Austin Beers named to top 100 in 2020 Short Track Draft

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For 17-year old Austin Beers, his stock keeps rising as an aspiring prospect in short track racing.

The past three seasons have been very productive for the Northampton second generation driver, with successive championships coming in Hobby Stocks and Sportsman Modifieds between Mahoning Valley Speedway and Evergreen Raceway.

Top that off with his career first Modified win in 2019 along with some very strong outings to boot and it made sense why he was chosen to the top 100 in the Speed51.com 2020 Short Track Draft.

Beers was named to the ballot which was then completed by more than 50 short track insiders, including media members, team and driver development professionals, track and series promoters and officials, product and industry representatives, NASCAR National Series drivers, crew members, short track racing veterans and more.

The voters could select as few as 10 and as many as 51 drivers on their ballot, ranked in order that they would choose the drivers to compete for their driver development team in the top levels of the sport.

Speed51 used a scientific equation that factored in total number of votes, quality votes, first-place votes, top-five votes and top-10 votes in order to determine the top 100 picks in the 2020 Short Track Draft.

Beers was among 300 prospective candidates from across the nation. They all must be 25-years of age or younger in order to be eligible.

Beers was the second highest among asphalt Modified drivers on the list. Ronnie Williams took that honor, placing 31st on the list. The top pick went to Sam Mayer, the defending ARCA Menards Series East champion.

“I think it’s just amazing. I’ve know about it for some time and when I won my Hobby Stock championship I was really hoping to make the list and now just a couple years later here I am on it,” said Beers.

The son of northeast asphalt Modified standout Eric Beers, he has been racing and winning since an early age, starting with Quarter Midgets. He then began racing stock cars beginning with Jr. Enduro’s and progressed up to Hobby Stocks, Sportsman Modifieds and last year full Modifieds, successfully wining in each of those divisions.

Last season he joined his dad and Jack Ely as teammates on the DeLange Racing Team to compete on the Sunoco Race of Champions Tour. Ely also was on the list of 300 but did not make the final cut of 100.

“It’s really cool for him because just to get nominated and be on the ballot, that in itself is special when you’re talking about the whole country from one end to the other,” said dad Eric.

“There’s so many good guys on their too from all types of oval racing then to make the top 100 is awesome and to be 63rd and the second highest (asphalt) Modified guy is unbelievable. I’d say he’s definitely impressing the right people.”

Beers’ 2020 plans will again see him racing at selected high profile Modified events at Mahoning Valley and Evergreen and will assume the seat of his dad in the potent DeLange No. 45 on the RoC Tour.

Evergreen Speedway PR

Speedway Digest Staff
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