December 27, 2013 — Audio and story by Jacob Seelman for Speed77 Radio and Race Chaser Online — Cover photo by Becky Mullins — FORT WAYNE, IN — One might say upon seeing Austin Nemire that he’s a driver who’s “knee-high to a grasshopper”.
And those same people would likely look at the young open-wheel driver when he says he’s driving midgets at this year’s Rumble in Fort Wayne and say, “You mean quarter-midgets, right?”
But the young driver who’s no stranger to the Rumble in Fort Wayne is dead serious when he responds, standing confidently in front of his white and blue #19 Focus midget on pit lane. The young Nemire is making his debut start this year in the full-size midget class after running in quarter midgets and karts in prior appearances at the Rumble.
“We’ve really just kind of worked our way up the ladder here at the Coliseum,” Nemire said on the pit lane. “We ran in the quarters a few years and scored several wins, and this year I’ve been getting adapted to the bigger cars, changing over to a higher-horsepower car. It’s been different, but I feel like I’m ready for this weekend.”
Keep in mind, this is coming from a young man who’s barely a teenager and will be competing against drivers this weekend who are two, three and in a couple of cases four times his age as he attempts to make the 14-car field on Friday and Saturday night.
When asked if that bothers him at all, Nemire just grins and shakes his head.
“It was a little intimidating at first thinking about it, but when you get behind the wheel, they’re just another car. So now, it doesn’t really bother me.”
Nemire has competed in the past at the Rumble in Fort Wayne, scoring a pair of victories in the Light 160 quarter-midget class in 2010 and victories in both the Light 160 and Senior Honda quarter midget classes in 2009. He says though, that his past successes don’t provide him with any leverage for this weekend.
“It’s completely different than anything I’ve ever done here before,” Nemire says of driving the Focus midget. “A lot of power and a slicker track than we’ve had here in the past.”
Despite the steep learning curve, though, the young driver is focused on one goal this weekend. Racing in the biggest A-feature of his budding career.
“The first step is to qualify for the main. If we can do that, then we’ll see what happens.”
Listen in as we took a few minutes to talk with Austin about his expectations for this year’s Rumble on opening day at War Memorial Coliseum:
