Thursday, November 28, 2019

Turkey Night Postponed to Friday


Via USAC Media

Ventura, California (November 28, 2019).........Overnight rain mixed with a heavy downpour around 10am Pacific time on Thursday has forced postponement of the 79th running of the Turkey Night Grand Prix to Friday, November 29, at California's Ventura Raceway.

The famed event will feature season finales for the USAC NOS Energy Drink National/Western States Midgets plus the USAC West Coast/VRA Sprint Cars.

On Friday, the same schedule is in effect. Pits open at 11am Pacific with the drivers meeting taking place at 2:45pm, grandstands opening at 3pm, hot laps at 3:15pm, immediately followed by qualifying and racing events.

All tickets that are not reserved are $35. Reserved seats are $45 for ages 13 and older and $20 for ages 12 and under. Pit passes are $50 each.

This marks just the sixth occasion during the USAC era, 1956-present, that the Turkey Night Grand Prix has not been run on Thanksgiving night. It's been 36 years since the last time it occurred back in 1983, when it was run on Friday. Other similar occurrences came in 1965 when it was run on Saturday of the same weekend, in 1973 when it was contested on Friday, in 1975 on Sunday and in 1981 when it was held nine days later on Saturday of the following weekend, the only time the race has been held in December during the USAC era.

Kyle Larson (Elk Grove, Calif.) is the lone former Turkey Night Grand Prix midget winner (2012 & 2016) entered for the prestigious event. Red Bluff, California's Jesse Colwell was the fastest of the 59 cars that took part in Wednesday night's midget practice session.

Tyler Courtney (Indianapolis, Ind.) was victorious in Wednesday night's sprint dash. Lemoore, California's Carson Macedo is the reigning winner of last year's sprint feature.

All the racing action at Ventura can be watched live and on-demand on FloRacing and listened to live via the USAC app. Follow along with live timing and scoring on both the USAC app and the Race-Monitor app.