A tradition will be continued this Friday and Saturday as the UMRA TQ Midgets will celebrate Independence Day weekend in style with races at the Rush County Fairgrounds in Rushville. Generation after generation in the Rushville area have only known one way to spend the Fourth of July and that has been watching the cars and stars of the UMRA challenge the famed fairgrounds track in a rough and tumble battle that features just as many fireworks as there will be in the sky later that night.

A name that is synonymous with the Rushville track is Tony Stewart. Rushville was the site of Stewart’s first UMRA feature win on July 14, 1989 and the 11th (and to date final) victory of his UMRA career on July 4, 1996 which was just over a month after he started from the pole position at the Indianapolis 500! Today connection between Rushville and Stewart can be seen in the street that leads into the track, Tony Stewart Drive.

While it was not as a driver, Tony Stewart was involved in the most recent Fourth of July UMRA race at Rushville in 2005. On that night Ron Combs, driving a car owned by Stewart, drove to a victory that would eventually help springboard the Greensburg driver to his second career UMRA championship.

It will be a great weekend of racing as on both Friday and Saturday the UMRA TQ Midgets will be joined on the card by the mini sprints. Last Saturday in their second Rushville appearance of 2009, Sara Elrod won in winged mini sprint competition for her second Rushville win of the year and veteran racer Stephanie Mockler took the checkered flag in non-winged mini sprint action.

As always the UMRA drivers will be going for some additional prizes. The trophy dash and feature winners will receive certificates from the Dutch Mill Buffet in Milroy. There will also be a “battle within the battle” in the feature as everyone will be going for the G&G Oil “Hard Charger of the Race” which will see five gallons of fuel go to the driver that advances the most positions in the feature. Last weekend at Rushville, Terry Goff took Friday honors by moving from 18th to 11th while on Saturday night Michael Koontz got the fuel by coming from 20th to 15th.

Can another UMRA weekend sweep be achieved like Patrick Wolf did last weekend at Rushville? Come to the track this weekend to find out! The gates open at 3 p.m. with practice is at 5:30 p.m., qualifying at 6:15 p.m. and the races at 7 p.m.