RECALIBRATING: ANDREOTTI RESETS HIS FOCUS FOR USAC MIDGET SWING
By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Speedway, Indiana (November 7, 2023)………During the November 2022 western swing for the USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship, one particular name resonated as a rising star in the sport based on his performance throughout the seven race slate.
Punctuated with a fourth-place run in the season finale at California’s Ventura Raceway resulted in Jake Andreotti earning Don Basile Rookie of the Race Honors for the Turkey Night Grand Prix and led to a chance to head east and compete on the USAC National trail in 2023 for car owner Tom Malloy.
The upstart USAC Western States Midget wheelman delivered in his first outing for the Malloy team, leading a lap and finishing as the runner-up on opening night in May at the Belleville (Kan.) Short Track. However, from there, success didn’t come as easy for the team as they collected just three more top-ten finishes in the ensuing 20 series starts.
The recent revelation of the team’s parting of ways has sent the Castro Valley, Calif. recalibrating. For the upcoming six-race November USAC Midget swing, Andreotti now finds himself back in the seat of the Pete Davis No. 00 in which he burst into the national consciousness a full calendar year ago.
“Tom (Malloy) gave me a call and told me they wanted to change to a one-car team,” Andreotti revealed. “In all racing ranks, it doesn’t matter what type of racing it is, everyone talks about chemistry. The chemistry just wasn’t there and it’s nothing against anybody, it’s something you’ve got to have.”
Despite it all, Andreotti’s confidence in his abilities remains undeterred and he estimates the experience has only made him a better overall driver based on the challenges of the competition he’s faced and the variety of tracks he was exposed to throughout 2023.
“After this past year, I feel like it’s made me a better driver and I’ve gotten to experience so many different track conditions and just so many different tracks,” Andreotti explained. “All the thanks in the world to Tom for giving me the opportunity to go out there and better myself.”
Yet, the west coast is his bread and butter, and he was able to display that he can compete on the national stage with a stellar list of performances late last year at Bakersfield, Placerville, Merced and Ventura. This year alone, in limited starts on off-weekends from the national trail, he ventured back home to California and has been impressive.
He won once and finished second in each of his two USAC West Coast Sprint Car starts in 2023. With the USAC Western States Midgets, he made three starts, winning twice and finishing as the runner-up in the other.
Andreotti chalks it up to the education he learned on the dirt classrooms across America with Malloy’s national team.
“With being out east, I saw the level that everyone else is on,” Andreotti observed. “It helped me as a driver this year being out there, and it helps me as a crew guy too to get the car all ready and relay everything back to Pete and my dad. I definitely learned so much that I can’t even put it into words. That’s a huge thing coming into this.”
Andreotti’s exploits on the western swing last season and his three USAC Western States outings this year came in a car owned by past series driver Pete Davis, a man which Andreotti described as “almost like a second father to me.”
“He saw something in me from the very first time we tested,” Andreotti revealed. “It was in a really old 2002 Stealth wide-body car, and because he saw a lot of potential in me, he went out and upgraded everything. He sees what I feel and that’s the biggest part to me.”
The culmination of the team’s efforts late last year produced a major feat for the USAC Western States Midget regular team. Not only was it a spirit-lifting performance to show that they could thrive against the national teams, but also a personal bit of pride to come from where they started to where they stood that very night at the Turkey Night Grand Prix.
“That was for sure the coolest race for me,” Andreotti remembered. “As a driver, you’re always wanting more and I was happy with a fourth and getting Rookie of the Race, don’t get me wrong, but we all thought we had a fighting chance there. We had a bleeder going down during one of the reds, so we pumped air into the right rear to try to keep it up and save me from blowing the tire. I finished off the race with 20 pounds of air in the tire. That hurt me there, but looking back, we feel like we had a winning car. Knowing that going into this year’s west coast swing, we know we can do it.”
Last year, Andreotti was merely hoping to run up front. But now seeing it first hand, he knows he can do it and he’s ready to attack the schedule of six races at four tracks in a span of 12 nights, especially after the foundation they’ve built leading up to this moment at venues that he described as “the tracks that kind of started my whole career last year.”
“The amount of time, the endless hours, and everything we put into that really showed,” Andreotti recalled. “But that’s what we’re doing all this week up until Tuesday. We’re constantly busting it to get everything situated and all set up. But a racecar is never ready. You just work on it until it’s time to race.”
Turning heads. That’s what Andreotti was doing at this time last year. He plans on doing the same this year in re-proving himself with a goal of returning to the national racing scene again in the near future.
“I’d love to go back east again,” Andreotti readily admitted. “Racing back there at all those different tracks is such an awesome scene; I saw and learned so much. That’s definitely the goal, but between Pete’s work and my dad’s work, they just can’t go back there. Definitely the whole goal is to hopefully turn some heads again out here. I know as a driver I can win back there. I have the confidence for it.”
2023 USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP REMAINING SCHEDULE:
Nov 14: Bakersfield Speedway - Bakersfield, CA – November Classic
Nov 17: Placerville Speedway - Placerville, CA – Hangtown 100
Nov 18: Placerville Speedway - Placerville, CA – Hangtown 100
Nov 21: Merced Speedway - Merced, CA
Nov 22: Merced Speedway - Merced, CA
Nov 25: Ventura Raceway - Ventura, CA – ARP Turkey Night Grand Prix
