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Broken Arrow Oklahoma's Donnie Ray Crawford will be heading west, driving for Keith Kunz @ Manzanita Speedway on Feb. 9-10 during the "Copper" USAC sanctioned event.
Crawford is a third generation driver. His grandfather Ray Crawford, is a former super modified champion from the Tulsa Speedway running against another former champion in Emmett Hahn as his nemesis. Father Donnie Crawford, won numerous tracks championships at Tulsa in both 100 inch 'dirt champ cars' and 410 winged sprint cars.
Donnie Ray was a 5th place finisher in the recently completed 21st annual Chili Bowl Nationals in his first time EVER in a full midget. He finished 4th in his Wednesday night qualifier which locked him automatically into Saturday's finale. Prior to the Chili Bowl, Donnie Ray had ran an ASCS 360 winged sprint car for 3 nights at the end of the 2006 season. His background is in various micro sprint cars, mostly running at Port City Raceway in Catoosa, Oklahoma. Two other young gunners from Port City Raceway include:
Brady Bacon (who is currently under contract with Chip Ganassi): Bacon will be running sprints and midgets for the Kasey Kahne Racing team in various events in 2007 under the "Ganassi Development Program."
Dustin Morgan: (who is currently running for Jeff Walker) will race in various USAC sprint and midget events for 2007.
Kunz' plans for Crawford is to 'test' him at Perris Auto Speedway in both the sprint and midget cars prior to heading for Manzanita Speedway where the focus will be in the midget division. Word is that if the tests should go really well, Kunz will then decide if Crawford will run the sprint car at Perris and/or Manzanita.
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