Williams, 72, wins Hard Charger award

J.R. Williams, the 72-year old professional midget racecar driver from Carson City, won the hard charger award at Irwindale Speedway on Saturday night.

"It's been a long, hard, tiring, but successful week and a half," Williams said. "We drove at Irwindale a week ago, started 13th and passed three cars to finish 10th. We drove back home on Sunday to prepare the car for this weekend, and to load the dirt car to race at the fair in Ventura on Thursday night where we finished ninth.

"From there it was over to Irwindale again where we started 14th and finished eighth which earned the Hard Charger Award. Also, we managed three top 10 finishes in as many starts."

When asked how a driver wins the award, Williams went on to say, "It's given to the driver who advances the most positions during the race, and by missing all of the spinouts and accidents I managed to pull up six spots.

"The nice thing about it is that you end up being interviewed on the front stretch and it gives you a chance to mention your sponsors. The announcers do it throughout the night, but the fans seem to pay more attention to it when the driver is saying it. So, it's sort of nice to be able to say something about those folks who have helped you out all season.

Carson Dodge Chrysler and Les Schwab Tires have been with me for years, but this season the nice folks over at Capital Cleaners have taken us on and they do a great job keeping my uniform looking good as well as sewing on the numerous patches that are required."

When asked how his season has been going, Williams replied, "So far it's been pretty good. I missed the first pavement race due to celebrating my 20th wedding anniversary, and then I missed the first dirt race due to a bad case of food poisoning, so that put us a little behind.

"I've also had a few fuel and brake genies that have cost me points, but right now I'm in eighth place in the dirt division and 10th in pavement. With any luck we'll finish in the top 10 in both dirt and pavement this season. We'll just have to keep working on it."