Dave Darland

Nine Racing Driver 1997-2004

Open wheel racing icon Dave Darland has made his mark on the USAC playing field, and with 25 USAC National Midget Series feature victories for Nine Racing so far to go with his numerous sprint car and Silver Crown feature wins, Dave is the winningest member in the team's history, which dates almost 30 years.

During his rewarding career with Nine Racing, the champ has notably won the "Hut Hundred" twice at the half-mile clay oval Terre Haute Action Track and twice won the Belleville Midget Nationals at historic Belleville High Banks, 'the world's fastest half-mile dirt track.' It comes as no surprise that Dave, who has often been labeled a dirt driver because of his abundant success on dirt, scored a breakthrough win for Toyota in May 2008 at Indiana's historic Kokomo Speedway, besting a star-studded field of midget cars to capture the 30-lap, open-competition Jack Hewitt Classic feature event. It was Toyota's first victory on a dirt racing surface, using a 166-ci in-line four-cylinder engine prepared by Ed Pink Racing Engines.

While wins on dirt seem to come naturally to Dave, he has proven more than capable of dominating the field on asphalt as well, evidenced by his victory at the 2007 Turkey Night Grand Prix, one of midget racing's touchstone events, held at pavement track Toyota Speedway at Irwindale. After taking the race lead on lap three, driving the Ed Pink Toyota-powered #9, he led the rest of the 98-lap race. It was Dave's first win at the prestigious annual race held on Thanksgiving night, and the moment he joined other Turkey Night legends like AJ Foyt, Parnelli Jones, Ron Shuman, and Stan Fox.

Dave started quarter-midget racing when he was four years old, and at age 16 he and his dad, who was always a race fan, built their first sprint car. Team owner Steve Lewis took notice of him after his success in USAC sprint car and Silver Crown events as well local area sprint car shows. An avid race fan himself, Dave had many racing role models growing up. Some of his heroes that raced before him, like Steve Kinser and Bob Kinser, were key influences, not to mention plenty of heroes who drove for Steve Lewis before Dave became part of the Nine Racing team in 1997.

Dave is drawn to this type of racing for the fun of it, because midgets need to be driven with a lot of throttle--and Dave likes to drive with the pedal to the metal. While Dave especially enjoys driving on dirt, he and the team have had much success on pavement. The veteran driver favors adrenaline-pumping, high-bank dirt track Eldora Speedway in Ohio; he's had success there and considers it a fun place to win races.