Toyota driver Holley Hollan made history on Saturday night by matching the best-ever finish by a female driver in a national midget feature event with a second-place in the POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget League’s feature at Valley Speedway.
The 17-year-old matched the record set by former Keith Kunz Motorsports teammate Holly Shelton, who finished second at Valley Speedway a year ago, and Sarah McCune, who placed second on pavement at Winchester (Ind.) Speedway in 1999.
“Before the feature, they worked the bottom and I was able to use it to my advantage,” said Hollan, a Broken Arrow, Oklahoma native. “I started ninth and was up to third three laps in, then up to second on lap seven. I felt really good tonight. Once we got to second, every time I would get a run, it seemed that a caution would come out. All it would have taken was for him (winner Ace McCarthy) to make one mistake. I feel that was the best race I’ve run and the most patient.”
While Hollan was happy in matching the existing record, she still has her sights set a little higher.
“Holley Shelton set the standard high,” said Hollan. “I feel like we are closer to a win than we were a week ago. Hopefully, we can get our first win tomorrow at Humboldt Speedway.”
The race opened with pole-sitter Jake Neuman taking the lead with McCarthy running second, 15-year-old Hank Davis in third and Hollan jumping from ninth to fourth while running the low side. McCarthy moved past Neuman for the lead on lap two, with Hollan also going past her fellow Toyota driver Davis for third.
By lap seven, Hollan had gained another position and began to challenge McCarthy for the top spot with the leader running on the cushion, while Hollan continued to work the bottom.
A lap 10 caution would bunch the field and Hollan was ready to take advantage, moving past McCarthy for the top spot as they came to the starter’s stand on lap 11, but another caution would wave, reverting the field back to the running order from the previous lap.
From there on out, Hollan would contain to hound McCarthy throughout the 30-lap feature, but McCarthy began to take away the lower line in turns one and two, while moving high through three and four, not allowing Hollan to pull off a pass for the lead. The duo ran one-two for the final 24 laps.
Behind them, Andrew Felker would finish third, with Toyota drivers Zach Daum and Davis rounding out the top five. Fourteen-year-old Daison Pursley placed eighth, with Cannon McIntosh finishing ninth and Jesse Colwell was tenth to give Toyota six of the top-10 finishers. Both McIntosh and Colwell overcame early race incidents that had dropped them to the back of the field.
Logan Seavey, who was contesting the USAC feature in Nebraska remains the point leader, but Colwell has closed to within 140 points of the lead with Daum just 10 points further back.
The POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget League will head to Humboldt Speedway in Humboldt, Kansas, for a Sunday night feature at “The Bullring.”
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