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Kansas Teen takes on POWRi National Series in 2019

In 2019 Overland Park, Kansas, Racer Luke Howard will challenge for ROY in the POWRi National Midget Series. The 15 year-old Driver who started in racing at age 5, will be behind the wheel racing for Chad Shields Racing out of Independence, Missouri, with primary sponsorship from The Fuel House, as well as Nading Industrial and, Staco Electric among others.

Young Howard has been racing full size midgets since age 12, and won his first midget race at Valley Speedway in 2017. The driver also known as “Cool Hand Luke”, and “Lightning” has been working for this opportunity since 2010 racing and winning in Karts on both dirt and pavement, as well as Junior Sprints, Micros, and Midgets. In 2016 Luke won ROY of the year in three different classes including the “A” class Micros, and non-wing at Sweet Springs, Mo., as well as the midget division at Valley Speedway.

Driving for his father Trevor, while under the tutelage of Richard and Riley Kreisel, Luke did a solid job running The Kreisel’s old Ecotec midget in 2016 prompting Trevor to buy Luke a new midget for the 2017 season. With their new Boss/Esslinger Luke became the youngest winner in the Midgets at Valley at age 13. Howard would win the Weld Memorial for midgets at seasons end as well on his way to a second place finish in the final standings to Dustin Gilbert. In 2018 the Howard’s also bought a sprint car as well for “Cool Hand Luke” but spread themselves a little thin running both to promising, but mixed results.

Chad Shields, a veteran of over 20 years of racing experience entered the midget ranks in 2018 racing primarily a 8 year old car with driver Chase Porter, a competitor of Luke’s in the micro ranks. With his older midget Shields won once with Porter, and another time when the salty veteran drove himself beating 2018 POWRi WAR Sprint Champ Riley Kreisel to the checkered flag at Valley. By the end of the season Shields had received 2 brand new chassis’s to race in the midget ranks from Mike Dicely, the mechanical guru behind “Hyper” Micros.

The first car to hit the track for this new combination came at the end of the 2018 season once again at Valley with 2018 Gas City Sprint Champ Clinton Boyles behind the wheel. And the second time at the Chili Bowl when Riley Kreisel and Brian Beebe drove Shields state of the art Hyper Machines. After winning one of the semi features on Saturday in Tulsa, OK with Kreisel, Shields struck a deal to race with the Howard’s for 2019 to run between 35-40 times in POWRi National, West and Valley Outlaw Competition.

The team was further strengthened when 2012 POWRi National Midget Champ Andrew Felker was added to CSR with young Howard. The cars debuted at the Turnpike Challenge in Oklahoma in March where both Howard and Felker drove the new shorter wheel based Hyper cars with plenty of torque to promising results. Combatants including former midget national champs Tucker Klaasmeyer, Logan Sivey, and Christopher Bell, were on hand among the over 50 entered. Felker would manage a top 10, and Howard made his way up to the B feature during the 4 day event in the brand new concept cars. And will continue their assault on POWRi Competition throughout the 2019 campaign racing for Chad Shields Racing.

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