FORT WAYNE, Ind. — The side of Cory Setser’s No. 24 Setser Transport/Hunt Performance Munchkin midget affectionately says “Munchkin World” in homage of famed car builder and chassis specialist Mike Fedorcak, who created the Munchkin brand.
Friday during opening day of the 19th annual Rumble in Fort Wayne, Setser turned the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum into “Munchkin World” after scoring his first-career Rumble Racing Series Quick Time Award in two-lap time trials.
Setser turned a blistering lap of 8.130 seconds (73.801 mph) on his second of two timed laps to notch top qualifying honors one year after he finished second in the opening night A-Feature.
The combination of recent events has the Fort Wayne native confident about his chances of keeping the big trophy right in town at the end of 50 laps on Friday night.
“This has been a long time coming,” Setser said after qualifying. “The chassis has always been there, we’ve just fought oil leaks or mechanical failures … whatever it happened to be on any given day. Every time we’d fix something, something else would go wrong.”
“Tonight though, even after it wouldn’t work right yesterday … we’ve found something, I think. This is the best car I think I’ve ever had here. Hopefully we’ve got the solution and we can keep things going tonight, because this is pretty cool to do this tonight.”
Joltin’ Joe Ligouri timed in second-fastest in the neon-orange No. 8up Jacobs-Pontiac (8.197/73.198), followed by three-time fast qualifier Brandon Knupp, two-time Rumble winner Russ Gamester and young gun Nick Hamilton.
Rex Norris III, Justin Peck, Cap Henry, Travis Welpott and Billy Wease completed the top 10 qualifiers.
National Midget heat races will take the green flag at approximately 7 p.m.
Audio with fast qualifier Cory Setser:
