the point standings for “Rookie of the Year, ” Windom explained. “I’m really disappointed that we’re not allowed to race at Iowa Speedway this year, because I’ve heard it’s a really great track. But the rules are the rules, and there’s not much we can do about them. We’ll just have to try to do the best we can at the remaining USAC races and see how things play out the rest of the year. I feel confident we can make up for anything that’s happened this early in the year during the remaining races. ”
Bad luck and bizarre circumstances have plagued the Windom Motorsports team in the opening rounds of the 2007 season. Mechanical issues, bad qualifying draws and crashes that are no fault of the driver have dictated a slower start to the season than the team - or anyone else - expected. But the hard, cold results do not indicate everything. The crew is not looking at the past, but only toward the future, as each situation was not the fault of anyone on the team - they all know that their driver has all the potential to win every time he straps into the car.
