Following on from his strong start to the tour that saw him take two wins and a second in his first three meetings, Pickens headed into one of the biggest challenges of his career to date, the infamous USAC Indiana Midget week.
 
The series within a series runs annually with five meetings across five nights at five different tracks all within the state of Indiana, with each meeting running a 30-lap feature race.
 
Pickens was again running the #29 Polar Ice/BSL Racing backed, Jack Berry Owned, Breka Esslinger, however he didn’t get off to the best of starts at I-69 speedway in Gas City when he was 19th fastest in time trials. After winning his heat race, Pickens was in a good position until current New Zealand Midget Champion Jerry Coons Jr. got turned around in front of Pickens and the resulting pile-up meant his race was run. The incident was described rather bluntly by one spectator, who said “Coons got spun and a guy ran over Pickens and then landed on the back of him”.
 
With the crew fixing the car overnight, Pickens headed to Lincoln Park Speedway in Putnamville and it was another tough meeting for the Kiwi, qualifying 27th and being forced to take his spot in the feature race via a sixth place finish in the B-main. He battled to 12th position in the feature race but with four laps to go got caught up in a racing incident and had to start from the rear ultimately finishing 20th.
 
Things started to turn in Pickens’ favor at the third show of the week, held at Bloomington speedway in the town by the same name. Despite a tough qualifying session that saw him set 25th fastest time and eventually start the feature race from 22nd, but one of the drives of the race saw Pickens move up 14 places to eighth.
 
Lawrenceburg speedway hosted the penultimate meeting of Indiana midget week and having recorded his best result in qualifying to date on the big high banked 3/8 mile dirt oval, 12th, went on to win his heat race. He then made a storming run in the feature to second place, only beaten to the flag by current USAC champion Bryan Clauson, a visitor to the international midget series at Western Springs over the last season.
 
Pickens and his team made the final stop of the five-night tour at Kokomo Speedway, in Kokomo. A third fastest time in qualifying had the team off to a good start and was backed up with a third place finish in his heat race. Pickens kept in touch throughout the entire feature race and with only two laps to go made his move, jumping into a lead he held onto until the chequered flag fell, his second career win in USAC competition. The result also allowed Pickens to claim fifth place for the week-long series.
 
Pickens USA tour ended with the last two races at Macon Speedway in Illinois and at Angell Park Speedway in Wisconsin, rained out. A huge thanks to all who have made this USA tour possible, without the help from various different people this wouldn’t have been the success it was!

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