MERIDEN — The Silver City Quarter Midget Club racetrack had opening ceremony on Wednesday for the 2022 Eastern Grand National QMA race.
The club, located on Hanover Road, last hosted the Eastern Grands in 2014 and this year there are about 200 racers competing, Wendi Cordova, president of the Silver City Midget Club, said Wednesday.
“It’s a very exciting event for us,” Cordova said. “A lot of the kids here have not had the opportunity to experience a national event.”
A donation from NASCAR driver Joey Logano, who got his start at the Silver City Midget Club, helped fund improvements to the track last year. Logano paid for the re-grading and asphalt resurfacing of the track. It’s the first such work done on the track since 1975.
Logano and fellow NASCAR drivers Ryan Preece and Doug Coby attended the opening ceremony on Wednesday.
“This is really cool for a few reasons,” Logano said Wednesday. “The Eastern Grands were always a huge deal for us growing up … It was the one you wanted to win. The biggest one of the year.”
Logano, of Middletown, said he met his current teammate, Ryan Blaney, through quarter midget racing. He said the kids are out here to have fun, but it can grow into something much bigger.
Preece said racing creates a great place for kids to get out and be social together.
“A lot of our childhood memories were from here,” Preece said about the Silver City track.
Coby said seeing every generation of kids experience the Eastern Grands is important to him. Some of the biggest wins of his career were the Eastern Grands, Coby said.
Racers came to the track from around the country, including Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Washington, Montana, New York and Pennsylvania. Tony Membrino, of Wolcott, was at the ceremony with his step-son Payton Rose, 9.
Rose, who will be racing this week, said he is “excited to win.” Membrino said he used to race so coming back to the track as a parent is special to him.
“You make and maintain friends that last a lifetime,” Membrino said.
A quarter midget car is a one-fourth scale version of an actual midget racer. The cars are built around a tubular frame and unlike go karts have a full suspension, according to www.quartermidgets.org. The cars can reach speeds of around 45 mph.
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