East Finds Right Direction

Midget car racing enthusiast Steve Lewis has made a career of finding talented young drivers, putting them in one of his midgets and watching as they move up to NASCAR or the Indianapolis 500.

His latest gem is Bobby East, 19, who this year became the youngest driver to win a U.S. Auto Club midget championship, following in the footsteps of other Lewis discoveries such as Kasey Kahne, Tony Stewart, Jason Leffler and Ryan Newman.

Lewis, a Laguna Beach publisher-trade show promoter, says East is as far along for his age as Kahne was when he left open-wheel racing to drive in NASCAR’s Busch series in 2002. Kahne was named Nextel Cup rookie of the year Tuesday.

East, along with 2002 Winston Cup champion Stewart, will be one of the favorites tonight when the U.S. Auto Club closes its season with the 74th annual Turkey Night Midget Grand Prix at Irwindale Speedway. East warmed up for Irwindale by sweeping the midget and sprint car main events during Old Pueblo Classic last week at Tucson Raceway Park. He will also drive in tonight’s sprint car event.

Stewart, who won the Turkey Night race in 2000, entered cars for himself and Josh Wise of Riverside, runner-up to East in USAC midget standings.

Lewis did not have to look far for East. East’s father, Bob, a former California Racing Assn. driver, builds the Beast midgets that Lewis campaigns. East has driven for Lewis since he was 16 and in 2001 won the main event at Schererville, Ind., to become the youngest winner of a USAC main event in any division.

The Brownsburg, Ind., youngster won eight midget car, six sprint car and one Silver Crown race this year, but his finest moment probably came when he was just short of picking up a $50,000 bonus last March in the Mopar Twin 25s at Irwindale. East won the first race handily, which meant he had to start last in the second one. If he could work his way through the field to win, it would pay 50 grand.

East passed seven cars on the first lap and was 13th when the second lap was completed. As he worked his way past one car after another, pole-sitter Thomas Meseraull was pulling away from the pack and had a straightaway lead by the time East was second. It was too much to overcome, but East kept the capacity crowd on its feet as he charged through lapped traffic in the final four laps only to fall short.

“Yeah, a yellow flag would have done it for me,” East said. “At least there won’t be an inverted start Turkey Night.”