The Polar Ice/McAllan Motorsport Midget Team have just completed there brief but successful tour of the United States. With the team’s original goal of just making it into an “A” Main, all there goals were realised as the team qualified for 5 out of the 6 “A” Mains that they contested and for Dene’s efforts he was presented on 2 consecutive nights of Indiana Midget Week the “Hard Work Award”.

The team’s first race meeting was at Donnellson Iowa for a POWRI organised meeting on Friday the 5th of June. Dene started 6th in his heat and finished 4th, the feature starting 7th and finishing 6th .

The second race meeting was at Sun Prairie’s famous Angell Park Raceway for a BADGER organised meeting on Sunday the 7th June where approx. 28 cars time-trialled, Dene with a fast, smooth lap qualifying 5th. In his heat he started 6th and finished 3rd, putting him in a great starting position of 6th for the “A” Main. Dene’s Feature race ended when he banged the large cushion one to many times, damaging the mud cover on his right rear wheel, filling it with mud and with the associated vibration running through this car, Dene pulled to the infield.

With two days of rest the team travelled to Indiana’s Gas City Speedway for the first night of Indiana Midget Week.  A class field of 35 cars qualified on the super fast speedway, Dene putting in 12th fastest time.
In his heat, he started 4th, finishing 3rd transferring him straight into the “A” Main where he started out of position 10.  Dene reached as high as 5th position at one stage but whilst running 8th with only 2 laps remaining Kevin Swindell had a spin just in front of Dene which he had no chance of avoiding, Dene’s night ending with the right hand crash bar jammed hard against the right rear tyre, the team unable to fix in time before the restrart.

Night 2 of Midget Week was at Indiana’s North Vernon Speedway, where  unfortunately the night racing was rained out, so the team set fast time in the Transporter to another track a couple of hours in the opposite direction for a another nights racing only to find it also had been cancelled due to wet weather.

Night 3 was at the high banked Bloomington Speedway where Dene qualified again in 12th position out of 38 cars qualifying that evening. In his heat he started 4th where he needed to finish or better to get the automatic transfer to the “A” main, but unluckily finishing 5th. Having to finish 6th or better in the “B” main Dene finished 7th missing out by one position starting in the “A” main which is where the nights racing ended for the team.

Night 4 racing was at the unbelievably fast Lawrenceburg Speedway in Indiana.
28 Cars lined up for qualifying. Dene qualified 22nd setting the scene for a tough evening of furious high speed racing.  After starting 8th and finishing 6th in his heat, he had to run the “B” main to qualify for the “A”, and with a determined drive grabbed the last transfer position starting in 22nd position in the “A” Main.  He fought his way to approx 14th , when he hit the cushion in turn 4 spearing the car into the concrete wall deflating the right rear tyre, the team unable to fix in time before the restart.

The last and final night was at Kokomo Speedway, and what a fantastic night of Midget racing it was! 33 cars qualified, Dene in position 29. In his heat he started 7th and finished 6th. Once again having to battle hard through the “B” Main, which he did starting position 12th and with a superb aggressive drive finished 3rd, transferring him again to the “A” main. Starting out of position 12 Dene drove a great race to finish the “A” main in 12th position to the approval of his team & followers.
He again was awarded the Hard Work Award for the night!

Even though the team missed out finishing on the podium, the team Sponsors, Friends and Family that were present were over-joyed with the goals that were reached and exceeded during Midget Week,  hopefully carrying the experience gained for the upcoming 2009-2010 Australian Midget Season.
As the team were celebrating their successes of the week in the pits afterwards, Dene was approached by a Non-Wing Sprintcar Team offering him a drive in there high profile team. It was great to see that he was awarded for the fine drives he had put in throughout the week and now stays in America until September when he arrives back home for the up and coming Australian Speedcar Season.