Family & Fun Bring Withers Back To Fort Wayne Rumble

Blane Withers (Jacob Seelman photo)

FORT WAYNE, Ind. – Though the national midget class is the headliner at the Rumble in Fort Wayne presented by Jason Dietsch Trailer Sales, the quarter midget pit area could be considered the “foundation of family” that Indiana’s largest indoor race is built on.

Few teams embody that family atmosphere more than Cody Gallogly Motorsports, the operation which won back-to-back Must See Racing Midwest Lights crate sprint car championships in 2022 and 2023 and is now also fielding two quarter midgets for Blane Withers at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum.

Withers is Gallogly’s stepson and has routinely raced with the NASCAR Youth Series in quarter midget competition across the country over the past few years. He’s raced at the Rumble in Fort Wayne for more than a half decade, but returns this year with dreams of parking in victory lane for the first time.

“I definitely have some confidence in the car with how well we’ve run so far,” said Withers, who ranked inside the top five in all four of his practices and will compete in the Heavy 160 and Animal Combined classes throughout the weekend.

“I still need to work on my line a bit more – this track is so tricky with how much grip is in the rubber – but if I can get that figured out, I think we’ll be able to have a great weekend.”

Withers turns 14 on Monday and is getting into the twilight of his quarter midget career, with the discipline open to drivers up to 16 years of age. However, though he’s relatively new to racing at the Rumble, the teenager has attended the event numerous times when Gallogly has raced go-karts there.

It makes the Coliseum a place that is “so special” to Withers and his family.

Blane Withers' Heavy 160 car for the 26th Rumble in Fort Wayne. (Jacob Seelman photo)

“This building definitely means something to us,” he noted. “It’s about all the people that come here and do this for two days every winter; it’s about Larry [Boos, event promoter] putting it all together so we have a place to compete, and it’s about building the sport. There are 90 quarter midgets here … that’s the highest count here in a long, long time and it’s a big deal because these cars are how young drivers get started and we need it to stay healthy for the future.

“But for us, we just enjoy coming here as a family, getting to spend time together, and enjoy racing together. That’s really what the Rumble is all about, when you think about it.”

Withers noted the Animal Combined class, which is set to feature nearly 20 entries and is the largest quarter midget class by car count at the 26th annual Rumble, will likely be his toughest challenge.

“Since it’s Animal Combined, it features the juniors and seniors [age groups] and that should make it a lot of fun,” he said. “The way the track has changed so far, there’s a bit of a rubber cushion that you don’t want to slide into because you’ll get biked up and back out of the throttle way too much. Quarter midgets don’t have the horsepower that the midgets and micros do, so you really have to keep the car wound up to move forward.

“I’m excited though. As a driver, you don’t want it to be easy. [Winning] means more when you have to work for it.”

And what would a Rumble trophy mean to the Columbus, Ohio, young gun?

“It’d be everything,” Withers said with a smile. “I’ve been chasing this [racing] dream for so long and if I could do it this year, it’ll be a crazy celebration … that’s for sure.”

Live coverage of the 26th annual Rumble in Fort Wayne presented by Jason Dietsch Trailer Sales can be viewed through Pit Row TV, part of the SPEED SPORT Network. Streaming begins at 11:15 a.m. ET both Friday and Saturday and continues through the last checkered flag.

In addition to the headlining national midget division, winged and non-winged 600cc micro sprints, as well as numerous classes of go-karts and quarter midgets, round out the two-day program.