Du Quoin, Illinois -- A boat load of wintertime talent will compete for Jason Leffler Memorial gold this Saturday night, December 18, as USAC Midgets go indoors for a non-points, special event – the $8,000-to-win Jason Leffler Memorial Presented by Fatheadz Eyewear at the Southern Illinois Center in Du Quoin.

Among the near 40 entries expected to compete are inaugural Jason Leffler Memorial winner Zach Daum (Pocahontas, Ill.), who captured the race back in 2013.  The lone past event winner will compete for veteran car owner Jack Harris.

Also entered for Saturday’s race is 2013 USAC National Midget champion Christopher Bell (Norman, Okla.), a wintertime Southern Illinois Center midget winner in 2017.  The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series winner for Joe Gibbs at Daytona’s Road Course will make his debut for RMS Racing, who won in December at Du Quoin in 2018.

Three-time USAC National Midget feature winner Cannon McIntosh (Bixby, Okla.) won his very first at the Southern Illinois Center in March of 2019.  Joining him on the Dave Mac Motorsports team for the weekend is Mitchel Moles (Raisin City, Calif.), who recently earned Rookie of the Race honors with a 3rd place finish at the Turkey Night Grand Prix in Ventura, Calif.

NASCAR’s Cup Series Rookie of the Year for 2021, Chase Briscoe (Mitchell, Ind.), has previous midget experience in December at the Southern Illinois Center, but Saturday night, in his Briscoe Racing ride, would mark his first career Jason Leffler Memorial appearance.

Daniel Robinson (Ewing, Ill.) is the most recent midget winner at the Southern Illinois Center, reigning triumphant in September at “The Center.”  He’ll race for car owner A.J. Felker in Saturday night’s round.

Making their first Southern Illinois Center appearances are west coast racers Cory Eliason and Chance Crum for Rudeen Racing.  Eliason (Visalia, Calif.) has finished second in the All Star Circuit of Champions Sprint Car standings in each of the last two years and nearly pulled off a USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget victory in his first series start at Arizona Speedway in November.  He’s joined by Rudeen teammate and three-time 2021 USAC Midwest Regional Midget feature winner, Crum (Snohomish, Wash.).

The USAC Midget Special Event welcomes the 8th running of the Jason Leffler Memorial presented by Fatheadz Eyewear indoors for the first-time ever on the 1/5-mile dirt oval.  The previous seven editions of the $8,000-to-win event have taken place at Wayne County Speedway in Wayne City, Ill.

VIDEO: Watch highlights from the 2020 Shamrock Classic inside the Southern Illinois Center. 

Saturday’s lineup presents a complete program for Midgets with pits opening at 10am Central, pill draw at 11:30am, the drivers meeting at 2:30pm, hot laps at 3pm and opening ceremonies at 5pm with racing to follow, utilizing a format similar to the Chili Bowl with drivers accumulating points based on their advancement and finishing position during the heats and qualifying races, which will seed the starting lineup for the 50-lap feature.

Indoor pit stall rentals for midgets are $40 each (10’ x 10’ stall) which can be reserved until December 8 by messaging the Jason Leffler Memorial Race Facebook page.

Micro sprint preliminary events will take place the night before, on Friday, December 17, at the Southern Illinois Center, featuring Winged Outlaws, Non-Wing Outlaws, A Class (Wing), Restrictors and Junior Sprints with hot laps, heat races and semi-features while all main events will be held on Saturday.

On Friday, pits open at 10am Central with pill draw at noon, the drivers meeting at 4pm, hot laps at 4:30pm and racing to follow.

The thrills of midget racing on a dirt bullring in southern Illinois remain unchanged with the event’s new venue.  The Leffler Memorial has featured seven different winners in its previous seven editions.  Since the dawn of the event in 2013, a new winner has emerged on each and every occasion.

The event honors the life and memory of Leffler, the four-time USAC National driving champion (1997-98-99 Midget & 1998 Silver Crown) who lost his life in a sprint car accident at New Jersey’s Bridgeport Speedway in June of 2013.

Ten previous USAC-sanctioned midget events have been held at the Southern Illinois Center, including four in recent years during the month of December.  Those wintertime classics were won by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (2015), Tyler Courtney (2016), Christopher Bell (2017) and Thomas Meseraull (2018).

Saturday night’s Jason Leffler Memorial can be watched LIVE on FloRacing at https://bit.ly/3frPoW6.

Tickets for the Jason Leffler Memorial Presented by Fatheadz Eyewear are now on sale at https://sneed-motorsports-llc.ticketleap.com/.

JASON LEFFLER MEMORIAL ENTRY LIST:

08 Cannon McIntosh

08B Austin Barnhill

08m Mitchel Moles

3 Joel Thorpe

3N Jake Neuman

4A Dillon Silverman

4F Chad Frewaldt

5 Chase Briscoe

5K Jordan Kinser

5o Chase Howard

6D Don Dawson

7 Cody Beard

7XT Christopher Bell

11 Kayla Roell

14R Jody Rosenboom

15 R.J. Corson

15c Carter Chevalier

20 Derek Doerr

23 Patrick Lawson

26 Cory Eliason

26R Chance Crum

28Q Sean Quinn

35 Tyler Robbins

37 Daniel Robinson

38 Braydon Cromwell

41 Oliver Akard

51 Will Armitage

53 Sean Robbins

55 Chuck Walker

56 Garrett Thomas

56x Mark Chisholm

72 Sam Johnson

77s Travis Berryhill

81 Rylan Gray

88 Terry Babb

91 Zach Daum

 JASON LEFFLER MEMORIAL WINNERS:

2013: Zach Daum (8/28)

2014: Daryn Pittman (8/26)

2015: Bryan Clauson (10/23)

2016: Brady Bacon (10/20)

2018: Tyler Thomas (10/21)

2019: Tyler Courtney (10/17)

2020: Tanner Thorson (10/9)