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The United States Auto Club (USAC) is one of the sanctioning bodies of auto racing in the United States. From 1956 to 1979, USAC sanctioned the United States National Championship, and from 1956 to 1997 the organization sanctioned the Indianapolis 500. Today, USAC serves as the sanctioning body for a number of racing series, including the Silver Crown Series, National Sprint Cars, National Midgets, Speed2 Midget Series, .25 Midget Series, Stadium Super Trucks, and Pirelli World Challenge. Seven-time USAC champion Levi Jones is USAC's Competition Director.



Grant Palace: JG Sprints to Port Royal USAC Eastern Storm Score

INDY RACING

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media


 

Port Royal, Pennsylvania (June 17, 2023)………Leading up to Saturday night’s event at Port Royal (Pa.) Speedway, Justin Grant felt he was getting right back to where he needed to be in the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship hunt.


 

After a unsavory trend of five finishes of 13th or worse in a six-race stretch that reached from early May and endured into the beginning of USAC Eastern Storm earlier this week, Grant settled in with a ship-steadying third place result on Thursday at Big Diamond followed by a fourth on Friday at Williams Grove.


 

On Saturday, during the penultimate round of Eastern Storm at Port Royal’s half-mile dirt oval, Grant came full circle back to victory lane for the first time in more than six weeks in his TOPP Motorsports/NOS Energy Drink – Bow Foundation – TOPP Industries/Maxim/Kistler Chevy.


 

“It feels like forever since we won a race,” Grant exclaimed. “I had a blast running against the wall; that’s my jam. I was happy up there, but I think I bent the wheel up with two to go there and it was shaking. But it was good to bring it home.”


 

For the Ione, Calif. native, it was his fourth career Eastern Storm score and the 37th overall in his USAC National Sprint Car career, tying him for 11th all-time alongside fellow series champions Robert Ballou and Sheldon Kinser.


 

Grant’s latest triumph also came during a momentous occasion with it being the 2,000th USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship event ever held dating back to the organization’s infancy in 1956.


 

Rolling off third on the grid, Grant gave chase to early race frontrunners Emerson Axsom and Brady Bacon. Axsom, winner of the two most recent series races at Big Diamond and Williams Grove, jetted out to the initial lead from the pole position and was gunning to become the first driver to win three consecutive Eastern Storm features since Robert Ballou in 2015.


 

By lap four, Axsom had already positioned himself as the commander by a 1.369 second margin. Meanwhile, Grant was in hot pursuit and ably powered past Bacon for the second spot on the bottom of turns three and four on lap five.


 

From there on, Grant began inching his way forward toward Axsom, gradually sneaking up on the race leader, and eventually, had stripped his deficit to within a second as the race neared the halfway mark of the 30-lap venture. Axsom's lead shrank even further moments later, to a mere two car lengths with Grant reeling him in on the high side while Axsom occupied the middle groove.


 

On lap 16, Grant propelled himself into the race lead, utilizing the top side to fly around the outside of Axsom for the top spot in the narrow alley between Axsom’s right side wheels and the outside wall at the exit of turn four.


 

Axsom didn’t burn out nor did he fade away in the ensuing aftermath after dropping to second in the pecking order. On a restart following the stoppage of first time USAC National Sprint car feature starter and 19th running Ed Aikin on lap 18, Axsom caught his second wind and made a resurgence at the forefront of the pack.


 

On the lap 18 restart, Axsom used the bottom/middle byways to advance past the high-riding Grant in turn two and retake the spot. The two waged an epic side-by-side battle that lasted the duration of two entire laps around The Speed Palace with Axsom in front before Grant picked his way back past Axsom to reclaim his place at the top of the leaderboard with a back straight pass that led him to the stripe a mere half car length ahead of Axsom at the conclusion of lap 20.


 

Grant’s resurgence came by the virtue of a bit of patience, at least initially, and later paid its share of dividends when Grant needed something to get ahold of in the final stanza.


 

“We finally got the top cleaned off up there,” Grant noted. “I was riding around, and just kept looking, waiting for it to clean up to where we could get up there right against the wall.”


 

Riding clean rather than dirty, Grant began to edge away from Axsom, building his interval to three-quarters of a second with the checkered flag finally within his reach. Grant grasped the warm embrace of victory for the third time overall during the 2023 USAC National Sprint Car season by a 0.841 second margin with Axsom second, Daison Pursley third, Bacon fourth and Chase Stockon fifth.


 

Additionally, the Port Royal round had a bit of an extra incentive for Grant as it was round five of the Bubby Jones Master of Goin’ Faster Presented By Spire Sports + Entertainment event, a 10-race series honoring Grant’s father-in-law, and a series in which he is the defending champion.


 

“These races are all about big racetracks and about sacking up and getting it done,” Grant explained of the miniseries. “We’ve been terrible; I don’t think we’ve even finished one so far this year. To get in victory lane for the family and everybody is awesome and I’m just grateful.”


 

Axsom’s second place result in his Clauson Marshall Newman Racing/Driven2SaveLives – ZMax Race Lubricants/Spike/Kistler Chevy essentially locked up the Eastern Storm title for the Franklin, Ind. racer who now owns a 31-point advantage entering Sunday’s finale at Kutztown, Pennsylvania’s Action Track USA.  With Sunday’s event being an appearance points only event, all Axsom must do is push off for hot laps and the title is all his. Axsom’s Eastern Storm record thus far has been impeccable with a pair of wins at Big Diamond and Williams Grove, plus runner-up finishes at both Grandview and now Port Royal.


 

For Daison Pursley (Locust Grove, Okla.), it was yet another stirring, hard-charging effort, one that moved him up to second in the Eastern Storm points in his KO Motorsports/Hutson John Deere – S & C Machine – Peterbilt/Flea RC/J & D Chevy. Pursley’s charge on this evening in his debut Port Royal run took him from 10th to 3rd in the main event. Earlier in the evening, the recent high school grad set fast time during Honest Abe Roofing Qualifying and also won the semi-feature, setting a new 10-lap track record in the process of 3:39.34.


 

 
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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: June 17, 2023 – Port Royal Speedway – Port Royal, Pennsylvania – 1/2-Mile Dirt Track – 16th Eastern Storm – Open Wheel Madness


 

HONEST ABE ROOFING/LAUVER’S CONCESSIONS QUALIFYING: 1. Daison Pursley, 5p, KO-18.834; 2. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-18.960; 3. Jake Swanson, 21AZ, Team AZ-18.979; 4. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-19.074; 5. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-19.079; 6. Matt Mitchell, 37, Mitchell-19.090; 7. Emerson Axsom, 47BC, Clauson Marshall Newman-19.175; 8. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-19.181; 9. Chase Stockon, 5s, KO-19.256; 10. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-19.298; 11. Charles Davis Jr., 47, Davis-19.301; 12. Logan Seavey, 2B, 2B Racing-19.305; 13. Kyle Cummins, 3R, Rock Steady-19.388; 14. Carson Garrett, 15, BGE Dougherty-19.416; 15. Steven Drevicki, 19, DeGre-19.446; 16. Mario Clouser, 6, Clouser-19.455; 17. C.J. Leary, 15x, BGE Dougherty-19.465; 18. Max Adams, 17GP, Dutcher-19.550; 19. Shane Cottle, 74x, Hodges-19.552; 20. Matt Westfall, 33m, Marshall-19.561; 21. Tom Harris, 84, Harris-19.765; 22. Kevin Thomas Jr., 2x, 2B Racing-19.805; 23. Alex Bright, 27, Heffner/Hummer-19.830; 24. Preston Lattomus, 23B, Lattomus-19.892; 25. Ed Aikin, 7, Aikin-20.119; 26. Joey Amantea, 88J, Amantea-20.145; 27. Jason Cherry, 67c, Cherry-NT.


 

SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Kyle Cummins, 2. Briggs Danner, 3. Mario Clouser, 4. Emerson Axsom, 5. Robert Ballou, 6. Daison Pursley, 7. Ed Aikin, 8. Kevin Thomas Jr., 9. Shane Cottle. 2:38.14


 

ROD END SUPPLY SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. C.J. Leary, 2. Carson Garrett, 3. Brady Bacon, 4. Mitchel Moles, 5. Justin Grant, 6. Matt Westfall, 7. Charles Davis Jr., 8. Joey Amantea, 9. Alex Bright. 2:44.77


 

T.J. FORGED / CAR IQ THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Steven Drevicki, 2. Max Adams, 3. Chase Stockon, 4. Jake Swanson, 5. Logan Seavey, 6. Tom Harris, 7. Matt Mitchell, 8. Preston Lattomus. 2:49.15


 

ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (10 laps, top-7 transfer to the feature) 1. Daison Pursley, 2. Matt Westfall, 3. Alex Bright, 4. Charles Davis Jr., 5. Preston Lattomus, 6. Ed Aikin, 7. Kevin Thomas Jr., 8. Tom Harris, 9. Joey Amantea, 10. Matt Mitchell. 3:39.34 (New Track Record)


 

FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Justin Grant (3), 2. Emerson Axsom (2), 3. Daison Pursley (10), 4. Brady Bacon (1), 5. Chase Stockon (11), 6. Steven Drevicki (8), 7. Kyle Cummins (7), 8. Mitchel Moles (6), 9. Jake Swanson (5), 10. Briggs Danner (12), 11. Matt Westfall (18), 12. Robert Ballou (4), 13. Logan Seavey (14), 14. Carson Garrett (15), 15. Charles Davis Jr. (13), 16. Kevin Thomas Jr. (19), 17. C.J. Leary (9), 18. Mario Clouser (16), 19. Preston Lattomus (21), 20. Max Adams (17), 21. Ed Aikin (22), 22. Alex Bright (20). NT


 

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-15 Emerson Axsom, Laps 16-17 Justin Grant, Laps 18-19 Emerson Axsom, Laps 20-30 Justin Grant.


 

USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Emerson Axsom-933, 2-Jake Swanson-902, 3-Kyle Cummins-877, 4-Justin Grant-876, 5-Brady Bacon-857, 6-C.J. Leary-828, 7-Mitchel Moles-777, 8-Chase Stockon-743, 9-Daison Pursley-740, 10-Robert Ballou-677.


 

USAC EASTERN STORM POINTS: 1-Emerson Axsom-299, 2-Daison Pursley-268, 3-Justin Grant-264, 4-Jake Swanson-242, 5-Kyle Cummins-212, 6-Briggs Danner-211, 7-Chase Stockon-209, 8-Thomas Meseraull-205, 9-Robert Ballou-202, 10-Mitchel Moles-198.


 

BUBBY JONES MASTER OF GOIN’ FASTER PRESENTED BY SPIRE SPORTS + ENTERTAINMENT POINTS: 1-Jake Swanson-342, 2-Mitchel Moles-337, 3-Emerson Axsom-331, 4-C.J. Leary-305, 5-Brady Bacon-299, 6-Kyle Cummins-284, 7-Daison Pursley-283, 8-Chase Stockon-259 9-Justin Grant-254, 10-Matt Westfall-223.


 

OVERALL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Daison Pursley-97, 2-Logan Seavey-54, 3-Chase Stockon-52, 4-Justin Grant-50, 5-Matt Westfall-42, 6-Carson Garrett-38, 7-Thomas Meseraull-37, 8-Bryant Wiedeman-35, 9-Brady Bacon-34, 10-Emerson Axsom-33.


 

NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: June 18, 2023 – Action Track USA – Kutztown, Pennsylvania – 1/4-Mile Dirt Track – 16th Eastern Storm


 

 

CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:


 

Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Driver: Mitchel Moles (18.786)


 

Honest Abe Roofing / Lauver’s Concessions Fast Qualifier: Daison Pursley (18.834)


 

Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner: Kyle Cummins


 

Rod End Supply Second Heat Winner: C.J. Leary


 

T.J. Forged / Car IQ Third Heat Winner: Steven Drevicki


 

Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Semi Winner: Daison Pursley


 

Hard Charger: Daison Pursley (10th to 3rd)

 


Back for More: Axsom Gets Another USAC Eastern Storm Score at The Grove

Dave Dellinger

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media


 

Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania (June 16, 2023)………Once you pop, you can’t stop.


 

The old Pringles ad campaign very well may apply to the trend Emerson Axsom finds himself on following his second consecutive USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship feature win on Friday night during the third event of the 16th edition of USAC Eastern Storm at Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania’s Williams Grove Speedway.


 

After finding victory lane for the first time this season during the 12th event of the series’ campaign on Thursday at Big Diamond Speedway, it took just 24 more hours for the Franklin, Ind. native to score again in his Clauson Marshall Racing/Driven2SaveLives – ZMax Race Lubricants/Spike/Kistler Chevy.


 

This time, Axsom’s fifth career USAC National Sprint Car main event triumph came at the half-mile dirt oval known as The Grove, tying him for 85th on the all-time series win list alongside Larry Cannon, Dana Carter, Derek Davidson, Gene Lee Gibson, Jeff Gordon, Chuck Gurney, Shane Hmiel, Kevin Huntley, Frankie Kerr, Kelly Kinser, Eddie Leavitt, Jim Mahoney, Andy Michner, Johnny Parsons, Bill Puterbaugh, Jake Swanson, Tanner Thorson and Cole Whitt.


 

“It’s pretty cool to win here,” Axsom exclaimed. “It’s a pretty historic place and it’s pretty gnarly. I’m just glad to get it done tonight.”


 

In turn, Axsom’s victory pushed his Eastern Storm point lead to 25 following finishes of second, first and first in his initial three outings this weekend. Furthermore, the win propelled Axsom past Jake Swanson and into the overall USAC National Sprint Car point lead for the first time since February of 2022.


 

Starting outside the front row, in the early going, Axsom was on the constant chase of pole sitter and versatile veteran racer Timmy Buckwalter. Axsom took a peek to the inside of Buckwalter for the top spot twice on laps four and five, narrowly missing the lead by a car length each time at the start/finish line before slotting back into line and continuing his quest.


 

Axsom found himself in the hunt along with a bevy of USAC East Coast Sprint Car talent as the race neared the midway point, running second with a slew of Pennsylvanians surrounding him – Buckwalter (Douglassville) running first with Briggs Danner (Allentown) third and Alex Bright (Collegeville) fourth as each of the trio looked to become the first Keystone State native to capture a USAC National Sprint Car feature victory since Frankie Kerr in 1999.


 

However, one key piece in the triumvirate, fourth-running Bright, soon found trouble in a spectacular incident that lit up the nighttime sky. Bright spun in turn two, doing a complete 360-degree spin with his front wheels pointed to the clouds as he stood on the throttle in an attempt to save it.


 

However, just as Bright got pointed himself in the right direction, sixth place Robert Ballou plowed into the back of Bright, punching a sizable hole in Bright’s tail tank, causing a waterfall of methanol to gush out and ignite flames that enveloped the back end of the car. Knowing where the fire and rescue teams were located, Bright made the heady move to drive to turn one and stop directly in front of them where the crew extinguished the flames as Bright jumped out and escaped.


 

The incident necessitated a red flag, and knocked a trio of contenders out of contention, ending Bright and Ballou’s evenings completely while stifling Brady Bacon’s race as he spun to a stop to avoid the initial catastrophe. After running seventh, Bacon was forced to start at the tail of the field before driving back to a 13th place result.


 

Sitting second following the lap 13 restart, Axsom made a commitment that would ultimately take him to the front.


 

“This place isn’t really my style,” Axsom admitted. “We were really good on the bottom, but tonight, we were a little bit free. When I was running the bottom, I felt myself hanging a little bit. I told myself I had to get up and bang the curb or use something to lean on; there wasn’t a whole lot. I watched Mitchel (Moles) run the top down in turns three and four, then pull it back down in one and two, so I figured it was going to be like that for a while. I just waited until someone showed me that in one and two when it smoothed out, because earlier, it was really rough.  Once it cleaned off, and got a bit smoother, I was able to carry my momentum.”


 

Indeed, it worked out for Axsom. On lap 17, he rode the high line and eked out the move by squeezing between Buckwalter and the outside turn four guardrail to take over the race lead. In the ensuing laps, Axsom broke out to a 1.7 second lead and seemed well in command with only 10 circuits remaining in the 30-lapper.


 

Enter Daison Pursley. In his first Williams Grove appearance, the 14th place starting driver had hustled his way to the front, swiping second from Buckwalter with an outside maneuver in turn four on the 23rd lap to grab second. Pursley was hauling but had nearly two full seconds of ground to make up with the sands in the hourglass nearing emptiness.


 

However, Pursley gave it all it’s worth, cutting three tenths off Axsom’s advantage on lap 25 and another six tenths off on lap 26 to close to within a second. Another two tenths were shaved off on lap 27, and by lap 28, Pursley was right on Axsom’s rear bumper and contesting for the win, which immediately got Axsom’s full attention.


 

“Honestly, I was riding and looking a bit over my left shoulder,” Axsom explained. “I didn’t know if it was 25 laps or 30, but once I saw it was 30, I figured I better get back up on the wheel just in case somebody got a run. Luckily, I did because I saw Daison make an attempt into three there.”


 

On the final lap, four car lengths separated the two recent high school graduates of Axsom and Pursley as they hustled down the back straightaway. With one bullet left in the chamber, Pursley drove himself into turn three deeper than any other individual had all night, pulling his front wheels even with Axsom’s rear axle. Axsom successfully staved off the pressure and smoothly contoured turns three and four to defeat Pursley by two car lengths and a margin of 0.238 sec. Buckwalter grabbed third, Justin Grant fourth and Thomas Meseraull fifth.


 

In his victory, Axsom became the first driver to win two-straight USAC Eastern Storm features on consecutive nights since Chris Windom in 2018. Windom used those victories to propel himself to the Eastern Storm title. It’s a feat Axsom would love to repeat now that he stands atop the points following finishes of second, first and first during the first three rounds.


 

Additionally, Axsom scored his first career victory in a Bubby Jones Master of Goin’ Faster Presented By Spire Sports + Entertainment feature event, a feat he chalks up to getting a bit more comfortable on the bigger, higher speed tracks that make up the bulk of the 10-race miniseries schedule, including Friday’s fourth round at Williams Grove.


 

“A lot of times, at these Master of Goin’ Faster races, we’re not very good just because they’re half-miles or really technical places that the veterans would be good at,” Axsom said. “Last year, we struggled at a lot of those tracks.  Here recently, it seems we have a better handle on them. Everything’s kind of working out, and we’ve been in the right position the past couple of nights to get it done. So, we’re going to try to keep that ball rolling.”


 

Daison Pursley (Locust Grove, Okla.) started 14th and charged all the way to a runner-up result just a couple car lengths behind Axsom at the line. That's Pursley's best career finish in a USAC National Sprint Car points race in his KO Motorsports/Hutson John Deere – S & C Machine – Peterbilt/Flea RC/J & D Chevy.  Pursley won a non-points special event with USAC this past February at Florida’s Volusia Speedway Park.


 

Timmy Buckwalter (Douglassville, Pa.) also notched his best career USAC National Sprint Car finish, scoring a third, besting his previous best career performance with the series, a fourth place run on Tuesday at Grandview Speedway in his Lotier-Hummer Motorsports/Rodota Trucking & Excavating – The Bagel Rack/Triple X/Rider Chevy. The 2018 USAC National Sprint Car co-Rookie of the Year led a race-high 16 laps and also collected a bonus from Gene Franckowiak for leading lap seven of the feature in memory of Bryan Clauson.


 

Three brand new USAC National Sprint Car track records were set on Friday night at Williams Grove. In Honest Abe Qualifying, Thomas Meseraull lowered the former one-lap mark set by Kevin Thomas Jr. in 2018. Meseraull’s run of 19.016 seconds was his first fast time with the series since August of 2020 at Kokomo (Ind.) Speedway.


 

In heat race action, Brady Bacon surpassed Jerry Coons Jr.’s five-year-old eight-lap record by three seconds with a time of 2:39.14. In the 12-lap Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts semi-feature, Mitchel Moles surpassed one of the longest held records in the USAC history books. Moles’ time of 4:14.26 wiped out Tom Bigelow’s longstanding time for the distance of 4:51.11, set nearly 50 years ago in 1973.


 

 
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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: June 16, 2023 – Williams Grove Speedway – Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania – 1/2-Mile Dirt Track – 16th Eastern Storm


 

HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Thomas Meseraull, 20, Dyson-19.016 (New Track Record); 2. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-19.252; 3. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-19.281; 4. Alex Bright, 27, Heffner-19.284; 5. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-19.299; 6. Matt Mitchell, 37, Mitchell-19.305; 7. Emerson Axsom, 47BC, Clauson Marshall-19.316; 8. Chase Stockon, 5s, KO-19.385; 9. Timmy Buckwalter, 20T, Lotier/Hummer-19.397; 10. Daison Pursley, 5p, KO-19.412; 11. Kevin Thomas Jr., 2x, 2B Racing-19.420; 12. Logan Seavey, 2B, 2B Racing-19.443; 13. Carson Garrett, 15, BGE Dougherty-19.483; 14. Max Adams, 17GP, Dutcher-19.489; 15. Jake Swanson, 21AZ, Team AZ-19.558; 16. Kyle Cummins, 3R, Rock Steady-19.578; 17. Tom Harris, 84, Harris-19.584; 18. Charles Davis Jr., 47, Davis-19.656; 19. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-19.735; 20. Mario Clouser, 6, Clouser-19.736; 21. C.J. Leary, 15x, BGE Dougherty-19.754; 22. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-19.769; 23. Shane Cottle, 74x, Hodges-19.795; 24. Preston Lattomus, 23B, Lattomus-19.907; 25. Steven Drevicki, 19, DeGre-19.957; 26. Matt Westfall, 33m, Marshall-19.975; 27. Anton Hernandez, 5, Baldwin/Fox-20.053; 28. Kyle Moody, 5x, Baldwin/Fox-20.154; 29. Joey Amantea, 88J, Amantea-20.172; 30. Jason Cherry, 67c, Cherry-21.324; 31. Dave Axton, 2, Axton-NT.


 

SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. C.J. Leary, 2. Timmy Buckwalter, 3. Thomas Meseraull, 4. Briggs Danner, 5. Joey Amantea, 6. Steven Drevicki, 7. Carson Garrett, 8. Tom Harris. NT


 

ROD END SUPPLY SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Brady Bacon, 2. Charles Davis Jr., 3. Justin Grant, 4. Max Adams, 5. Matt Mitchell, 6. Matt Westfall, 7. Daison Pursley, 8. Jason Cherry. 2:39.14 (New Track Record)


 

T.J. FORGED THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Robert Ballou, 2. Jake Swanson, 3. Shane Cottle, 4. Emerson Axsom, 5. Mitchel Moles, 6. Kevin Thomas Jr., 7. Anton Hernandez. 2:41.70


 

CAR IQ FOURTH HEAT: (8 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Mario Clouser, 2. Alex Bright, 3. Kyle Cummins, 4. Logan Seavey, 5. Chase Stockon, 6. Preston Lattomus, 7. Kyle Moody. 2:43.13


 

ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (12 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature) 1. Mitchel Moles, 2. Chase Stockon, 3. Daison Pursley, 4. Matt Mitchell, 5. Kevin Thomas Jr., 6. Joey Amantea, 7. Tom Harris, 8. Carson Garrett, 9. Steven Drevicki, 10. Preston Lattomus, 11. Matt Westfall, 12. Kyle Moody, 13. Jason Cherry. 4:14.26


 

FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Emerson Axsom (2), 2. Daison Pursley (14), 3. Timmy Buckwalter (1), 4. Justin Grant (5), 5. Thomas Meseraull (6), 6. Briggs Danner (3), 7. Mitchel Moles (11), 8. C.J. Leary (9), 9. Jake Swanson (18), 10. Chase Stockon (13), 11. Matt Mitchell (12), 12. Mario Clouser (8), 13. Brady Bacon (10), 14. Joey Amantea (22),15. Max Adams (17), 16. Kyle Cummins (19), 17. Logan Seavey (16), 18. Matt Westfall (23-P), 19. Charles Davis Jr. (20), 20. Kevin Thomas Jr. (15), 21. Alex Bright (4), 22. Robert Ballou (7), 23. Shane Cottle (21). NT


 

(P) represents a provisional starter


 

**Anton Hernandez flipped over the turn one guardrail while lining up for the third heat.


 

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-16 Timmy Buckwalter, Laps 17-30 Emerson Axsom.


 

USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Emerson Axsom-861, 2-Jake Swanson-847, 3-Kyle Cummins-817, 4-Justin Grant-800, 5-C.J. Leary-791, 6-Brady Bacon-790, 7-Mitchel Moles-718, 8-Chase Stockon-679, 9-Daison Pursley-666, 10-Robert Ballou-631.


 

USAC EASTERN STORM POINTS: 1-Emerson Axsom-227, 2-Thomas Meseraull-205, 3-Daison Pursley-194, 4-Justin Grant-188, 5-Jake Swanson-187, 6-Timmy Buckwalter-182, 7-Briggs Danner-161, 8-Robert Ballou-156, 9-Kyle Cummins-152, 10-Shane Cottle-151.


 

BUBBY JONES MASTER OF GOIN’ FASTER PRESENTED BY SPIRE SPORTS + ENTERTAINMENT POINTS: 1-Jake Swanson-287, 2-Mitchel Moles-278, 3-C.J. Leary-268, 4-Emerson Axsom-259, 5-Brady Bacon-232, 6-Kyle Cummins-224, 7-Daison Pursley-209, 8-Chase Stockon-195, 9-Max Adams-182, 10-Matt Westfall-179.


 

OVERALL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Daison Pursley-90, 2-Logan Seavey-53, 3-Justin Grant-48, 4-Chase Stockon-46, 5-Thomas Meseraull-37, 6-Carson Garrett-37, 7-Bryant Wiedeman-35, 8-Matt Westfall-35, 9-Brady Bacon-34, 10-Emerson Axsom-33.


 

NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: June 17, 2023 – Port Royal Speedway – Port Royal, Pennsylvania – 1/2-Mile Dirt Track – 16th Eastern Storm


 

 

CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:


 

Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Driver: Mitchel Moles


 

Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier: Thomas Meseraull (19.016)


 

Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner: C.J. Leary


 

Rod End Supply Second Heat Winner: Brady Bacon


 

T.J. Forged Third Heat Winner: Robert Ballou


 

Car IQ Fourth Heat Winner: Mario Clouser


 

Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Semi Winner: Mitchel Moles


 

Hard Charger: Daison Pursley (14th to 2nd)


 

Gene Franckowiak 7th Lap Leader in Memory of Bryan Clauson: Timmy Buckwalter

 


 

A Big Diamond Gem: Axsom Shines at USAC's Eastern Storm

Michael Fry

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media


 

Pottsville, Pennsylvania (June 15, 2023)………One of Emerson Axsom’s stated goals when he signed on as a driver for Clauson Marshall Racing was to keep the legacy of Bryan Clauson going.


 

On Thursday night at Pottsville, Pennsylvania’s Big Diamond Speedway, Axsom lived up to his word, not only following in BC’s footsteps by becoming an Eastern Storm winner, but also by winning on what would’ve been BC’s 34th birthday.


 

Bryan, who perished in a 2016 racing accident, remains the only three-time Eastern Storm titlist in 2012-13-16. Now, in 2023, Axsom (Franklin, Ind.) has ascended to the top of the Eastern Storm point standings by virtue of his win in the Clauson Marshall Racing/Driven2SaveLives – ZMax Race Lubricants/Spike/Kistler Chevy.


 

It’s a win that’s not only rewarding for himself personally, but also for the Clauson family, from Bryan’s father, to his mother and his sister.


 

“It’s a pretty cool win,” Axsom exclaimed. “I’m really happy to get it for this team and for Tim, Diana and Taylor. I’m sure it means a lot to them, and I’m really happy I could do that for them.”

Axsom’s triumph was his first of the USAC season following three runner-up finishes in a little over a one-week span between the NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship and the AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship.


 

It was also Axsom’s fourth career USAC National Sprint Car feature score, tying him for 103rd all-time alongside Rob Chaney, Cary Faas, Jesse Hockett, Van Johnson, Steve Kinser, Michael Lewis, Ralph Liguori, Don Nordhorn, Lee Osborne, Red Riegel, Ken Schrader, Al Smith and Danny Smith.


 

The 30-lap feature around the 3/8-mile, the first USAC Eastern Storm at Big Diamond in 11 seasons, followed suit after all three heat races and the semi-feature were caution-free affairs, by also going non-stop from green to checker in 8 minutes, 44.44 seconds, just eight seconds shy of the track record distance set by Chris Windom in 2012.


 

Max Adams, amid his first ever visit to the state of Pennsylvania this week, shot out to the early lead after starting from the pole position. However, outside second row starter Thomas Meseraull was initially the prime mover, powering into the second spot on lap two while utilizing the bottom of turns three and four, bringing Briggs Danner along with him to third as Axsom slipped back to fourth.


 

Meseraull nearly lost everything he’d gained in turn two on the third circuit, performing a half-spin in turn two, forcing Danner to check up to avoid contact, which in turn, allowed Axsom to freely sprint underneath to third. It was happenstance that sent Axsom to the bottom as an avoidance maneuver, and in turn, altered the course of his race as he followed Meseraull to the front with Meseraull taking over the lead by scooting under Adams in turns three and four on the sixth lap with Axsom just behind, moving into the runner-up slot.


 

“The first couple of laps, I was ripping the top,” Axsom explained. “I got in pretty high (in turn three), but I still felt like it was low. But with the way it banks off, if you get a little bit too high, you’ll end up in the fence. I felt it take rubber on the bottom of turn four, so there wasn’t really an option to move around down there. Thomas was running the top, so I was just going to go where he wasn’t.”


 

This mindset came into fruition in the forthcoming laps with Axsom patrolling the bottom while Meseraull maintained a different approach, rolling along on the low line in turns three and four while remaining top side in turns one and two as he continuously fought to stave off the ever-increasing pressure from Axsom.


 

Finally, on lap 21, Axsom pounced with his winning move, jetting into the lead on the back straightaway to the inside of Meseraull, a plan put into formation simply by using a bit of reverse psychology and by simply doing the opposite of the hand that Meseraull showed.


 

“It was rubbering up off turn four, which made turns one and two the only place to really make a pass,” Axsom revealed. “Wherever the guy in front of me went, I tried to do the opposite, then tried to get down in three and four and just pick them off that way.”


 

The top-two of Axsom and Meseraull promptly broke away from the rest of the pack with third-running Justin Grant more than three seconds back. Axsom began to work traffic with five laps to go but wasn’t deterred one iota as he swept through with ease, positioning a multitude of lapped cars between himself and Meseraull as the laps wound down.


 

At the finish line, Axsom was 2.107 seconds better than his nearest competition as the 2022 USAC National Sprint Car Rookie of the Year scored a resounding victory over Thomas Meseraull, Justin Grant, Briggs Danner and Shane Cottle.


 

Meseraull, who in two previous Big Diamond appearances in 2008 and 2021 finished no better than 13th, earned by far his best result at the track, leading a race-high 15 laps and finishing as the runner-up in his Chris Dyson Racing/Concord American Flagpole – Racer Magazine/Maxim/Ott Chevy. For the San Jose, Calif. native, it was his best series finish since a second place run at South Dakota’s Huset’s Speedway in September of 2021.


 

No drama. That’s all Justin Grant (Ione, Calif.) wanted on Thursday night at Big Diamond, and he got exactly what he ordered. The reigning USAC National Sprint Car champion finished third in his TOPP Motorsports/NOS Energy Drink – Bow Foundation – TOPP Industries/Maxim/Kistler Chevy. Grant had finished 13th or worse in five of his last six series starts, and his podium finish represents his best showing since winning at Ohio’s Eldora Speedway on May 5, nearly six weeks ago.


 

Daison Pursley (Locust Grove, Okla.) set two brand new USAC National Sprint Car track records in what was his first visit to Big Diamond Speedway. Initially, he earned Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifying time honors for the first time in his USAC Sprint Car career with a lap of 14.785 seconds, breaking the two-year-old mark set by Timmy Buckwalter in 2021 at 14.924. Pursley, the current leading Rookie of the Year contender with the series, then went on to earn an Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Semi-Feature victory, finishing the 12-lap distance in record time at 3:19.45.


 

 
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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: June 15, 2023 – Big Diamond Speedway – Pottsville, Pennsylvania – 3/8-Mile Dirt Track – 16th Eastern Storm


 

HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Daison Pursley, 5p, KO-14.785 (New Track Record); 2. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-14.980; 3. Jake Swanson, 21AZ, Team AZ-15.017; 4. Thomas Meseraull, 20, Dyson-15.086; 5. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-15.104; 6. Emerson Axsom, 47BC, Clauson Marshall-15.139; 7. Kyle Cummins, 3R, Rock Steady-15.177; 8. Max Adams, 17GP, Dutcher-15.274; 9. Timmy Buckwalter, 20T, Lotier/Hummer-15.275; 10. Chase Stockon, 5s, KO-15.341; 11. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-15.369; 12. Steven Drevicki, 19, DeGre-15.381; 13. C.J. Leary, 15x, BGE Dougherty-15.410; 14. Shane Cottle, 74x, Hodges-15.422; 15. Carson Garrett, 15, BGE Dougherty-15.427; 16. Matt Westfall, 33m, Marshall-15.491; 17. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-15.550; 18. Anton Hernandez, 5, Baldwin/Fox-15.555; 19. Alex Bright, 27, Heffner-15.622; 20. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-15.647; 21. Kyle Moody, 5x, Baldwin/Fox-15.755; 22. Charles Davis Jr., 47, Davis-15.775; 23. Mario Clouser, 6, Clouser-15.840; 24. Joey Amantea, 88J, Amantea-15.896; 25. Carmen Perigo, 21, Stehman-15.950; 26. Matt Mitchell, 37, Mitchell-16.022; 27. Logan Seavey, 2B, 2B Racing-16.072; 28. Tom Harris, 84, Harris-16.341; 29. Jason Cherry, 67c, Cherry-17.908.


 

SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Matt Westfall, 2. Chase Stockon, 3. C.J. Leary, 4. Thomas Meseraull, 5. Alex Bright, 6. Daison Pursley, 7. Kyle Cummins, 8. Carmen Perigo, 9. Tom Harris, 10. Charles Davis Jr. 2:05.55


 

ROD END SUPPLY SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Shane Cottle, 2. Mitchel Moles, 3. Max Adams, 4. Justin Grant, 5. Briggs Danner, 6. Robert Ballou, 7. Brady Bacon, 8. Mario Clouser, 9. Matt Mitchell, 10. Jason Cherry. 2:08.05


 

T.J. FORGED THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Anton Hernandez, 2. Carson Garrett, 3. Emerson Axsom, 4. Timmy Buckwalter, 5. Jake Swanson, 6. Steven Drevicki, 7. Joey Amantea, 8. Kyle Moody, 9. Logan Seavey. 2:10.95


 

ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (12 laps, top-7 transfer to the feature) 1. Daison Pursley, 2. Kyle Cummins, 3. Brady Bacon, 4. Robert Ballou, 5. Steven Drevicki, 6. Kyle Moody, 7. Carmen Perigo, 8. Tom Harris, 9. Charles Davis Jr., 10. Joey Amantea, 11. Logan Seavey, 12. Mario Clouser, 13. Jason Cherry, 14. Matt Mitchell. 3:19.45 (New Track Record)


 

FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Emerson Axsom (2), 2. Thomas Meseraull (4), 3. Justin Grant (6), 4. Briggs Danner (3), 5. Shane Cottle (7), 6. Daison Pursley (10), 7. Robert Ballou (14), 8. Jake Swanson (5), 9. Matt Westfall (8), 10. Anton Hernandez (9), 11. Kyle Cummins (11), 12. Timmy Buckwalter (12), 13. Chase Stockon (13), 14. Mitchel Moles (18), 15. C.J. Leary (16), 16. Max Adams (1), 17. Brady Bacon (20), 18. Steven Drevicki (15), 19. Kyle Moody (21), 20. Carson Garrett (17), 21. Alex Bright (19), 22. Carmen Perigo (22). 8:44.44


 

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-5 Max Adams, Laps 6-20 Thomas Meseraull, Laps 21-30 Emerson Axsom.


 

USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Jake Swanson-794, 2-Emerson Axsom-786, 3-Kyle Cummins-780, 4-Brady Bacon-745, 5-C.J. Leary-734, 6-Justin Grant-728, 7-Mitchel Moles-658, 8-Chase Stockon-633, 9-Robert Ballou-600, 10-Daison Pursley-597.


 

USAC EASTERN STORM POINTS: 1-Emerson Axsom-152, 2-Thomas Meseraull-135, 3-Jake Swanson-134, 4-Robert Ballou-125, 5-Daison Pursley-125, 6-Shane Cottle-122, 7-Justin Grant-116, 8-Kyle Cummins-115, 9-Timmy Buckwalter-111, 10-Briggs Danner-99.


 

OVERALL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Daison Pursley-78, 2-Logan Seavey-53, 3-Justin Grant-47, 4-Chase Stockon-43, 5-Carson Garrett-37, 6-Thomas Meseraull-36, 7-Bryant Wiedeman-35, 8-Matt Westfall-35, 9-Brady Bacon-34, 10-Gavin Miller-33.


 

NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: June 16, 2023 – Williams Grove Speedway – Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania – 1/2-Mile Dirt Track – 16th Eastern Storm


 

 

CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:


 

Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Driver: Daison Pursley (14.727)


 

Honest Abe Roofing / Clever Girl Winery Fast Qualifier: Daison Pursley (14.785)


 

Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner: Matt Westfall


 

Rod End Supply Second Heat Winner: Shane Cottle


 

T.J. Forged / Car IQ Third Heat Winner: Anton Hernandez


 

Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Semi Winner: Daison Pursley


 

Hard Charger: Robert Ballou (14th to 7th)

 


 

 

BRIDGEPORT EASTERN STORM EVENT CANCELED AFTER RAIN, WET TRACK CONDITIONS

Swedesboro, New Jersey (June 14, 2023)………Wednesday night’s USAC Eastern Storm event at New Jersey’s Bridgeport Motorsports Park was canceled due to heavy afternoon showers that resulted in a saturated racing surface at the 4/10-mile dirt oval.


 

Efforts to dry the track in the hours following the storm were unsuccessful, resulting in conditions that were not safe for racing activity to proceed.


 

Thirty-one drivers and cars were on hand for the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship’s annual visit to Bridgeport.


 

When the announcement of the cancellation was made around 7:30pm Eastern, the remaining estimated time to dry the surface was going to be another two to two-and-a-half hours with the sun setting and the temperatures cooling.


 

Tickets purchased for Wednesday’s Bridgeport event can be used for this Sunday’s USAC Eastern Storm event at Kutztown, Pennsylvania’s Action Track USA on Sunday, June 18, featuring the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship.


 

USAC Eastern Storm resumes on Thursday, June 15, at Big Diamond Speedway in Pottsville, Pa. The series continues on Friday, June 16, at Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania’s Williams Grove Speedway, then it’s on to Pennsylvania’s Port Royal Speedway on Saturday, June 17. The finale of the series will take place on Sunday, June 18, at Action Track USA.


 

 
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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: June 14, 2023 – Bridgeport Motorsports Park – Swedesboro, New Jersey – 4/10-Mile Dirt Track – 16th Eastern Storm


 

CARS & DRIVERS IN ATTENDANCE: Logan Seavey (#2B 2B Racing), Kyle Cummins (#3R Rock Steady), Justin Grant (#4 TOPP), Anton Hernandez (#5 Baldwin-Fox), Daison Pursley (#5p KO), Chase Stockon (#5s KO), Kyle Moody (#5x Baldwin-Fox), Isaac Chapple (#6 Chapple-Hall), Ed Aikin (#7 EA), Robert Ballou (#12 Ballou), Carson Garrett (#15 BGE Dougherty), C.J. Leary (#15x BGE Dougherty), Max Adams (#17GP Dutcher), Steven Drevicki (#19 DeGre), Mitchel Moles (#19AZ Reinbold-Underwood), Thomas Meseraull (#20 Dyson), Timmy Buckwalter (#20T Lotier-Hummer), Jake Swanson (#21AZ Team AZ), Preston Lattomus (#23B Lattomus), Alex Bright (#27 Heffner), Matt Westfall (#33m Marshall), Matt Mitchell (#37 Mitchell), Briggs Danner (#39 Hogue), Ricky Lewis (#41 Brown), Charles Davis Jr. (#47 Davis), Emerson Axsom (#47BC Clauson Marshall), Jason Cherry (#67c Cherry), Brady Bacon (Dynamics #69), Shane Cottle (#74x Hodges), Tom Harris (#84 Harris) & Joey Amantea (#88J JPA)


 

USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Jake Swanson-737, 2-Kyle Cummins-736, 3-Brady Bacon-714, 4-Emerson Axsom-709, 5-C.J. Leary-695, 6-Justin Grant-654, 7-Mitchel Moles-616, 8-Chase Stockon-589, 9-Robert Ballou-547, 10-Daison Pursley-532.


 

USAC EASTERN STORM POINTS: 1-Jake Swanson-77, 2-Emerson Axsom-75, 3-Robert Ballou-72, 4-Kyle Cummins-71, 5-Timmy Buckwalter-67, 6-Daison Pursley-60, 7-Thomas Meseraull-60, 8-Shane Cottle-56, 9-Chase Stockon-55, 10-Steven Drevicki-49.


 

OVERALL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Daison Pursley-74, 2-Logan Seavey-53, 3-Justin Grant-44, 4-Chase Stockon-43, 5-Carson Garrett-37, 6-Bryant Wiedeman-35, 7-Matt Westfall-35, 8-Thomas Meseraull-34, 9-Gavin Miller-33, 10-Brady Bacon-31.


 

NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: June 15, 2023 – Big Diamond Speedway – Pottsville, Pennsylvania – 3/8-Mile Dirt Track – 16th Eastern Storm

 


A Grandview from the Top: Swanson Scores USAC Eastern Storm Opener

Dave Dellinger

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media


 

Bechtelsville, Pennsylvania (June 13, 2023)………Right now, Jake Swanson is on a roll unlike he’s ever experienced in sprint car racing.


 

And it’s led him straight to the top of the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship point standings for the first time in his career.


 

Swanson (Anaheim, Calif.) led all 40 laps of Tuesday night’s Jesse Hockett Classic at Bechtelsville, Pennsylvania’s Grandview Speedway, fighting off a furious charge by Emerson Axsom during the final laps of the opening round of USAC Eastern Storm.


 

For Swanson, it’s now his third USAC National Sprint Car victory in his last four starts, and his sixth consecutive result on the podium, with three wins, a pair of seconds and a third to his credit during that time frame in his Team AZ Racing/Apache Transport – Stratis Construction – USW Cat Construction/DRC/1-Way Chevy.


 

Swanson is now in the driver’s seat as the early point leader of the six-race Eastern Storm series and stands atop the overall USAC National Sprint Car standings by a single point over Kyle Cummins.


 

Swanson is a big fan of where he and the team currently stand, especially after surpassing his personal USAC National Sprint Car win total with three triumphant appearances in his last four outings. By comparison, he’d won just twice in his first 127 series starts.


 

“I can get used to this; this is pretty unreal,” Swanson exclaimed. “I’m just so pumped to be able to win USAC National Sprint Car races. We’ve worked really, really hard for this, and it feels good to be able to go anywhere and be in the hunt. As long as we do our jobs and everyone pulls together, we’re always going to be there and in position, and if the cards fall right, they fall right, and that’s what they did tonight.”


 

Swanson started from the pole position of the main event at the 1/3-mile dirt oval and quickly bolted out to the early lead, constructing a commanding half-straightaway advantage over outside front row starter Thomas Meseraull just five laps into the event.


 

Catching the tail end of the field, Swanson initially scurried his way through with precision, but nearly found trouble as he drifted high toward the wall in turn four on the 17th lap as he worked three-wide around the outside of Max Adams and Logan Seavey. Swanson successfully put both drivers a lap down but saw his two second lead instantly dwindle to under a second.


 

The biggest mover throughout the first half of the contest was Brady Bacon, winner of five of the past six USAC National Sprint Car outings at Grandview dating back to 2017. On this night, he had steadily worked his way from 16th to 9th throughout the first 18 laps, but lap 19 was a different story. The four-time USAC National Sprint Car champ’s run of Grandview good fortune made an about-face on him as he slowed to a halt with a right rear tire issue. Bacon, the 2014 Eastern Storm titlist, had his right rear changed by his Dynamics, Inc. crew in the Indy Metal Finishing Work Area, and restarted at the tail, but was only able to climb back to 14th, his first non-top-10 finish with the series at Grandview in 11 previous starts dating back to 2007.


 

Now with a clear track out in front of him, Swanson and second-running Meseraull broke away from the rest of the field for the start of the second half of the main. However, seventh starting Emerson Axsom began to paint himself into the picture, rolling the bottom from sixth to third in a two-lap span past Briggs Danner, Justin Grant and Chase Stockon, all previous Grandview winners in some form or fashion.


 

Axsom ultimately reeled in Meseraull and edged his way past for the runner-up spot on lap 30, just in the nick of time prior to a turn two melee which involved several drivers running in and around the top-10. Matt Westfall (11th) had the misfortune of flipping over in turn two on lap 31, the result of an incident ahead of him which saw Grant (7th) stop with a flat right rear and Danner (8th) perform a complete 360-degree spin while Mitchel Moles (13th) suffered front end damage. Westfall climbed out and walked away while Danner, Grant and Moles all restarted at the tail.


 

Once again, the coast was clear ahead of Swanson for the final 10-lap sprint. However, things weren’t as cut and dry behind him. Axsom was present at Swanson’s rear bumper to mount the biggest challenge he’d faced all race long. Swanson nearly slipped over the edge and onto the shelf on the high side of turn two on the lap 31 restart, rooster-tailing the outside wall with Keystone State soil but was able to dig himself out and prevent Axsom from capitalizing on the slightly ajar door, but Swanson now knew Axsom was there.


 

“It’s tough being the leader sometimes because you kind of feel like you’re a sitting duck,” Swanson explained. “I knew he was making the bottom work, but I didn’t feel like I could do it right. I figured I’d protect on the initial start, and then see if I saw him. Once we got to racing, if I could watch him down there, and maybe stay out front, I might try it. But the top was working so well. As long as I didn’t overdrive it, it was really easy to blow through because it was so thin. I definitely didn’t want to stab the back bumper into the fence and give away the lead. I tried to run below it, and it was actually a little bit better below it in the cleaned off area. Once you get over the shelf, it wants to suck you up into the fence. But with a little bit of patience, it paid off.”


 

Axsom pulled even with Swanson on both ends of the track but was unable to get enough pull at the exit of turns two and four to propel him ahead. Axsom altered the game plan in his pursuit of Swanson shortly thereafter with five laps remaining, switching to the high line in turns one and two, while maintaining his presence on the low line in turns three and four.


 

Swanson ably kept Axsom at arm’s length for the balance of the distance, never letting Axsom encroach within three car lengths in the waning laps to prevail at Grandview by a 0.743 second margin. Axsom brought it home second with Robert Ballou making a late-race surge to third. Timmy Buckwalter, making his first series start since Eastern Storm in 2022, took fourth while Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier Kyle Cummins grabbed fifth in what was his first Eastern Storm appearance since 2015.


 

Emerson Axsom (Franklin, Ind.) made a valiant effort to advance from seventh to second in the feature in his Clauson Marshall Racing/Driven2SaveLives – ZMax Race Lubricants/Spike/Kistler Chevy. He pulled even with Swanson for the lead multiple times late and tried to show him a nose in order to goad him into making a mistake or to change lanes. But in the end, Axsom still managed to equal his best result of the USAC National Sprint Car season after also finishing second in February’s season opener at Florida’s Bubba Raceway Park.


 

Describing his start to the USAC National Sprint Cars as “horrific,” Robert Ballou (Rocklin, Calif.) got his Eastern Storm off to a rocking start with a podium run at Grandview. The two-time Eastern Storm champ turned in his best finish of the season in his Ballou Motorsports/Suburban Subaru – Berks Western Telecom/Triple X/Ott Chevy. His 10th to third charge equaled his best career Grandview finish with the USAC National Sprints, which he also achieved in 2011 and 2021.


 

In four of his past five Eastern Storm feature starts, Alex Bright (Collegeville, Pa.) has been crowned the hard charger. In 2022, he went 22nd to 7th at Bridgeport, 13th to 2nd at Williams Grove and 16th to 2nd at Port Royal. On Tuesday at Grandview, he did it again with a 22nd to 10th run aboard his Heffner Racing Enterprises/Lelands.com – DriveWFX.com – Frozen Farmer/Triple X/Rider Chevy.


 

Cummins (Princeton, Ind.) picked up Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifying honors, while also earning an extra $350 courtesy of Clever Girl Winery. Cummins’ 11th career fast time with the series tied him with Jim McWithey and George Snider for 46th all-time.


 

Meanwhile, Swanson’s fifth career USAC National Sprint Car victory moved him to 85th all-time alongside Larry Cannon, Dana Carter, Derek Davidson, Gene Lee Gibson, Jeff Gordon, Chuck Gurney, Shane Hmiel, Kevin Huntley, Frankie Kerr, Kelly Kinser, Eddie Leavitt, Jim Mahoney, Andy Michner, Johnny Parsons, Bill Puterbaugh, Tanner Thorson and Cole Whitt.


 

 
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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: June 13, 2023 – Grandview Speedway – Bechtelsville, Pennsylvania – 1/3-Mile Dirt Track – 16th Eastern Storm / Jesse Hockett Classic


 

HONEST ABE ROOFING/CLEVER GIRL WINERY QUALIFYING: 1. Kyle Cummins, 3R, Rock Steady-13.662; 2. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-13.715; 3. Chase Stockon, 5s, KO-13.746; 4. Matt Mitchell, 37, Mitchell-13.776; 5. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-13.813; 6. Thomas Meseraull, 20, Dyson-13.895; 7. Jake Swanson, 21AZ, Team AZ-13.932; 8. Emerson Axsom, 47BC, Clauson Marshall-13.996; 9. Timmy Buckwalter, 20T, Lotier/Hummer-14.052; 10. C.J. Leary, 15x, BGE Dougherty-14.055; 11. Matt Westfall, 33m, Marshall-14.059; 12. Shane Cottle, 74x, Hodges-14.060; 13. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-14.065; 14. Daison Pursley, 5p, KO-14.122; 15. Carson Garrett, 15, BGE Dougherty-14.125; 16. Logan Seavey, 2B, 2B Racing-14.131; 17. Steven Drevicki, 19, DeGre-14.147; 18. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-14.181; 19. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-14.182; 20. Anton Hernandez, 5, Baldwin/Fox-14.195; 21. Bobby Butler, 5B, Butler-14.217; 22. Charles Davis Jr., 47, Davis-14.311; 23. Alex Bright, 27, Heffner-14.329; 24. Joey Amantea, 88J, Amantea-14.405; 25. Ricky Lewis, 41, Brown-14.632; 26. Patrick Chilmonik, 1, Chilmonik-14.684; 27. Kyle Moody, 5x, Baldwin/Fox-14.706; 28. Jason Cherry, 67c, Cherry-15.817; 29. Max Adams, 17GP, Dutcher-NT; 30. Isaac Chapple, 6, Chapple/Hall-NT; 31. Tom Harris, 84, Harris-NT.


 

SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Steven Drevicki, 2. Kyle Cummins, 3. Timmy Buckwalter, 4. Briggs Danner, 5. Brady Bacon, 6. Bobby Butler, 7. Ricky Lewis. NT


 

ROD END SUPPLY SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Mitchel Moles, 2. Thomas Meseraull, 3. Justin Grant, 4. Daison Pursley, 5. C.J. Leary, 6. Charles Davis Jr., 7. Patrick Chilmonik. 2:27.27


 

T.J. FORGED THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Robert Ballou, 2. Jake Swanson, 3. Carson Garrett, 4. Chase Stockon, 5. Matt Westfall, 6. Alex Bright, 7. Kyle Moody. 2:27.84


 

CAR IQ FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Emerson Axsom, 2. Shane Cottle, 3. Anton Hernandez, 4. Logan Seavey, 5. Matt Mitchell, 6. Jason Cherry, 7. Joey Amantea. NT


 

ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (12 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature) 1. C.J. Leary, 2. Brady Bacon, 3. Bobby Butler, 4. Matt Mitchell, 5. Alex Bright, 6. Matt Westfall, 7. Ricky Lewis, 8. Joey Amantea, 9. Charles Davis Jr., 10. Kyle Moody, 11. Jason Cherry, 12. Max Adams. NT


 

FEATURE: (40 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Jake Swanson (1), 2. Emerson Axsom (7), 3. Robert Ballou (10), 4. Timmy Buckwalter (12), 5. Kyle Cummins (6), 6. Daison Pursley (17), 7. Thomas Meseraull (2), 8. Shane Cottle (15), 9. Chase Stockon (4), 10. Alex Bright (22), 11. Steven Drevicki (8), 12. Carson Garrett (18), 13. Matt Mitchell (11), 14. Brady Bacon (16), 15. C.J. Leary (13), 16. Justin Grant (5), 17. Mitchel Moles (9), 18. Anton Hernandez (20), 19. Briggs Danner (3), 20. Max Adams (23-P), 21. Logan Seavey (19), 22. Matt Westfall (14), 23. Charles Davis Jr. (24-P), 24. Bobby Butler (21). NT


 

(P) represents a provisional starter


 

**Matt Westfall flipped on lap 31 of the feature.


 

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-40 Jake Swanson.


 

USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Jake Swanson-737, 2-Kyle Cummins-736, 3-Brady Bacon-714, 4-Emerson Axsom-709, 5-C.J. Leary-695, 6-Justin Grant-654, 7-Mitchel Moles-616, 8-Chase Stockon-589, 9-Robert Ballou-547, 10-Daison Pursley-532.


 

USAC EASTERN STORM POINTS: 1-Jake Swanson-77, 2-Emerson Axsom-75, 3-Robert Ballou-72, 4-Kyle Cummins-71, 5-Timmy Buckwalter-67, 6-Daison Pursley-60, 7-Thomas Meseraull-60, 8-Shane Cottle-56, 9-Chase Stockon-55, 10-Steven Drevicki-49.


 

OVERALL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Daison Pursley-74, 2-Logan Seavey-53, 3-Justin Grant-44, 4-Chase Stockon-43, 5-Carson Garrett-37, 6-Bryant Wiedeman-35, 7-Matt Westfall-35, 8-Thomas Meseraull-34, 9-Gavin Miller-33, 10-Brady Bacon-31.


 

NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: June 14, 2023 – Bridgeport Motorsports Park – Swedesboro, New Jersey – 4/10-Mile Dirt Track – 16th Eastern Storm


 

 

CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:


 

Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Driver: Thomas Meseraull (13.524)


 

Honest Abe Roofing / Clever Girl Winery Fast Qualifier: Kyle Cummins (13.662)


 

Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner: Steven Drevicki


 

Rod End Supply Second Heat Winner: Mitchel Moles


 

T.J. Forged Third Heat Winner: Robert Ballou


 

Car IQ Fourth Heat Winner: Emerson Axsom


 

Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Semi Winner: C.J. Leary


 

Hard Charger: Alex Bright (22nd to 10th)


 

Top 360 c.i. Finishing Driver: Bobby Butler (24th)

 


 

KOKOMO’S USAC INDIANA MIDGET WEEK FINALE RAINED OUT,SEAVEY THE CHAMP

Richie Murray

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media


 

Kokomo, Indiana (June 11, 2023)……….Persistent race day showers have forced cancellation of Sunday’s USAC Indiana Midget Week finale at Kokomo Speedway.


 

The event was to have been the final event during the seven-race miniseries for the USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship, but Mother Nature intervened and washed out the evening’s events.


 

Logan Seavey (Sutter, Calif.) is the USAC Indiana Midget Week champion for a second time in his career after previously capturing the title in 2019. Seavey collected this year’s championship by a 31-point margin over Justin Grant (Ione, Calif.).


 

Gavin Miller (Allentown, Pa.) earned the USAC Indiana Midget Week ProSource Passing Master title after advancing a total of 35 positions throughout the six races run during the series.


 

The USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship season resumes on July 11 with the start of Mid-America Midget Week at Meeker, Oklahoma’s Red Dirt Raceway.


 

The USAC National season continues this week with seven races in six nights during Eastern Storm between June 13-18. The USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship tour of Pennsylvania and New Jersey takes the series to Grandview Speedway on June 13, then to Bridgeport Motorsports Park on June 14, Big Diamond Speedway on June 15.


 

The weekend brings Williams Grove Speedway on June 16, and then it’s off to Port Royal Speedway on June 17 for a USAC national doubleheader featuring the National Sprint Car and the Silver Crown National Championship. The series’ first ever appearance at Action Track USA closes out Eastern Storm with an appearance points only event on June 18.


 

FINAL USAC INDIANA MIDGET WEEK POINTS: 1-Logan Seavey-405, 2-Justin Grant-374, 3-Bryant Wiedeman-353, 4-Jade Avedisian-331, 5-Emerson Axsom-329, 6-Jacob Denney-328, 7-Kevin Thomas Jr.-328, 8-Buddy Kofoid-298, 9-Daison Pursley-298, 10-Ryan Timms-292.


 

FINAL USAC INDIANA MIDGET WEEK PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Gavin Miller-35, 2-Logan Seavey-31, 3-Jacob Denney-31, 4-Bryant Wiedeman-31, 5-Chase McDermand-27, 6-Jade Avedisian-26, 7-Cannon McIntosh-24, 8-Taylor Reimer-24, 9-Justin Grant-23, 10-Chance Crum-22.

 


A High Wire Gem: Timms Bags a Big One at The Burg

Indy Racing Images

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media


 

Lawrenceburg, Indiana (June 10, 2023)………In many respects, it’s been a rollercoaster of a season thus far for Ryan Timms during the early part of the USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship calendar.


 

In fact, it’s been just about as much of a rollercoaster as was a single lap around Lawrenceburg (Ind.) Speedway’s lightning fast 3/8-mile dirt oval during Saturday night’s penultimate round of USAC Indiana Midget Week.


 

After winning May’s series season opener at the Belleville (Kan.) Short Track, the Oklahoma City, Okla. racer endured a streak of six straight finishes outside the top-10, a cold snap that lasted well past the halfway mark of IMW.


 

After Timms’ Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports teammate Buddy Kofoid won twice, and also finished second and fourth during the first four rounds of IMW, Kofoid exited the stage prior to the weekend due to sprint car racing obligations.


 

At Bloomington, the executive decision was made to plug Timms in the cockpit of the car Kofoid had driven to success. Following a sixth-place finish at Bloomington in the car, Timms was finally back on an upswing which culminated with his victory at Lawrenceburg.


 

In what amounted to his first visit of any kind to Lawrenceburg, Timms was superb, leading 28 of the 30-lap distance aboard his JBL Audio – TRD – Mobil 1/Bullet By Spike/Speedway Toyota, a night which also involved having to keep at bay the high point man for Indiana Midget Week to date, Logan Seavey, throughout the rigorous latter stages.


 

“I’ve always thought this place was the coolest place ever, so to win here is awesome,” Timms explained. “That was definitely one of the most fun times I’ve had in a midget. I’m really glad we could get this deal in victory lane.”


 

Timms’ Lawrenceburg score was the fourth of his USAC National Midget career and made him the third consecutive KKM driver to win an IMW main event this week following Kofoid on Thursday at Lincoln Park Speedway and Gavin Miller on Friday at Bloomington.


 

Rolling off fourth on the grid, Timms was a challenger right from the very start. By turn two of the opening lap, he had already found himself as the meat in a sandwich featuring pole sitter Jake Andreotti and outside front row starter Taylor Reimer.


 

Andreotti, also turning his first laps at Lawrenceburg on this night, led at the stripe during the completion of lap one.  Nonetheless, Timms quickly altered that fact with an undercut of Andreotti in turn two at the exit on lap two to assume the position.


 

Akin to how most everything unfolds at Lawrenceburg, things can happen in a hurry, and Andreotti wasted no time in reclaiming his throne on lap three with an outside turn two pass of Timms to put himself back up front. Thereafter, Timms used roughly the next 14 seconds to regroup and recharge for his next moment, which involved driving deep into turn three under Andreotti to position himself back into the top spot.


 

Relentless tenacity was the name of the game as Timms finally disposed of Andreotti to lead the fourth lap, but soon had to contend with Logan Seavey, a past USAC Indiana Midget Week feature winner at Lawrenceburg in 2021, who entered the night as perhaps the hottest driver on the tour, having finished each of his past three feature starts inside the top-three.


 

When Seavey cleared Andreotti for second on lap nine, he quickly zeroed in on Timms and found himself right on his tailfeathers. On laps 14, 15 and 17, Seavey made attempt after attempt to surpass Timms, but each time, Timms had an ample and precise response by running it down off the high banks to jet back out in front of Timms.


 

Heavy traffic loomed on the 18th lap for the frontrunners, but that obstacle was soon avoided when ninth-running Chelby Hinton slapped the wall between turns three and four, flattening his right rear tire. Thus, the field was bunched up and restationed going back to green just shy of having two-thirds of the race in the books.


 

Soon thereafter, early race leader and third-running Andreotti tagged the turn two wall on the 23rd lap, flattening his right rear rubber and relegating him back to an 18th place finish and simultaneously bringing out the final yellow flag of the affair.


 

The fastest way around Lawrenceburg is right up against the outside wall, and Timms and Seavey spared no quarter when it came to using all the space available to them as they traversed around the southeastern Indiana battleground with Seavey continuously stalking Timms’ tracks the entire time.


 

On the restart with seven laps remaining, Timms demonstrated that fact by ricocheting off the turn four wall with his right rear tire. Without missing a beat, Timms actually gained more than a couple car lengths on Seavey, a most important factor down the stretch when you consider that Seavey was just out of range and was never able to properly make a play at Timms for the race lead and the win.


 

“I knew he was going to be fast from the moment we went green,” Timms said of Seavey. “I just had to be consistent and make as few mistakes as possible and I knew we could get it done. I definitely made a lot of mistakes and about made one that cost us the race in (turns) three and four.”


 

However, the razor’s edge cut in a pattern that favored Timms who thwarted Seavey’s repeated challenges and was able to distance himself from Seavey a bit more in the end to the tune of a 1.165 second margin at the finish line, winning over Seavey, Jade Avedisian, Bryant Wiedeman and Justin Grant.


 

Logan Seavey (Sutter, Calif.) solidified his position at the top of the USAC Indiana Midget Week standings with his runner-up result in his Abacus Racing/Indy Custom Stone – CG CPAs – Dozer’z Nut’z & Bolt’z/Spike/Stanton SR-11x. The 2019 IMW champ’s fourth consecutive podium finish with the series extended his lead in the weeklong tour to 31 points while also pushing his overall USAC National Midget season championship lead to 22.


 

Jade Avedisian’s best run of Indiana Midget Week came via a third-place result at Lawrenceburg in her Keith Kunz-Curb-Agajanian Motorsports/Mobil 1 – TRD – JBL Audio/Bullet By Spike/Speedway Toyota. The Clovis, Calif. native equaled the best finish ever by a woman during a USAC Indiana Midget Week feature. Holly Shelton also finished third at Lawrenceburg in 2017, also in a KKM mount.


 

ARCA Menards Series point leader Jesse Love (Menlo Park, Calif.) received his first taste of Lawrenceburg experience on Saturday night. His initial exposure to The Burg was hampered by a broken ignition switch on his CB Industries ride, but the team fought through and wound up with him being honored as the Irvin King Hard Charger for his 21st to 12th advancement in the feature event.


 

Justin Grant's Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifying time at Lawrenceburg was his second in as many night, his season-leading third of the season and the eighth of his USAC National Midget career, tying him for 74th all-time with Spencer Bayston, Christopher Bell, Dana Carter, Rex Easton, Russ Gamester, Don Horvath, Kasey Kahne, Sammy Sessions, George Snider, Kevin Thomas Jr. & Jack Turner.


 

 
===============
                                                              
                                                           

USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: June 10, 2023 – Lawrenceburg Speedway – Lawrenceburg, Indiana – 19th Annual Indiana Midget Week – 3/8-Mile Dirt Track


 

HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Justin Grant, 2, RMS-14.762; 2. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-14.782; 3. Jade Avedisian, 71, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-14.899; 4. Ryan Timms, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-14.966; 5. Kevin Thomas Jr., 23, Mounce/Stout-14.971; 6. Bryant Wiedeman, 81, CBI-15.062; 7. Taylor Reimer, 25K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-15.094; 8. Jake Andreotti, 25m, Malloy-15.115; 9. Jacob Denney, 25, Malloy-15.150; 10. Cannon McIntosh, 08, Dave Mac Dalby-15.157; 11. Thomas Meseraull, 7x, RMS-15.175; 12. Daison Pursley, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-15.189; 13. Chelby Hinton, 4, Klatt-15.217; 14. Chance Crum, 26, Rudeen-15.240; 15. Emerson Axsom, 19A, Petry/Hayward-15.240; 16. Gavin Miller, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-15.260; 17. Ethan Mitchell, 19m, Bundy Built-15.263; 18. Daniel Whitley, 58, Abacus-15.357; 19. Hayden Reinbold, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-15.362; 20. Chase Johnson, 31B, Beilman-15.420; 21. Chase McDermand, 40, Mounce/Stout-15.449; 22. Jesse Love, 84, CBI-15.723; 23. Steve Buckwalter, 25B, Buckwalter-15.731; 24. Kyle Beilman, 31, Beilman-NT.


 

SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Chelby Hinton, 2. Gavin Miller, 3. Cannon McIntosh, 4. Taylor Reimer, 5. Ryan Timms, 6. Justin Grant, 7. Jesse Love, 8. Hayden Reinbold. 2:01.70


 

ROD END SUPPLY SECOND: HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Logan Seavey, 2. Jake Andreotti, 3. Kevin Thomas Jr., 4. Chance Crum, 5. Ethan Mitchell, 6. Chase Johnson, 7. Steve Buckwalter, 8. Thomas Meseraull. 2:04.69


 

T.J. FORGED / CAR IQ THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Jade Avedisian, 2. Jacob Denney, 3. Emerson Axsom, 4. Daison Pursley, 5. Chase McDermand, 6. Bryant Wiedeman, 7. Kyle Beilman, 8. Daniel Whitley. 2:05.08


 

FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Ryan Timms (4), 2. Logan Seavey (6), 3. Jade Avedisian (5), 4. Bryant Wiedeman (9), 5. Justin Grant (8), 6. Daison Pursley (12), 7. Cannon McIntosh (11), 8. Jacob Denney (10), 9. Taylor Reimer (2), 10. Kevin Thomas Jr. (3), 11. Emerson Axsom (14), 12. Jesse Love (21), 13. Chase Johnson (19), 14. Gavin Miller (15), 15. Chase McDermand (20), 16. Hayden Reinbold (18), 17. Chance Crum (13), 18. Jake Andreotti (1), 19. Ethan Mitchell (16), 20. Kyle Beilman (23), 21. Daniel Whitley (17), 22. Chelby Hinton (7), 23. Steve Buckwalter (22), 24. Thomas Meseraull (24). NT


 

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Lap 1 Jake Andreotti, Lap 2 Ryan Timms, Lap 3 Jake Andreotti, Laps 4-30 Ryan Timms.


 

USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Logan Seavey-556, 2-Justin Grant-534, 3-Jacob Denney-529, 4-Bryant Wiedeman-521, 5-Jade Avedisian-513, 6-Daison Pursley-492, 7-Ryan Timms-446, 8-Cannon McIntosh-426, 9-Taylor Reimer-410, 10-Chase McDermand-372.


 

USAC INDIANA MIDGET WEEK POINTS: 1-Logan Seavey-405, 2-Justin Grant-374, 3-Bryant Wiedeman-353, 4-Jade Avedisian-331, 5-Emerson Axsom-329, 6-Jacob Denney-328, 7-Kevin Thomas Jr.-328, 8-Buddy Kofoid-298, 9-Daison Pursley-298, 10-Ryan Timms-292.


 

USAC INDIANA MIDGET WEEK PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Gavin Miller-35, 2-Logan Seavey-31, 3-Jacob Denney-31, 4-Bryant Wiedeman-31, 5-Chase McDermand-27, 6-Jade Avedisian-26, 7-Cannon McIntosh-24, 8-Taylor Reimer-24, 9-Justin Grant-23, 10-Chance Crum-22.


 

OVERALL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Daison Pursley-63, 2-Logan Seavey-53, 3-Justin Grant-44, 4-Chase Stockon-43, 5-Bryant Wiedeman-35, 6-Matt Westfall-35, 7-Thomas Meseraull-34, 8-Gavin Miller-33, 9-Carson Garrett-31, 10-Brady Bacon-29.


 

NEXT USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: June 11, 2023 – Kokomo Speedway – Kokomo, Indiana – 19th Annual Indiana Midget Week – 1/4-Mile Dirt Track


 

 

CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:


 

Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Driver: Logan Seavey (14.709)


 

Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier: Justin Grant (14.762)


 

Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner: Chelby Hinton


 

Rod End Supply Second Heat Winner: Logan Seavey


 

T.J. Forged / Car IQ Third Heat Winner: Jade Avedisian


 

Irvin King Hard Charger: Jesse Love (21st to 12th)

 


 

 

Miller’s Time: Rookie Gavin Miller Grabs First USAC Midget Win at Bloomington

Indy Racing Images

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media


 

Bloomington, Indiana (June 9, 2023)………If you didn’t know who Gavin Miller was before USAC Indiana Midget Week, well guess what? Now you know.


 

The leading USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship Rookie of the Year contender, six-time USAC National .25 Midget champion and micro sprint standout from Allentown, Pa. earned his first career series victory on the big stage Friday night at Bloomington Speedway.


 

Up to this point, to USAC fans, he’d been known for his passing prowess within the series ranks, passing more cars throughout USAC Indiana Midget Week than any other individual with 34 positions advanced at press time, which places him on top of the IMW ProSource Passing Master standings.


 

However, on Friday night, it was one pass and one pass only that provided the 16-year-old with his breakthrough moment in the USAC ranks in what was just his 10th career series start aboard his Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports/Eibach Springs – Mobil 1/Bullet By Spike/Speedway Toyota.


 

On a restart just before the midway point, Miller slid his KKM teammate and fellow first-time USAC win seeker Jade Avedisian for the top spot, and from there, went undenied for the remaining 16 circuits to earn the victory as he became the first Pennsylvanian to capture a USAC National feature win of any kind since Steve Buckwalter during the Indiana Midget Week round at Gas City I-69 Speedway in 2010.


 

In winning, Miller also became just the second driver to win his first career USAC National Midget feature at Bloomington’s 1/4-mile dirt oval. The only other driver to accomplish the feat was none other than Kyle Larson, who also wheeled a KKM owned car to victory on the red clay.


 

Miller’s win also comes on the heels of a “what could’ve been” moment when he flipped out of the race while leading 13 laps into the feature on Monday night at Circle City Raceway. It was that performance which put Miller and the team on notice that a first victory could be within his grasp. At Bloomington, that special moment finally arrived.


 

“It’s unbelievable,” Miller exclaimed. “We’ve been wanting to win one badly and we were finally able to get it done. I just had to be smarter on those long runs because there’s so many good guys behind you; you’ve got to be perfect every single lap.”


 

Oddly enough, it turns out that June 9 is the prime date to produce first-time USAC National Midget feature winners. For the third consecutive season on that exact date, a driver won his first career series main event: Corey Day (2021 at Circle City Raceway), Jacob Denney (2022 at Lincoln Park Speedway) and Gavin Miller (2023 at Bloomington Speedway).


 

Miller, whose best career USAC finish to this point had been a pair of ninths at the Belleville (Kan.) Short Track in May and at Lincoln Park Speedway 24 hours earlier, lined up on the outside of the front row alongside his teammate, Avedisian.


 

Avedisian, similarly vying for a first career USAC National Midget score, split from the field to control the pace during the initial lap. The second go-around, however, was marred when wheel contact between seventh-running Chase Johnson’s left front and eighth-running Logan Seavey’s right rear on the back straight sent Johnson sliding over the turn three banking. Jesse Love (11th) involuntarily joined the fracas and was also caught up in the incident. Johnson was finished for the evening with a knocked out front end while Seavey continued onward, and Love restarted from the tail of the field before charging back to a respectable finish of 11th.


 

Picking up the action on the lap two restart, Avedisian was absolutely ripping on the high line, advancing her way into lapped traffic 10 laps into the event with a full second lead as KKM teammates ran one-two-three with Miller and Ryan Timms occupying second and third.


 

Avedisian’s lead evaporated on the 15th trip when Emerson Axsom (8th) stopped on the back straight to bring out the yellow flag. He ultimately returned to finish 16th, but his Indiana Midget Week championship hopes and dreams took a serious beating as he dropped from nine points out of the lead to a 43-point deficit.


 

The ensuing yellow put Miller right on Avedisian’s back bumper for the restart, which turned the race completely on its head. Miller pulled even with Avedisian in turn two as he slid up next to her. However, Avedisian’s right side tires got sucked into the cushion, which wouldn’t relent. Teetering on the edge, Avedisian could only watch helplessly as seven competitors freight trained past her, dropping her all the way back to eighth, just like that.


 

Miller spurted away to a 1.273 second lead with 10 laps remaining all while a changing of the guard in second was occurring. There, Justin Grant performed a nifty up-and-under maneuver to nip Kevin Thomas Jr. at the line for second on lap 21.


 

All throughout the first two-thirds of the race, Miller had maintained a steady presence on the high line. Yet, for the restart with nine laps to go following Chance Crum’s off-track excursion, Miller had a different approach and a new plan to take his talents to the bottom based on his observations.


 

“I just saw (the high line) going away, and I didn’t feel that great up top as it was,” Miller stated. “So, I figured I’d roll the bottom and it felt really good down there.”


 

Grant was the closest to present and apply ample pressure to Miller down the stretch, but Grant’s engine began to roar with a sour sound, the result of a dropped cylinder. However, Grant was unable to get close enough to make any attempts to steal away the win from Miller down the stretch.


 

In the end, Miller flexed the most muscle, and closed out victory number one in his USAC career by a 0.372 second margin over Grant. Seavey worked around the outside of Thomas Jr. with six laps left in the tank to collect a third-place result. Thomas Jr. grabbed fourth while McIntosh capped off the top-five with a season best run of fifth, earning Irvin King hard charger honors and a $100 bonus after starting 12th.


 

Justin Grant (Ione, Calif.) turned in his best finish of Indiana Midget Week with a runner-up result in his RMS Racing/NOS Energy Drink – EnviroFab – Response Management Services/Spike/Speedway Toyota. Second also happened to be his best result of the USAC National Midget season, narrowly missing a complete sweep after setting fast time and winning his heat earlier during the evening. It was a solid, noteworthy performance that persevered despite mechanical challenges during the final leg of the race.


 

“I think we lost a cylinder there, but it was so slick, it didn’t matter as much as it normally would,” Grant explained. “I think we still would’ve been able to win if Gavin would’ve kept running the top like he was. It was a good move on his part to drop to the bottom in (turns) one and two. It’s a hard move to make when you haven’t seen anybody down there yet. He did a really, really good job at protecting the bottom coming to the checkered there. We were down a cylinder, but I don’t know how much it hurt us. I kind of had to spin the tires more than I wanted to getting in so that it was stood up when getting off (the turns).  We were right in the hunt again tonight, but at least we’re on the podium, so that’s good.”


 

Logan Seavey (Sutter, Calif.), celebrating his 26th birthday on this night, doubled up as both the new Indiana Midget Week point leader and the brand new overall USAC National Midget championship point leader following a third-place result at Bloomington, his third top-three run in as many nights. Seavey now holds an 18-point lead in the IMW standindgs over Grant entering Saturday night’s penultimate round of the series at Lawrenceburg Speedway in his Abacus Racing/Indy Custom Stone – CG CPAs – Dozer’z Nut’z & Bolt’z/Spike/Stanton SR-11x.


 

“You always kind of have (the points) in the back of your mind, but in the moment, you’re running hard,” Seavey demonstrated. “If I was points racing, I probably would’ve followed them around in third. But I was trying to win that race. I was giving it everything I had, but I got myself a little tight there by trying the middle. I probably should’ve never given up on the cushion. I feel like we’ve been the best car on the cushion, but I gave up on it for the first time all week. I probably should’ve done that yesterday. I gave up on it a little bit there and fell in line, and with three, four, five to go, I got back up there and ran them back down. You’ve got to make really good decisions to win from ninth, especially when the track is that fast to begin with.”


 

 
===============

 

 

USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: June 9, 2023 – Bloomington Speedway – Bloomington, Indiana – 19th Annual Indiana Midget Week – 1/4-Mile Dirt Track


 

HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Justin Grant, 2, RMS-11.945; 2. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-12.031; 3. Jesse Love, 84, CBI-12.089; 4. Chase McDermand, 40, Mounce/Stout-12.106; 5. Kevin Thomas Jr., 23, Mounce/Stout-12.122; 6. Daniel Whitley, 58, Abacus-12.149; 7. Ryan Timms, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.188; 8. Gavin Miller, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.231; 9. Jade Avedisian, 71, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.238; 10. Cannon McIntosh, 08, Dave Mac Dalby-12.242; 11. Bryant Wiedeman, 81, CBI-12.251; 12. Thomas Meseraull, 7x, RMS-12.260; 13. Brenham Crouch, 1, Crouch-12.267; 14. Daison Pursley, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-12.268; 15. Emerson Axsom, 19A, Petry/Hayward-12.271; 16. Steve Buckwalter, 25B, Buckwalter-12.273; 17. Chase Johnson, 31, Beilman-12.295; 18. Taylor Reimer, 25K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.361; 19. Jacob Denney, 25, Malloy-12.380; 20. Chelby Hinton, 4, Klatt-12.400; 21. Kyle Beilman, 31B, Beilman-12.408; 22. Jake Andreotti, 25m, Malloy-12.412; 23. Chance Crum, 26, Rudeen-12.415; 24. Ethan Mitchell, 19m, Bundy Built-12.415; 25. Hayden Reinbold, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-12.416; 26. Robert Carson, 99K, LOK/Carson/Segur-12.901; 27. Justin Dickerson, 21D, Dickerson-13.280; 28.  Ashton Thompson, 19T, Mounce/Stout-12.398.


 

SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Justin Grant, 2. Steve Buckwalter, 3. Cannon McIntosh, 4. Ryan Timms, 5. Jake Andreotti, 6. Hayden Reinbold, 7. Brenham Crouch, 8. Chase McDermand, 9. Jacob Denney, 10. Ashton Thompson. NT


 

ROD END SUPPLY SECOND: HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Chase Johnson, 2. Daison Pursley, 3. Bryant Wiedeman, 4. Kevin Thomas Jr., 5. Gavin Miller, 6. Chelby Hinton, 7. Chance Crum, 8. Logan Seavey, 9. Robert Carson. 2:05.83


 

T.J. FORGED / CAR IQ THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Emerson Axsom, 2. Daniel Whitley, 3. Jade Avedisian, 4. Taylor Reimer, 5. Ethan Mitchell, 6. Jesse Love, 7. Thomas Meseraull, 8. Kyle Beilman, 9. Justin Dickerson. NT


 

ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI-FEATURE: (12 laps, top-7 transfer to the feature) 1. Logan Seavey, 2. Jesse Love, 3. Jacob Denney, 4. Thomas Meseraull, 5. Chance Crum, 6. Kyle Beilman, 7. Chase McDermand, 8. Brenham Crouch, 9. Hayden Reinbold, 10. Chelby Hinton, 11. Ashton Thompson, 12. Robert Carson, 13. Justin Dickerson. 2:44.58


 

FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Gavin Miller (2), 2. Justin Grant (6), 3. Logan Seavey (9), 4. Kevin Thomas Jr. (5), 5. Cannon McIntosh (12), 6. Ryan Timms (3), 7. Bryant Wiedeman (13), 8. Daison Pursley (15), 9. Daniel Whitley (4), 10. Jade Avedisian (1), 11. Jesse Love (10), 12. Taylor Reimer (17), 13. Jacob Denney (18), 14. Chance Crum (21), 15. Thomas Meseraull (14), 16. Emerson Axsom (7), 17. Jake Andreotti (20), 18. Ethan Mitchell (22), 19. Chase McDermand (11), 20. Steve Buckwalter (16), 21. Kyle Beilman (19), 22. Hayden Reinbold (23-P), 23. Chase Johnson (8). NT


 

(P) represents a provisional starter


 

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-14 Jade Avedisian, Laps 15-30 Gavin Miller.


 

USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Logan Seavey-476, 2-Jacob Denney-473, 3-Justin Grant-467, 4-Bryant Wiedeman-456, 5-Jade Avedisian-437, 6-Daison Pursley-432, 7-Chase McDermand-372, 8-Ryan Timms-369, 9-Cannon McIntosh-368, 10-Gavin Miller-361.


 

USAC INDIANA MIDGET WEEK POINTS: 1-Logan Seavey-325, 2-Justin Grant-307, 3-Buddy Kofoid-298, 4-Bryant Wiedeman-288, 5-Emerson Axsom-282, 6-Kevin Thomas Jr.-277, 7-Jacob Denney-272, 8-Jade Avedisian-255, 9-Gavin Miller-239, 10-Taylor Reimer-239.


 

USAC INDIANA MIDGET WEEK PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Gavin Miller-34, 2-Jacob Denney-29, 3-Bryant Wiedeman-26, 4-Taylor Reimer-24, 5-Logan Seavey-22, 6-Chase McDermand-22, 7-Chance Crum-22, 8-Jade Avedisian-21, 9-Justin Grant-20, 10-Cannon McIntosh-20.


 

OVERALL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Daison Pursley-57, 2-Logan Seavey-49, 3-Chase Stockon-43, 4-Justin Grant-41, 5-Matt Westfall-35, 6-Thomas Meseraull-34, 7-Gavin Miller-32, 8-Carson Garrett-31, 9-Bryant Wiedeman-30, 10-Brady Bacon-29.


 

NEXT USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: June 10, 2023 – Lawrenceburg Speedway – Lawrenceburg, Indiana – 19th Annual Indiana Midget Week – 3/8-Mile Dirt Track


 

 

CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:


 

Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Driver: Jesse Love (12.198)


 

Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier: Justin Grant (11.945)


 

Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner: Justin Grant


 

Rod End Supply Second Heat Winner: Chase Johnson


 

T.J. Forged / Car IQ Third Heat Winner: Emerson Axsom


 

Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Semi Winner: Logan Seavey


 

Irvin King Hard Charger: Cannon McIntosh (12th to 5th)


 

Well Earned & Well Done: Kofoid Charges to Victory at Lincoln Park

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media


 

Putnamville, Indiana (June 8, 2023)………Buddy Kofoid was keen on winning a USAC Indiana Midget Week feature in which he felt he earned, no ifs, ands or buts about it.


 

On Thursday night at Putnamville’s Lincoln Park Speedway, the Penngrove, Calif. native made that priority number one during round four of the series at the 5/16-mile dirt oval.


 

Three nights earlier at Circle City Raceway, Kofoid felt he inherited a victory, for all intents and purposes, when race leader Logan Seavey’s mount suffered mechanical problems just three laps from the finish line.


 

Three nights later at Lincoln Park, Kofoid took control of the narrative during the final 10 laps with a sudden surge to the front, using the high line to pick his way from fourth to first in a stream of succession, ultimately taking over the lead with nine laps remaining from Emerson Axsom.


 

The victory was the 24th in USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship competition for Kofoid, who equaled National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame inductee Billy Engelhart for 21st on the all-time series win list. In the process, Kofoid surpassed 23-time winners Christopher Bell, Pancho Carter, Tommy Copp, Kevin Olson and Billy Vukovich.


 

Out of those 24 wins, this one was, perhaps, among the most rewarding, having to earn it the hard way in his Keith Kunz-Curb-Agajanian Motorsports/Mobil 1 – Toyota – TRD/Bullet By Spike/Speedway Toyota.


 

“I’m happy to finally earn it, if you will, on that one,” Kofoid exclaimed.


 

In what was intended to be a partial USAC Indiana Midget Week schedule from the get-go due to his sprint car racing commitments this coming weekend, Kofoid turned IMW into a practical ATM throughout his four-race stint with the series.


 

With two victories, a second and a fourth to his credit during the week, Kofoid made his Lincoln Park performance a fitting curtain call in what is intended to be his final Indiana Midget Week appearance of the year, forgoing the opportunity to become the first three-peat champion in the miniseries’ 19-year history.


 

Kofoid admitted it’s a mixed bag of feelings, having to leave the series while maintaining a 46-point Indiana Midget Week championship lead. But his brief reentrance to the series following a five-month hiatus from midget racing quickly showed that he had no rust whatsoever to shake off from beginning to end.


 

“It is kind of bittersweet,” Kofoid admitted. “It makes it hard to leave.  I’d love to stay after the week we’ve had, but I’ll be back for more midget races. I guess it shows that I’ve still kind of got it, I guess.”


 

Emerson Axsom led the field to the green flag for the 30-lap main event, which was halted almost instantly when 20th starting Cannon McIntosh tumbled over the top of the turn one banking during the initial start. The incident knocked the Bixby, Okla. driver from the race, but he was able to walk away under his own power.


 

Axsom bolted out to the early lead when the matter at hand resumed and led the first eight laps without much confrontation. However, during that stretch, Wednesday night’s Gas City winner Logan Seavey was just getting wound up as he blitzed the banks and was just about to pull even with Axsom for the lead when the caution was signaled for a turn four spin and stop by Hayden Reinbold (19th) on lap nine.


 

Maintaining control up front on the resumption was Axsom. However, Justin Grant found a home on the bottom and crawled past Seavey for the second spot on lap 12. By lap 14, the trio all ran in a cluster, crossing the start/finish line three-wide with Grant low, Seavey high and Axsom cutting right through the middle to clasp onto the lead by a half car length.


 

But Axsom’s reign at the front was dethroned a single lap later when Seavey got his wheels rolling on the high line to surpass Axsom off turn four on lap 15, a near replay of the duel the same two waged just 24 hours earlier at Gas City. However, Axsom refused to go quietly into the night, digging in his heels and carving a pathway back into the lead on the 16th trip around the oval.


 

To that point, Kofoid was a mere afterthought, running a distant fourth. Seemingly shot out of a cannon, Kofoid suddenly grabbed ahold of an opportunity and the momentum from the top line. On lap 20, he sliced in front of Seavey in turn three for the third spot. On the 21st lap, he went to the perimeter and disposed of Grant for second with a massive run off turn four. On lap 22, Kofoid stuck to his guns and surged ahead with a run on the edge to beat Axsom by a car length at the stripe.


 

When the competition is congregated within a relatively same space, often the key is to go to a space everyone else isn’t occupying. Kofoid took that notion to heart, and promptly made his own plans and followed them through to the front.


 

“I figured everyone’s running the bottom, so I can’t follow them,” Kofoid logically offered. “I figured if I could run it through the middle, maybe I could pick up the crumbs on exit and out-speed them. I was like, well, I might as well try and go above it, then turn down and try to build up speed. It took a long time, but it finally worked. It got to a point where I could actually kind of run the top or even just under the cushion through the crumbs in (turns) one and two. Then I figured with how treacherous it was in three and four, if I got down, nobody was going to drive around me.”


 

Outside of a lap 24 yellow flag for a tangle between Brenham Crouch (19th) and Chance Crum (20th), there was no stopping Kofoid. Over the final seven laps, Kofoid incrementally and continuously extended his lead, closing out his victorious performance by a 0.842 second margin.


 

Kofoid was followed to the line by Axsom and Seavey while the RMS Racing team of Grant and Thomas Meseraull finished with their best results of the week, taking fourth and fifth, respectively.


 

It was second again for Emerson Axsom for the second consecutive evening in his Petry-Hayward Motorsports/Capital Industries – IPC/Spike/Speedway Toyota. The Greenfield, Ind. native brought it home as the runner-up once more after leading a race-high 20 laps in Lincoln Park’s 30-lap feature. For Axsom, it was his third career second place result during a USAC Indiana Midget Week feature event.


 

A repeat winning performance wasn’t quite in the cards for Logan Seavey on Thursday night at Lincoln Park. Nonetheless, his third place finish did pay dividends toward a pair of title runs. The Sutter, Calif. driver moved up to second in the USAC Indiana Midget Week point standings, and essentially holds the point lead with Kofoid’s impending absence expected for the remainder of the week. Seavey, the 2018 USAC National Midget champ, also elevated himself from fourth to second in the overall USAC Midget National Championship standings.


 

Furthermore, Seavey was also the night’s Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier in his Abacus Racing/Indy Custom Stone – CG CPAs – Dozer’z Nut’z & Bolt’z/Spike/Stanton SR-11x. Seavey’s 13th such fast qualifying effort moved him into a tie for 45th all-time in series history with George Benson, Jimmy Knight and J.J. Yeley. In doing so, Seavey surpassed the 12 career fast times garnered by Larry Rice and Josh Wise.


 

 
===============

 

 

USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: June 8, 2023 – Lincoln Park Speedway – Putnamville, Indiana – 19th Annual Indiana Midget Week – 5/16-Mile Dirt Track


 

HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-12.834; 2. Daison Pursley, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-13.044; 3. Taylor Reimer, 25K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.086; 4. Bryant Wiedeman, 81, CBI-13.103; 5. Kevin Thomas Jr., 88, Thorson-13.104; 6. Justin Grant, 2, RMS-13.125; 7. Emerson Axsom, 19A, Petry/Hayward-13.133; 8. Daniel Whitley, 58, Abacus-13.141; 9. Chase McDermand, 40, Mounce/Stout-13.161; 10. Buddy Kofoid, 67K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.167; 11. Jade Avedisian, 71, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.197; 12. Gavin Miller, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.200; 13. Jacob Denney, 25, Malloy-13.203; 14. Jake Andreotti, 25m, Malloy-13.229; 15. Thomas Meseraull, 7x, RMS-13.242; 16. Hayden Reinbold, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-13.248; 17. Ethan Mitchell, 19m, Bundy Built-13.256; 18. Jesse Love, 84, CBI-13.297; 19. Chelby Hinton, 4, Klatt-13.342; 20. Ryan Timms, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.358; 21. Cannon McIntosh, 08, Dave Mac Dalby-13.390; 22. Steve Buckwalter, 25B, Buckwalter-13.415; 23. Brenham Crouch, 1, Crouch-13.447; 24. Chance Crum, 26, Rudeen-13.589; 25. Oliver Akard, 41, OMR-13.645; 26. Eastin Ashbrooke, 19T, Mounce/Stout-13.846; 27. Jeff Schindler, 8x, Schindler-14.073; 28. Justin Dickerson, 21D, Dickerson-14.240; 29. Robert Carson, 99K, LOK/Carson/Segur-14.279.


 

SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Buddy Kofoid, 2. Bryant Wiedeman, 3. Logan Seavey, 4. Hayden Reinbold, 5. Emerson Axsom, 6. Steve Buckwalter, 7. Chelby Hinton, 8. Justin Dickerson, 9. Jacob Denney, 10. Oliver Akard. NT


 

ROD END SUPPLY SECOND: HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Ethan Mitchell, 2. Jake Andreotti, 3. Daniel Whitley, 4. Brenham Crouch, 5. Daison Pursley, 6. Jade Avedisian, 7. Kevin Thomas Jr., 8. Ryan Timms, 9. Eastin Ashbrooke, 10. Robert Carson. 2:14.11


 

T.J. FORGED / CAR IQ THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Thomas Meseraull, 2. Chase McDermand, 3. Justin Grant, 4. Jesse Love, 5. Taylor Reimer, 6. Gavin Miller, 7. Cannon McIntosh, 8. Chance Crum, 9. Jeff Schindler. NT


 

ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI-FEATURE: (12 laps, top-7 transfer to the feature) 1. Kevin Thomas Jr., 2. Jacob Denney, 3. Cannon McIntosh, 4. Jade Avedisian, 5. Ryan Timms, 6. Gavin Miller, 7. Chance Crum, 8. Eastin Ashbrooke, 9. Steve Buckwalter, 10. Chelby Hinton, 11. Oliver Akard, 12. Jeff Schindler, 13. Justin Dickerson. NT


 

FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Buddy Kofoid (7), 2. Emerson Axsom (1), 3. Logan Seavey (6), 4. Justin Grant (2), 5. Thomas Meseraull (8), 6. Bryant Wiedeman (3), 7. Jade Avedisian (13), 8. Taylor Reimer (4), 9. Gavin Miller (14), 10. Daison Pursley (5), 11. Kevin Thomas Jr. (10), 12. Jacob Denney (15), 13. Ryan Timms (19), 14. Jake Andreotti (16), 15. Daniel Whitley (11), 16. Jesse Love (18), 17. Chase McDermand (12), 18. Chance Crum (22), 19. Ethan Mitchell (9), 20. Brenham Crouch (21), 21. Hayden Reinbold (17), 22. Cannon McIntosh (20). NT


 

**Cannon McIntosh flipped on lap 1 of the feature.


 

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-14 Emerson Axsom, Lap 15 Logan Seavey, Laps 16-21 Emerson Axsom, Laps 22-30 Buddy Kofoid.


 

USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Jacob Denney-434, 2-Logan Seavey-403, 3-Bryant Wiedeman-398, 4-Jade Avedisian-388, 5-Justin Grant-386, 6-Daison Pursley-376, 7-Chase McDermand-343, 8-Jake Andreotti-320, 9-Taylor Reimer-315, 10-Thomas Meseraull-310.


 

USAC INDIANA MIDGET WEEK POINTS: 1-Buddy Kofoid-298, 2-Logan Seavey-252, 3-Emerson Axsom-243, 4-Jacob Denney-233, 5-Bryant Wiedeman-230, 6-Justin Grant-226, 7-Kevin Thomas Jr.-209, 8-Jade Avedisian-206, 9-Taylor Reimer-195, 10-Chase McDermand-188.


 

USAC INDIANA MIDGET PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Gavin Miller-33, 2-Jacob Denney-22, 3-Bryant Wiedeman-20, 4-Jade Avedisian-20, 5-Taylor Reimer-19, 6-Buddy Kofoid-18, 7-Logan Seavey-16, 8-Chase McDermand-16, 9-Tanner Thorson-16, 10-Ryan Timms-14.


 

OVERALL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Daison Pursley-50, 2-Logan Seavey-43, 3-Chase Stockon-43, 4-Justin Grant-37, 5-Matt Westfall-35, 6-Thomas Meseraull-34, 7-Carson Garrett-31, 8-Gavin Miller-31, 9-Brady Bacon-29, 10-C.J. Leary-27.


 

NEXT USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: June 9, 2023 – Bloomington Speedway – Bloomington, Indiana – 19th Annual Indiana Midget Week – 1/4-Mile Dirt Track


 

 

CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:


 

Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Driver: Logan Seavey (13.033)


 

Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier: Logan Seavey (12.834)


 

Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner: Buddy Kofoid


 

Rod End Supply Second Heat Winner: Ethan Mitchell


 

T.J. Forged / Car IQ Third Heat Winner: Thomas Meseraull


 

Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Semi Winner: Kevin Thomas Jr.


 

Irvin King Hard Charger: Buddy Kofoid (7th to 1st)

 

 

 


Shock & Awe: Seavey “Sends It” to Late-Race Victory at Gas City

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media


 

Gas City, Indiana (June 7, 2023)………Leading with just a few laps to go during Wednesday night’s USAC Indiana Midget Week round at Gas City I-69 Speedway, Logan Seavey had to have felt a bit of déjà vu. After all, he had been in this situation before.


 

As a matter of fact, he had been in the same exact position one race earlier on Monday night at Circle City Raceway, leading the race when an ignition switch failed on him just three laps from the finish line.


 

At Gas City, Seavey wasn’t about to be bitten by the heartbreak bug once more, instead taking matters into his own hands, even despite a destroyed left rear shock that was weighing on his conscience.


 

The Sutter, Calif. native saw the lead slip from his grip on a restart with four laps remaining, hooking the turn four cushion consecutively on laps 27 and 28, before nailing it with exquisite precision coming to the white flag to take over the lead.


 

Hanging on for dear life as if he were riding Bodacious the rodeo bull around the quarter-mile dirt oval, Seavey slipped over the cliff on the backstretch on the final lap before jumping back on and diving to the bottom of turn three to secure his first USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship feature victory since the November 2021 Turkey Night Grand Prix, and the first ever for his Abacus Racing team, by a 0.427 second margin.


 

Seavey and the team wanted this one badly, and after Monday’s excruciating ending, the final scene at Gas City was downright Hollywood-esque for he and his Abacus Racing/Indy Custom Stone – CG CPAs – Dozer’z Nut’z & Bolt’z/Spike/Stanton SR-11x.


 

“We were all pretty disappointed after Monday, but that really opened our eyes that we were going to win, and when it was going to happen, it was just going to be that much more special,” Seavey explained. “That’s just because they’re so hard to win and we were so good Monday, and it stings even worse when you’re just that good.”


 

The triumph for the 2019 USAC Indiana Midget Week champion was the ninth of his USAC National Midget career, equaling him with Billy Boat, Chad Boat, Tony Elliott, Chuck Gurney and Thomas Meseraull for 78th on the all-time series win list.


 

Starting fourth on the grid, Seavey found himself amid a three-part harmony at the front of the field during the initial several laps in which he and front row starters Emerson Axsom and Jacob Denney waged an intense war which saw each driver volley the lead back and forth amongst each other repeatedly for five straight laps.


 

Axsom officially controlled the first three at the stripe before Seavey shot past both to place himself at the forefront of the field on lap four. It was but a fleeting moment for Seavey as Axsom took patrol of the bottom and lurched ahead to take over the top spot on the fifth circuit.


 

Seavey kept digging, throwing successful slide jobs on Axsom in turns one and two on laps seven and eight. However, Axsom was able to thwart Seavey by driving back under off turn two each time to retain the lead. On lap nine, Seavey’s sticktoitiveness paid off as he dove under Axsom in turn one, sticking the bottom this time instead of drifting up the bank, and put himself in prime position at the head of the field.


 

Under 10 laps to go, Seavey was in full command, leading by a full straightaway over his nearest competition – Axsom and Buddy Kofoid, who were in the midst of a seemingly never-ending side-by-side tussle for the runner-up spot.


 

Everything was well in hand for Seavey at the moment, but traffic loomed as he began to close in on the tail end of the field. With six to go, Seavey became bogged up on the turn four cushion as he arrived upon the 20th place running car of Jake Andreotti who got out of shape atop the turn four cushion. As a result, the interval of Seavey’s 2.5 second lead had a full second shaved off.


 

Moments later, Seavey’s margin went from slim to nil when 13th running Daison Pursley slowed to a stop in turn four on lap 27 with a flat left rear tire, dropping him to a 16th place result. The ensuing restart witnessed even more trouble as a stack up in the pack, which began with a tangle between Denney and Cannon McIntosh in turn two while battling for eighth. Both drivers stopped, and the resulting accordion effect sent Hayden Reinbold (17th) flipping over, and ultimately, walking away from.


 

But the most major problem of all was with the race leader. Though leading, Seavey now had his hands full with a machine that was now missing a key component for the final stretch run.


 

“When I got to the lappers, I made a mistake and blew the left rear shock off the thing; it was a handful,” Seavey relayed. “I knew I was making mistakes getting into turn three, and there was a big hole. I didn’t have my shock to hold me down, so I was just bouncing across. On that last restart before the red, I was struggling to get to the lapped cars, so I was telling myself to run the bottom, but I knew that without the left rear shock, I was struggling through three and four. I was just going to commit to the bottom, and if Emerson or somebody else was going to go up there and pound it, I was just going to say, ‘hats off.’ But (crewman) Johnny (Cofer) got me riled up under the red, and told me to run the top, so I wasn’t going to go to the bottom. So, I just went back up there and kept pounding it.”


 

Axsom, sitting second on the lap 27 restart, pounced on the situation at hand and rolled the bottom straight into the lead in turns three and four, which seemed to be quite a bit better on that end than it was in turns one and two where Seavey was able to surge ahead on the high side once again only to lose it back to Axsom again in three and four on lap 28.


 

Trailing by four car lengths entering turn three and coming to the white flag, Seavey let it all hang out and let it rip on the high side, blasting by Axsom to take over the lead by a car length at the flag stand. Seavey never relented on the 30th and final lap as he dipped his right rear tire over the edge of the back straight, then changed course by clamping down on the bottom of turns three and four to lock up the lead and a long-awaited win, giving it all he could muster in a true win-it or wear-it scenario, if there ever was one.


 

“(I made) so many mistakes, and tried to give it away about three times,” Seavey admitted. “I don’t even know how I went through one and two so fast. I don’t think I’ve ever been more committed to one and two than I was there with two to go. I was completely turned left, wide open and this thing made it around the corner. I drove off the back stretch on the white flag lap, and I got down in front of him, luckily, and I knew I was going to flip if I tried to go through three and four one more time. Johnny said he wanted a big check for the wall in the shop, so hopefully, this is the first of many.”


 

Axsom came home in second place with Chase McDermand third, new USAC Indiana Midget Week point leader Buddy Kofoid fourth and Bryant Wiedeman rounding out the top-five with a fifth.


 

It was “almost” for Axsom (Franklin, Ind.) who led three different times for a total of nine laps in his Petry-Hayward Motorsports/Capital Industries – IPC/Spike/Speedway Toyota. Yet it was still his best USAC National Midget feature result since a runner-up finish at California’s Placerville Speedway in November of 2021.


 

It was a career best night for Chase McDermand (Springfield, Ill.) in the USAC ranks on this evening. He earned a personal best USAC National Midget finish of third, topping his best previous career finish of fourth, which he earned just last Sunday night at Tri-State Speedway in his      Mounce-Stout Motorsports/Rockwell Security – MPV Express/Spike/Stanton SR-11x.


 

Meanwhile, it was another fine run for Gavin Miller (Allentown, Pa.).  The USAC National Midget Rookie of the Year contender advanced nine positions in the feature from 19th to 10th, earning himself Irvin King hard charger honors for the second time in the first three races of USAC Indiana Midget Week, also doing so with a 21st to 10th performance on Sunday at Tri-State, and he remains in command of the IMW ProSource Passing Master standings with 28 total positions advanced throughout the first three nights of competition.


 

ARCA Menards Stock Car Series point leader Jesse Love (Menlo Park, Calif.) set a new one-lap USAC National Midget track record at Gas City during Honest Abe Roofing Qualifying with a time of 11.788 seconds, the first sub-12 second lap ever turned by the series at the track.  Love was one of five drivers under the former mark of 12.048, set by Rico Abreu in 2016.


 

 
===============

 

 

USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: June 7, 2023 – Gas City I-69 Speedway – Gas City, Indiana – 19th Annual Indiana Midget Week – 1/4-Mile Dirt Track


 

HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Jesse Love, 84, CBI-11.788 (New Track Record); 2. Kevin Thomas Jr., 23, Mounce/Stout-11.899; 3. Tanner Thorson, 88, Thorson-12.001; 4. Chase McDermand, 40, Mounce/Stout-12.003; 5. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-12.046; 6. Daniel Whitley, 58, Abacus-12.050; 7. Justin Grant, 2, RMS-12.056; 8. Jacob Denney, 25, Malloy-12.059; 9. Emerson Axsom, 19A, Petry/Hayward-12.096; 10. Bryant Wiedeman, 81, CBI-12.127; 11. Taylor Reimer, 25K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.134; 12. Jade Avedisian, 71, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.138; 13. Ethan Mitchell, 19m, Bundy Built-12.156; 14. Daison Pursley, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-12.160; 15. Cannon McIntosh, 08, Dave Mac Dalby-12.163; 16. Hayden Reinbold, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-12.194; 17. Buddy Kofoid, 67K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.195; 18. Chelby Hinton, 4, Klatt-12.215; 19. Brenham Crouch, 1, Crouch-12.225; 20. Jake Andreotti, 25m, Malloy-12.282; 21. Gavin Miller, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.307; 22. Ryan Timms, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.386; 23. Steve Buckwalter, 25B, Buckwalter-12.398; 24. Bryan Stanfill, 75AU, Griffiths-12.404; 25. Chance Crum, 26, Rudeen-12.469; 26. Adam Taylor, 7T, ATM-12.517; 27. Kayla Roell, 4K, Roell-12.652; 28. Eastin Ashbrooke, 19T, Mounce/Stout-12.818; 29. Jakeb Boxell, 44JB, Boxell/Merkler-12.852; 30. Oliver Akard, 41, OMR-12.879; 31. Robert Carson, 99K, LOK/Carson/Segur-12.953; 32. Scott Orr, 88s, Orr-13.470; 33. Thomas Meseraull, 7x, RMS-NT.


 

SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Buddy Kofoid, 2. Emerson Axsom, 3. Logan Seavey, 4. Chance Crum, 5. Jesse Love, 6. Jakeb Boxell, 7. Ethan Mitchell, 8. Gavin Miller, 9. Thomas Meseraull. NT


 

ROD END SUPPLY SECOND: HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Bryant Wiedeman, 2. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3. Ryan Timms, 4. Chelby Hinton, 5. Daniel Whitley, 6. Daison Pursley, 7. Adam Taylor, 8. Oliver Akard. 2:06.58


 

T.J. FORGED THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Brenham Crouch, 2. Steve Buckwalter, 3. Justin Grant, 4. Taylor Reimer, 5. Cannon McIntosh, 6. Tanner Thorson, 7. Kayla Roell, 8. Robert Carson. 2:07.64

CAR IQ FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Jacob Denney, 2. Chase McDermand, 3. Jade Avedisian, 4. Jake Andreotti, 5. Hayden Reinbold, 6. Eastin Ashbrooke, 7. Bryan Stanfill. NT


 

ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI-FEATURE: (12 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature) 1. Tanner Thorson, 2. Cannon McIntosh, 3. Jesse Love, 4. Daison Pursley, 5. Daniel Whitley, 6. Gavin Miller, 7. Hayden Reinbold, 8. Eastin Ashbrooke, 9. Adam Taylor, 10. Kayla Roell, 11. Jakeb Boxell, 12. Oliver Akard, 13. Robert Carson, 14. Bryan Stanfill, 15. Ethan Mitchell, 16. Thomas Meseraull. NT


 

FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Logan Seavey (4), 2. Emerson Axsom (1), 3. Chase McDermand (5), 4. Buddy Kofoid (8), 5. Bryant Wiedeman (7), 6. Justin Grant (3), 7. Kevin Thomas Jr. (6), 8. Taylor Reimer (13), 9. Tanner Thorson (11), 10. Gavin Miller (19), 11. Jesse Love (10), 12. Jade Avedisian (14), 13. Ryan Timms (20), 14. Cannon McIntosh (16), 15. Brenham Crouch (9), 16. Daison Pursley (15), 17. Daniel Whitley (12), 18. Jake Andreotti (18), 19. Jacob Denney (2), 20. Chelby Hinton (17), 21. Chance Crum (22), 22. Hayden Reinbold (23-P), 23. Steve Buckwalter (21). NT


 

(P) represents a provisional starter


 

**Gavin Miller flipped during the first heat. Hayden Reinbold flipped on lap 27 of the feature.


 

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-3 Emerson Axsom, Lap 4 Logan Seavey, Laps 5-8 Emerson Axsom, Laps 9-26 Logan Seavey, Laps 27-28 Emerson Axsom, Laps 29-30 Logan Seavey.


 

USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Jacob Denney-392, 2-Jade Avedisian-335, 3-Bryant Wiedeman-333, 4-Logan Seavey-327, 5-Daison Pursley-324, 6-Justin Grant-318, 7-Chase McDermand-307, 8-Cannon McIntosh-279, 9-Jake Andreotti-278, 10-Ryan Timms-271.


 

USAC INDIANA MIDGET WEEK POINTS: 1-Buddy Kofoid-220, 2-Jacob Denney-191, 3-Logan Seavey-176, 4-Emerson Axsom-172, 5-Bryant Wiedeman-165, 6-Kevin Thomas Jr.-162, 7-Justin Grant-158, 8-Jade Avedisian-153, 9-Chase McDermand-152, 10-Taylor Reimer-138.


 

USAC INDIANA MIDGET PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Gavin Miller-28, 2-Taylor Reimer-18, 3-Jacob Denney-17, 4-Bryant Wiedeman-17, 5-Tanner Thorson-16, 6-Chase McDermand-14, 7-Jade Avedisian-14, 8-Buddy Kofoid-10, 9-Logan Seavey-10, 10-Bryan Stanfill-10.


 

OVERALL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Daison Pursley-50, 2-Chase Stockon-43, 3-Logan Seavey-40, 4-Justin Grant-37, 5-Matt Westfall-35, 6-Thomas Meseraull-31, 7-Carson Garrett-31, 8-Brady Bacon-29, 9-C.J. Leary-27, 10-Gavin Miller-26.


 

NEXT USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: June 8, 2023 – Lincoln Park Speedway – Putnamville, Indiana – 19th Annual Indiana Midget Week – 5/16-Mile Dirt Track


 

 

CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:


 

Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Driver: Logan Seavey (12.252)


 

Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier: Jesse Love (11.788)


 

Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner: Buddy Kofoid


 

Rod End Supply Second Heat Winner: Bryant Wiedeman


 

T.J. Forged Third Heat Winner: Brenham Crouch


 

Car IQ Fourth Heat Winner: Jacob Denney


 

Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Semi Winner: Tanner Thorson


 

Irvin King Hard Charger: Gavin Miller (19th to 10th)

 

Dave Dellinger


Right Place, Right Time: Kofoid Finds Good Fortune Late to Win at Circle City

Indy Racing

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media


 

Indianapolis, Indiana (June 5, 2023)………On occasion, one man’s misfortune is another man’s good fortune.


 

That was certainly the case during Monday night’s second round of USAC Indiana Midget Week at Circle City Raceway in which three different drivers led the last full lap they completed in the feature.


 

Two of those particular drivers fell by the wayside while Buddy Kofoid was the recipient of all the glory after leading only the final three laps to earn his first USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship victory of the season in his Keith Kunz-Curb-Agajanian Motorsports/Mobil 1 – Toyota – TRD/Bullet By Spike/Speedway Toyota.


 

Series Rookie Gavin Miller crashed out while leading on lap 13, and then Logan Seavey appeared to have the race in the bag with three to go when an ignition switch failed on him just three laps from the finish line.


 

Those set of circumstances elevated Kofoid (Penngrove, Calif.) into the lead and into victory lane for the 23rd time in his USAC National Midget career, surpassing fellow series champions Tom Bigelow, Bobby East and Shorty Templeman while tying Christopher Bell, Pancho Carter, Tommy Copp, Kevin Olson and Billy Vukovich for 22nd on the all-time series win list.


 

With his fourth career USAC Indiana Midget Week victory, Kofoid is now one of six drivers to win in the event on at least four occasions alongside Bryan Clauson and Kyle Larson (9), Christopher Bell and Tanner Thorson (5) and Rico Abreu (4), all of whom were victorious in the series for Keith Kunz Motorsports, a team which now stands at a record 29 IMW triumphs.


 

Sometimes, an individual would rather be lucky than good, and that may be partially true, but for the second consecutive evening, the two-time and reigning USAC Indiana Midget Week champ was in contention during the final laps and had placed himself in position to pounce if trouble were to befall a fellow frontrunner.


 

That did not come to fruition for Kofoid during Sunday night’s IMW opener at Tri-State Speedway as he finished in the runner-up spot to Jacob Denney. However, on Monday night, nearly resigning himself to another second place result, a combination of luck, good fortune and being in the right place at the right time allowed Kofoid to strike a victorious pose when all was said and done for the first time this season.


 

“We were good most of the day; we just didn’t quite find our balance,” Kofoid said. “The feature was probably the best I felt. I kind of got lucky; I was stagnant in second, but unfortunately, Gavin and Logan had their deals.”


 

It was certainly a reversal of fortunes for Kofoid compared to his only other Circle City outing with the USAC National Midgets in 2021, where he spun while running inside the top-five early in the going. After restarting at the tail that night two years ago, Kofoid charged his way back into the top-ten by lap 19 before flipping and finishing an uncharacteristic 19th.


 

On this night, however, it was Kofoid’s KKM teammate, Miller, who presided over the field early, leading the initial 12 laps as he jetted out to a near one-and-a-half second advantage over the rest of the field. However, his bid for a first career USAC National victory came to a crashing halt on unlucky lap 13 when he caught the turn one cushion and barrel-rolled three times into the outside wall. Miller walked away from the incident under his own power.


 

In turn, that handed the lead over to Kofoid who assumed the point with Justin Grant in tow for the lap 13 restart. Nonetheless, Kofoid’s turn up front amounted to a short-lived experience. Seventh-starting Seavey found the right tune and picked his way past Grant on the restart, then tracked down and slid Kofoid for the lead in turn one on lap 21.


 

Being the leader can often be difficult when those behind the frontrunner find something in the surface to propel them forward. Before the leader realizes that fact, it can sometimes be too late. This was the scenario that played out for Kofoid who admitted that it wasn’t exactly clear where he could put the car to maximize his lead.


 

“I felt kind of good, but I didn’t know where I needed to be, really,” Kofoid acknowledged. “The track was really tricky, and I felt there was a distinct line down in one and two, but I felt like there were about three different things you could’ve done in three and four. I was just doing the wrong thing and didn’t know. I didn’t hear anyone, and I didn’t see anyone until Logan got around me.”


 

Additionally, this was only Kofoid’s second USAC National Midget start of the season, both of which have come over the past two nights as he works to regain the feel and comfortability of wheeling a midget again after participating regularly in winged sprint car competition throughout the bulk of this year.


 

“For the most part, I knew where I needed to stay away from,” Kofoid stated. “There was a hole getting into (turn) one and you could go under it, which is what I was doing at the beginning and sliding myself. I thought that was where I needed to be early on, then I moved up and went around the hole and felt faster and better, but where I was off was just knowing where to be in turns three and four. Part of that is on me, but it’s just hard to read the track. I couldn’t really hear anyone, and I didn’t see anyone to my inside, then all of a sudden, Logan got a good run and slid me. Right after that, I knew where I needed to be, and I was able to kind of stay with him. I wasn’t catching him, and I wasn’t gaining on him, but I got some luck and that’s how it goes sometimes.”


 

A bit further back, trouble struck Kyle Cummins, who won a USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship feature on these very grounds of Circle City Raceway just 10 nights earlier. Contact on lap 22 sent the 11th running Cummins tumbling in turn four, causing substantial front end damage to his ride, which sent Cummins to the sidelines for good.


 

All by his lonesome and possessing a hefty 1.26 second margin of lead over second running Kofoid with a mere three laps to go, trouble reached its cruel hand out to Seavey when the car’s ignition switch fell apart, forcing him to the infield and out of the race on lap 28.


 

Now thrusted to the lead, Kofoid went untouched over the remaining three laps to earn a comfortable 2.575 second victory on the quarter-mile dirt oval located on the southeast side of Indianapolis, Ind. with Jacob Denney bringing home second and Bryant Wiedeman in third.


 

However, it was anything but comfortable for the rest of the field coming to the checkered flag. In the preceding laps, a jumble of roughly 10 drivers duked it out for a position inside the top-five. Ryan Timms, heavily involved at the forefront of the spot jostling, wound up stopped backwards at the turn four exit, dropping him from fifth to 19th in the final results.


 

Tanner Thorson eked through the madness to earn a season-best fourth while Emerson Axsom traversed from 12th to fifth during the final two laps to round out the top-five at the checkered flag.


 

Jacob Denney (Galloway, Ohio) extended his point lead in both the USAC Indiana Midget Week and USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship standings by virtue of his runner-up finish at Circle City, his third-straight top-two result with the series in his Tom Malloy/Trench Shoring – Rodela Specialty Fabrication/King/Ed Pink Toyota.


 

It was the best performance of the year for Bryant Wiedeman (Colby, Kan.) who made a valiant charge through the field from 15th to third in his Nutrien Ag Solutions – PristineAuction.com – K & C Drywall/Spike/Speedway Toyota. It was Wiedeman’s best such finish since joining CB Industries at the start of the 2023 campaign.


 

In two career USAC National Midget starts at Circle City, Tanner Thorson (Minden, Nev.) has now advanced a whopping 21 total positions.  He went 16th to 8th in 2021 and 17th to 4th on Monday night to earn a $100 Hard Charger bonus courtesy of Irvin King.


 

Furthermore, Kevin Thomas Jr. (Cullman, Ala.) set fast qualifying time with the USAC National Midgets for the sixth straight season on Monday night.  Only he and Logan Seavey currently hold the distinction of earning at least one Honest Abe Roofing fast qualifying time with the series each year between 2018 and 2023.


 

 
===============

 

 

USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: June 5, 2023 – Circle City Raceway – Indianapolis, Indiana – 19th Annual Indiana Midget Week – 1/4-Mile Dirt Track


 

HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Kevin Thomas Jr., 23, Mounce/Stout-12.385 (New Track Record); 2. Jacob Denney, 25, Malloy-12.391; 3. Jade Avedisian, 71, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.425; 4. Justin Grant, 2, RMS-12.505; 5. Ryan Timms, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.510; 6. Emerson Axsom, 19A, Petry/Hayward-12.522; 7. Buddy Kofoid, 67K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.547; 8. Gavin Miller, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.550; 9. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-12.577; 10. Jake Andreotti, 25m, Malloy-12.581; 11. Daniel Whitley, 58, Abacus-12.586; 12. Jesse Love, 84, CBI-12.602; 13. Daison Pursley, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-12.664; 14. Bryant Wiedeman, 81, CBI-12.672; 15. Chance Crum, 26, Rudeen-12.680; 16. Tanner Thorson, 88, Thorson-12.733; 17. Cannon McIntosh, 08, Dave Mac Dalby-12.747; 18. Chase McDermand, 40, Mounce/Stout-12.817; 19. Thomas Meseraull, 7x, RMS-12.825; 20. Taylor Reimer, 25K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.838; 21. Hayden Reinbold, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-12.932; 22. Kyle Cummins, 3G, Styres-12.999; 23. Bryan Stanfill, 75AU, Griffiths-13.033; 24. Chelby Hinton, 4, Klatt-13.084; 25. Eastin Ashbrooke, 19T, Mounce/Stout-13.290; 26. Oliver Akard, 41, OMR-13.363; 27. Rylan Gray, 06, Gray-13.505; 28. Robert Carson, 99K, LOK/Carson/Segur-13.997.


 

SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Daison Pursley, 2. Justin Grant, 3. Tanner Thorson, 4. Jake Andreotti, 5. Buddy Kofoid, 6. Kevin Thomas Jr., 7. Kyle Cummins, 8. Thomas Meseraull, 9. Eastin Ashbrooke, 10. Robert Carson. NT


 

ROD END SUPPLY SECOND: HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Cannon McIntosh, 2. Bryant Wiedeman, 3. Jacob Denney, 4. Gavin Miller, 5. Ryan Timms, 6. Bryan Stanfill, 7. Taylor Reimer, 8. Daniel Whitley, 9. Oliver Akard. NT


 

T.J. FORGED/CAR IQ THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Logan Seavey, 2. Jesse Love, 3. Chance Crum, 4. Emerson Axsom, 5. Hayden Reinbold, 6. Chelby Hinton, 7. Rylan Gray, 8. Chase McDermand, 9. Jade Avedisian. NT


 

ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI-FEATURE: (12 laps, top-7 transfer to the feature) 1. Kevin Thomas Jr., 2. Daniel Whitley, 3. Taylor Reimer, 4. Kyle Cummins, 5. Jade Avedisian, 6. Thomas Meseraull, 7. Bryan Stanfill, 8. Chelby Hinton, 9. Eastin Ashbrooke, 10. Rylan Gray, 11. Oliver Akard, 12. Robert Carson. NT


 

FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Buddy Kofoid (2), 2. Jacob Denney (6), 3. Bryant Wiedeman (15), 4. Tanner Thorson (17), 5. Emerson Axsom (3), 6. Cannon McIntosh (9), 7. Taylor Reimer (19), 8. Jade Avedisian (11), 9. Justin Grant (5), 10. Kevin Thomas Jr. (10), 11. Daison Pursley (8), 12. Jake Andreotti (12), 13. Thomas Meseraull (18), 14. Daniel Whitley (13), 15. Jesse Love (14), 16. Chase McDermand (23-P), 17. Hayden Reinbold (20), 18. Bryan Stanfill (22), 19. Ryan Timms (4), 20. Logan Seavey (7), 21. Chance Crum (16), 22. Kyle Cummins (21), 23. Gavin Miller (1). NT


 

(P) represents a provisional starter


 

**Jade Avedisian flipped during the third heat. Gavin Miller flipped on lap 13 of the feature. Kyle Cummins flipped on lap 22 of the feature.


 

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-12 Gavin Miller, Laps 13-20 Buddy Kofoid, Laps 21-27 Logan Seavey, Laps 28-30 Buddy Kofoid.


 

USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Jacob Denney-359, 2-Daison Pursley-292, 3-Jade Avedisian-290, 4-Bryant Wiedeman-267, 5-Justin Grant-257, 6-Logan Seavey-249, 7-Jake Andreotti-246, 8-Cannon McIntosh-241, 9-Thomas Meseraull-234, 10-Chase McDermand-233.


 

USAC INDIANA MIDGET WEEK POINTS: 1-Jacob Denney-158, 2-Buddy Kofoid-151, 3-Jade Avedisian-108, 4-Jake Andreotti-105, 5-Bryant Wiedeman-99, 6-Emerson Axsom-98, 7-Logan Seavey-98, 8-Kevin Thomas Jr.-98, 9-Daison Pursley-98, 10-Justin Grant-97.


 

USAC INDIANA MIDGET PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Gavin Miller-17, 2-Jacob Denney-13, 3-Tanner Thorson-13, 4-Taylor Reimer-13, 5-Bryant Wiedeman-12, 6-Jade Avedisian-11, 7-Bryan Stanfill-10, 8-Chase McDermand-8, 9-Zach Daum-8, 10-Kyle Cummins-7.


 

OVERALL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Daison Pursley-50, 2-Chase Stockon-43, 3-Justin Grant-37, 4-Logan Seavey-37, 5-Matt Westfall-35, 6-Thomas Meseraull-31, 7-Carson Garrett-31, 8-Brady Bacon-29, 9-C.J. Leary-27, 10-Jake Swanson-23.


 

NEXT USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: June 7, 2023 – Gas City I-69 Speedway – Gas City, Indiana – 19th Annual Indiana Midget Week – 1/4-Mile Dirt Track


 

 

CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:


 

Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Driver: Jesse Love (12.366)


 

Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier: Kevin Thomas Jr. (12.385)


 

Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner: Daison Pursley


 

Rod End Supply Second Heat Winner: Cannon McIntosh


 

T.J. Forged / Car IQ Third Heat Winner: Logan Seavey


 

Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Semi Winner: Kevin Thomas Jr.


 

Irvin King Hard Charger: Tanner Thorson (17th to 4th)

 


 

Denney’s Grand Opening: Ohioan Prevails in USAC Indiana Midget Week Opener at Tri-State

DB3

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media


 

Haubstadt, Indiana (June 4, 2023)………To win at Haubstadt, Indiana’s Tri-State Speedway, one must execute nearly perfectly.


 

Every lap, every turn, every movement of the steering wheel. Every little bit makes a difference.

Add into the mix a two-time and defending USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Champion on your rear bumper for the final restart and you have a true brew of one of the most challenging feats to overcome.


 

Turns out, Jacob Denney was game for all of it.


 

The Galloway, Ohio native, who just graduated from high school a week ago, stood tall when posed with the final exam. Denney answered not one, but two slide jobs levied by Buddy Kofoid during the final six laps en route to capturing the opening round of the 19th annual USAC Indiana Midget Week series on Sunday night at the 1/4-mile dirt oval.


 

It was Denney’s second consecutive USAC National Midget feature victory after clicking off a win in the most recent series outing on May 21 at Missouri’s Sweet Springs Motorsports Complex in his Tom Malloy/Trench Shoring – Rodela Specialty Fabrication/King/Ed Pink Toyota.


 

Overall, it was Denney’s third career USAC National Midget feature triumph, the first of which occurred this week one year ago when he turned himself into a known commodity on the national scene during the USAC Indiana Midget Week event at Lincoln Park Speedway.


 

Now, during this same week one year later, he’s both the USAC National Midget and USAC Indiana Midget Week point leader following his Tri-State win which, believe or not, came after a pair of finishes outside the top-20 in his first two series appearances at the track in 2022.


 

Earlier in the evening, Denney captured his first career Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifying award with the series, then transferred safely through his heat race to place him in the sixth starting position for the 30-lap feature event following the six-car inversion.


 

Initially, Justin Grant was the one to beat as the most recent USAC National Midget feature winner at Tri-State last Fall sprinted to the lead at the start past pole sitter Ryan Timms. Timms slid Grant multiple times for the lead on laps two and three in turns one and two but couldn't make the move stick as Grant roared back each time to reclaim the lead.


 

Meanwhile, Denney was practically picking off a car per lap as he streamed into the second spot on lap five past Timms and immediately began to slash the gap between himself and Grant for the race lead, a move which stirred the confidence in Denney that he could track down Grant in no time flat if he stuck to his guns.


 

“I was just trying to find where I fit in line,” Denney recalled. “I slid Ryan (Timms) one time, and it was from way back. So, I knew if I got a good run on Justin, I could slide him from just about anywhere.”


 

On lap nine, Denney made his first bid to take over, diving under Grant on the bottom of the third turn. Two laps later, on the 11th circuit, Kofoid, making his first USAC start of the season, followed suit past Grant with a move reminiscent of Denney’s to assume the second position.


 

A few moments later, the program’s lone red flag was displayed when contact between Thomas Meseraull and Taylor Reimer sent both cars flipping in turn four on the 12th lap while the two were clashing for the 12th spot. Both drivers were able to walk away. Reimer continued on, finishing 17th, while Meseraull was sidelined the remainder of the way with a 22nd place result.


 

Denney held a commanding 1.452 second advantage before the stoppage but was now required to rebuild his lead from scratch starting with the lap 13 restart, which wasn’t a problem on this night as strong as he and his team were. Denney quickly constructed a 1.5 second lead as the race pressed past the halfway point.


 

As Denney maintained total control while gliding through lapped traffic, trouble hit the third and fourth place cars of Justin Grant and Kevin Thomas Jr., respectively. Grant performed a half-spin in turn two on lap 25 and was tagged by the nearby car of Thomas, sending both to a stop. Both restarted but managed finishes of only 14th (Thomas) and 16th (Grant).


 

Needless to say, the caution was untimely and unwanted in the eyes of the race leader, Jacob Denney.


 

“When we got that caution, I was dreading every minute of it and trying not to overthink my life there,” Denney explained. “I know Buddy’s one of the best, and he’s won the national title two years in a row. Even though he’s been out of the car for a while, he’s still no joke.”


 

Right from the drop of the green, predictably, Denney was under full attack from Kofoid. Kofoid pulled the pin on his first slider in turn one on the lap 25 restart, but the cool, calm and collected Denney never flinched, powering back underneath Kofoid to retake possession of his lead on both laps 25 and 26.


 

It proved to be the winning move for Denney who escaped the clutches of one of the all-time series greats by staking his own claim to become the sport’s newest frontline star.


 

Denney won the thing by a 0.79 second margin with Kofoid coming home second ahead of Kyle Cummins in third. Chase McDermand earned a career best USAC finish of fourth while 2019 Indiana Midget Week champion Logan Seavey rounded out the top-five.


 

It was quite a ride for Denney who admitted that his ride around Tri-State’s oval was elbows up and gnarly, to say the least. He also made it a priority to run his own race and not worry about the surrounding details no matter how strong throughout his 30-lap quest.


 

“I started making a lot of mistakes in lapped traffic,” Denney acknowledged. “I was also like, ‘don’t look at the lap board, don’t look at the lap board.’  But finally, I looked up and I’m like, ‘okay, only 29 more and we’ll be okay.”


 

It was second again for Buddy Kofoid in his Keith Kunz-Curb-Agajanian Motorsports/Toyota – TRD – Mobil 1/Bullet By Spike/Speedway Toyota. The Penngrove, Calif. native threw his share of haymakers in the final laps to no avail. However, in the end, he brought home his third consecutive runner-up result in as many starts at Tri-State dating back to June of 2022.


 

Kyle Cummins (Princeton, Ind.) is one of the all-time greats of sprint car racing at Tri-State Speedway with 28 career victories, second all-time to Kevin Briscoe at press time. Cummins also possesses the same knack in USAC National Midget competition at The Class Track. In seven career USAC National Midget feature starts at Tri-State, he's now grabbed seven consecutive top-tens following a solid third place finish on Sunday night in his Glenn Styres Racing/Ohsweken Speedway – ENRIAM – Elite – QuickCar/Spike/Stanton SR-11x.


 

USAC National Midget Rookie of the Year contender Gavin Miller (Allentown, Pa.) earned Irving King Hard Charger honors in what was his first career visit to Tri-State, starting 21st and finishing 10th.


 

 
===============

 

 

USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: June 4, 2023 – Tri-State Speedway – Haubstadt, Indiana – 19th Annual Indiana Midget Week – 1/4-Mile Dirt Track


 

HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Jacob Denney, 25, Malloy-13.612; 2. Kevin Thomas Jr., 23, Mounce/Stout-13.668; 3. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-13.770; 4. Buddy Kofoid, 67K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.815; 5. Justin Grant, 2, RMS-13.816; 6. Jade Avedisian, 71, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.858; 7. Cannon McIntosh, 08, Dave Mac Dalby-13.874; 8. Ryan Timms, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.896; 9. Chase McDermand, 40, Mounce/Stout-13.930; 10. Bryant Wiedeman, 81, CBI-13.952; 11. Taylor Reimer, 25K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.972; 12. Jake Andreotti, 25m, Malloy-13.987; 13. Daison Pursley, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-14.003; 14. Jesse Love, 84, CBI-14.029; 15. Hayden Reinbold, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-14.053; 16. Thomas Meseraull, 7x, RMS-14.071; 17. Zach Daum, 7u, Trifecta-14.081; 18. Kyle Cummins, 3G, Styres-14.122; 19. Chance Crum, 26, Rudeen-14.160; 20. Emerson Axsom, 19A, Petry/Hayward-14.237; 21. Chelby Hinton, 4, Klatt-14.278; 22. Gavin Miller, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-14.504; 23. Ethan Mitchell, 19m, Bundy Built-14.673; 24. Critter Malone, 21, Reynolds/Ripper-14.880; 25. Bryan Stanfill, 75AU, Griffiths-14.930; 26. Jeff Schindler, 8x, Schindler-15.015; 27. Rylan Gray, 06, Gray-15.357; 28. Robert Carson, 99K, LOK/Carson/Segur-16.076.


 

SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Daison Pursley, 2. Buddy Kofoid, 3. Thomas Meseraull, 4. Bryant Wiedeman, 5. Jacob Denney, 6. Cannon McIntosh, 7. Gavin Miller, 8. Chance Crum, 9. Robert Carson, 10. Bryan Stanfill. 2:19.92


 

ROD END SUPPLY SECOND: HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Justin Grant, 2. Zach Daum, 3. Jesse Love, 4. Kevin Thomas Jr., 5. Ryan Timms, 6. Taylor Reimer, 7. Emerson Axsom, 8. Jeff Schindler, 9. Ethan Mitchell. NT


 

T.J. FORGED/CAR IQ THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Kyle Cummins, 2. Chase McDermand, 3. Jake Andreotti, 4. Logan Seavey, 5. Hayden Reinbold, 6. Jade Avedisian, 7. Critter Malone, 8. Rylan Gray, 9. Chelby Hinton. NT


 

ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI-FEATURE: (12 laps, top-7 transfer to the feature) 1. Jade Avedisian, 2. Gavin Miller, 3. Chance Crum, 4. Emerson Axsom, 5. Taylor Reimer, 6. Bryan Stanfill, 7. Chelby Hinton, 8. Robert Carson, 9. Rylan Gray, 10. Jeff Schindler, 11. Critter Malone, 12. Cannon McIntosh. NT


 

FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Jacob Denney (6), 2. Buddy Kofoid (3), 3. Kyle Cummins (8), 4. Chase McDermand (10), 5. Logan Seavey (4), 6. Jake Andreotti (13), 7. Cannon McIntosh (23-P), 8. Jade Avedisian (9), 9. Zach Daum (17), 10. Gavin Miller (21), 11. Daison Pursley (7), 12. Ryan Timms (1), 13. Hayden Reinbold (15), 14. Kevin Thomas Jr. (5), 15. Emerson Axsom (19), 16. Justin Grant (2), 17. Taylor Reimer (12), 18. Chance Crum (18), 19. Jesse Love (14), 20. Bryant Wiedeman (11), 21. Bryan Stanfill (22), 22. Thomas Meseraull (16), 23. Chelby Hinton (20). NT


 

(P) represents a provisional starter


 

**Thomas Meseraull & Taylor Reimer flipped on lap 12 of the feature.


 

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-8 Justin Grant, Laps 9-30 Jacob Denney.


 

USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Jacob Denney-281, 2-Daison Pursley-243, 3-Jade Avedisian-236, 4-Logan Seavey-218, 5-Jake Andreotti-202, 6-Chase McDermand-202, 7-Justin Grant-201, 8-Ryan Timms-197, 9-Bryant Wiedeman-196, 10-Thomas Meseraull-196.


 

USAC INDIANA MIDGET WEEK POINTS: 1-Jacob Denney-80, 2-Buddy Kofoid-77, 3-Kyle Cummins-72, 4-Chase McDermand-68, 5-Logan Seavey-67, 6-Jake Andreotti-61, 7-Jade Avedisian-54, 8-Zach Daum-53, 9-Daison Pursley-49, 10-Gavin Miller-46.


 

USAC INDIANA MIDGET PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Gavin Miller-17, 2-Chase McDermand-8, 3-Zach Daum-8, 4-Jake Andreotti-7, 5-Jacob Denney-6, 6-Kyle Cummins-5, 7-Emerson Axsom-5, 8-Robert Carson-5, 9-Buddy Kofoid-4, 10-Justin Grant-4.


 

OVERALL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Daison Pursley-50, 2-Chase Stockon-43, 3-Justin Grant-37, 4-Logan Seavey-37, 5-Matt Westfall-35, 6-Carson Garrett-31, 7-Brady Bacon-29, 8-C.J. Leary-27, 9-Thomas Meseraull-26, 10-Jake Swanson-23.


 

NEXT USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: June 5, 2023 – Circle City Raceway – Indianapolis, Indiana – 19th Annual Indiana Midget Week – 1/4-Mile Dirt Track


 

 

CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:


 

Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Driver: Kevin Thomas Jr. (13.814)


 

Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier: Jacob Denney (13.612)


 

Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner: Daison Pursley


 

Rod End Supply Second Heat Winner: Justin Grant


 

T.J. Forged / Car IQ Third Heat Winner: Kyle Cummins


 

Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Semi Winner: Jade Avedisian


 

Irvin King Hard Charger: Gavin Miller (21st to 10th)

 


Corn Belt Hero! Swanson Scores Last Lap Triumph at Knoxville

 

Ray Hague

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media


 

Knoxville, Iowa (June 3, 2023)………Jake Swanson set the tone early on during Saturday night’s Avanti Windows & Doors Corn Belt Clash at Iowa’s Knoxville Raceway.


 

To start things off, the Anaheim, Calif. native set quick time during qualifying, then made the show with a last lap pass to grab the fourth and final transfer spot in his heat race.


 

During the feature, he led for less than a quarter mile, but it just so happened to be the money lap worth $12,000 as he chased down Brady Bacon in turn three on the 30th and final circuit to capture his second points-paying USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship feature of the season in his Team AZ Racing/Apache Transport – Stratis Construction – USW Cat Construction/DRC/1-Way Chevy.


 

For Swanson, he’s now won three of his four career USAC National Sprint Car features on half-mile dirt ovals. This one was certainly a memorable affair, having come in front of a crowd of racing royalty on National Sprint Car Hall of Fame induction weekend at one of the most famed dirt tracks in the world.


 

“I’m so pumped to get Team AZ to winner’s circle at Knoxville,” Swanson exclaimed. “I’m so pumped to add my name to a list of winners that is just unbelievable. I’m so thankful to have the people behind me that I do and I’m so thankful to be winning USAC races.”


 

Swanson rolled off from the sixth position as front row combatants C.J. Leary and Kyle Cummins took turns trading places at the front of the field where it was polesitter Leary ably nipped Cummins at the line by a single car length on each of the first two laps.


 

Cummins took charge on the third go-around as he hit the bottom of turn one and slid up in front of Leary by the time the pair hit turn two within the shadow of the museum’s facade. Leary got Cummins back briefly in turn three, but Cummins shot down underneath to secure the lead for the time being.


 

In the meantime, fifth-starting Bacon took second from Leary on lap six with a turn one slider, then began his pursuit of Cummins whose lead rapidly dwindled as Bacon chopped his way into contention. With a big run on the back straightaway, Bacon breezed by Cummins to take over the helm on lap eight.


 

Almost instantly, Bacon upped his lead to a half-straight as he caught the back of the field at the race’s halfway point. As he worked lapped traffic, Bacon swiftly sliced his way through to increase his lead to 4.313 seconds with only nine laps to go.


 

However, the feature’s lone yellow flag was displayed on lap 22 when 23rd running Logan Calderwood stopped at the top of turn four, resetting the deck for the final stretch run.


 

Back behind the front two, reigning series champion Justin Grant swiped the third spot on the restart from Leary. As Leary cut under and the two drifted side-by-side through turn two, space was tight, resulting in contact and wound up with Grant’s left rear wheel hiked in the air. As Grant came to, Mitchel Moles brushed his right side tires off Grant’s left side sidewalls. Grant regathered himself but dropped all the way down to 15th in the running order at, seemingly, the snap of a finger.


 

The biggest beneficiary was Swanson who took fourth from Grant, then tracked down Leary with an outside turn two move for the third spot on lap 24. He followed up with an undercut of Cummins on lap 26 for second in turn three.


 

At that moment, Bacon was in full control, a full two seconds ahead with just four laps remaining, and even held a similarly steady 1.5 second lead with just two to go. However, the tide shifted quickly, with Bacon experiencing tire trouble and Swanson soon found himself right on Bacon’s bumper on the final lap.


 

In turn three, Swanson made the winning move, darting to the bottom and sliding across Bacon’s nose and sticking his right rear in the rubber before finishing off the final corner to score a “look-what-I-found” victory. How do you do?


 

“I knew that the rubber was coming but I didn’t think I was going to have a shot to win the thing,” Swanson admitted. “The rubber came really hard and really fast, and I didn’t expect that, but we sure capitalized on it.”


 

Perhaps it was a premonition. Perhaps just a gut feeling. But the way the final laps unfurled, it was as if it was all part of the team’s plan to strike when others found disarray.


 

“I was just so tight into (the cushion), and I just had to be really ginger with it because I smashed it a couple times in turns three and four and the thing biked up,” Swanson explained. “The whole time, I was like ‘man, I wish I could talk to my crew chief right now.’ Then, sure enough, the turn of events took place, and I couldn’t believe that we were so good in the rubber. It was all a testament to Mike’s (Burkhart) choices. I think he knew all this was coming.”


 

Although it was easy to get jumbled up on the treacherous cushion, quick thinking was the remedy for Swanson to counteract what very well could’ve put him into the guardrail and sullied his shot.


 

“It was really tricky,” Swanson related. “You kind of had to short slide, and it got a little sketchy there before the rubber. There was a fine line between powering around the outside of it and not, so you really had to make the right choices. Otherwise, you were going to get stuffed up into the wall. It was just the way the race was, and I don’t think anyone could do much about it. I was just trying to be smart and save my racecar for the end and I’m glad I did.”


 

For the bulk of the race, it looked like Bacon had it in the bank. But after leading a race-high 21 laps, the Broken Arrow, Okla. driver fell just two turns shy of his record-extending fifth career USAC National Sprint Car win at Knoxville. Instead, he was forced to settle for a second place finish on this night, which was his fifth-straight top-two result at Knoxville in his Dynamics, Inc./Tel-Star Technologies – DriveWFX.com – Fatheadz Eyewear/Triple X/Rider Chevy. As a consolation prize, Bacon became the new series point leader, surpassing Cummins who was running fifth on the final lap but fell to 14th with a tire issue.


 

This night marked the best performance of Mitchel Moles’ USAC National Sprint Car season. In the Raisin City, California native’s first Knoxville appearance, he brought home a third place result after charging all the way from seventh in the final eight laps in his Reinbold-Underwood Motorsports/AME Electrical – Mesilla Valley Transportation/Spike/Stanton Chevy.


 

Chase Johnson’s first run with the USAC National Sprint Cars at Knoxville paid off. For his hard charging performance from 19th to 7th in the feature, Penngrove, California’s Johnson collected a $2,000 bonus courtesy of Avanti Windows & Doors.


 

Meanwhile, Johnson’s Yeley Racing teammate, J.J. Yeley, made his first USAC National Sprint Car feature start since 2009 Indiana Sprint Week at Kamp Motor Speedway. The Phoenix, Arizona driver’s Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Semi-Feature victory on Saturday night was his first triumph in a last chance race with the series since the July 19, 2003 round of Indiana Sprint Week at Lincoln Park Speedway.


 

Swanson’s fourth career points paying USAC National Sprint Car feature win moved him to 102nd all-time alongside Rob Chaney, Cary Faas, Jesse Hockett, Van Johnson, Steve Kinser, Michael Lewis, Ralph Liguori, Don Nordhorn, Lee Osborne, Red Riegel, Ken Schrader, Al Smith and Danny Smith.


 

Furthermore, Swanson recorded his eighth career Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifying time with the USAC National Sprint Cars on Saturday night at Knoxville. That tied him for 57th all-time with Bubby Jones, Kelly Kinser, Pat O’Connor and Hunter Schuerenberg. Ironic it is that on this night, Swanson also captured his first Bubby Jones Master of Goin’ Faster Presented By Spire Sports + Entertainment feature event win.  Swanson now leads the points after three rounds of the 10-race miniseries by a 16-point margin over Mitchel Moles.


 

 
=====================

 

 

USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: June 3, 2023 – Knoxville Raceway – Knoxville, Iowa – 1/2-Mile Dirt Track – Avanti Windows & Doors Corn Belt Clash – Co-Sanctioned by the USAC Wholesale Batteries Midwest Wingless Racing Association


 

HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Jake Swanson, 21AZ, Team AZ-19.642; 2. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-19.667; 3. Daison Pursley, 5p, KO-19.868; 4. Kyle Cummins, 3R, Rock Steady-19.938; 5. Emerson Axsom, 47BC, Clauson Marshall-19.960; 6. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-19.983; 7. C.J. Leary, 15x, BGE Dougherty-19.985; 8. Max Adams, 17GP, Dutcher-19.992; 9. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-20.014; 10. Matt Westfall, 33m, Marshall-20.065; 11. Riley Kreisel, 91, DKR-20.135; 12. Chase Stockon, 5s, KO-20.142; 13. Logan Seavey, 2B, 2B Racing-20.200; 14. J.J. Yeley, 2J, Yeley-20.272; 15. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-20.293; 16. Justin Zimmerman, 1, D-Up-20.308; 17. Wyatt Burks, 11w, Burks-20.350; 18. Carson Garrett, 15, BGE Dougherty-20.390; 19. Matt Mitchell, 37, Mitchell-20.405; 20. Isaac Chapple, 6D, Chapple/Hall-20.412; 21. Chase Johnson, 2, Yeley-20.456; 22. Logan Calderwood, 6, Calderwood-20.461; 23. Charles Davis Jr., 47, Davis-20.549; 24. Wesley Smith, 44, Smith-20.709; 25. Dalton Stevens, 99x, Stevens-20.978; 26. Don Droud Jr., 1m, Burch-21.158; 27. Jonathan Hughes, 67, Hughes-21.399; 28. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 51T, Tafoya-21.668; 29. Brian Ruhlman, 49, Ruhlman-21.806; 30. Ben Woods, 11B, B & R-21.904; 31. Vinny Ward, 82, Ward-22.368; 32. Doug Sylvester, 12x, Sylvester-22.638.


 

SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Mitchel Moles, 2. Chase Johnson, 3. Emerson Axsom, 4. Jake Swanson, 5. Wyatt Burks, 6. Logan Seavey, 7. Dalton Stevens, 8. Brian Ruhlman. 2:54.94


 

ROD END SUPPLY SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Carson Garrett, 2. Matt Westfall, 3. Justin Grant, 4. Brady Bacon, 5. J.J. Yeley, 6. Don Droud Jr., 7. Ben Woods, 8. Logan Calderwood. NT


 

T.J. FORGED THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. C.J. Leary, 2. Matt Mitchell, 3. Robert Ballou, 4. Riley Kreisel, 5. Charles Davis Jr., 6. Vinny Ward, 7. Jonathan Hughes, 8. Daison Pursley. 2:55.63


 

CAR IQ FOURTH HEAT: (8 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Wesley Smith, 2. Justin Zimmerman, 3. Kyle Cummins, 4. Max Adams, 5. Chase Stockon, 6. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 7. Doug Sylvester, 8. Isaac Chapple. NT


 

ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (12 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature) 1. J.J. Yeley, 2. Chase Stockon, 3. Charles Davis Jr., 4. Logan Calderwood, 5. Daison Pursley, 6. Dalton Stevens, 7. Logan Seavey, 8. Wyatt Burks, 9. Don Droud Jr., 10. Vinny Ward, 11. Ben Woods, 12. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 13. Doug Sylvester, 14. Jonathan Hughes, 15. Brian Ruhlman. 4:14.99


 

FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Jake Swanson (6), 2. Brady Bacon (5), 3. Mitchel Moles (7), 4. C.J. Leary (1), 5. Emerson Axsom (3), 6. Matt Westfall (12), 7. Chase Johnson (19), 8. Justin Zimmerman (17), 9. Daison Pursley (10), 10. Riley Kreisel (13), 11. Robert Ballou (16), 12. Wesley Smith (9), 13. Carson Garrett (8), 14. Kyle Cummins (4), 15. Justin Grant (2), 16. Charles Davis Jr. (21), 17. J.J. Yeley (15), 18. Matt Mitchell (18), 19. Chase Stockon (14), 20. Logan Seavey (23-P), 21. Dalton Stevens (22), 22. Max Adams (11), 23. Logan Calderwood (20). NT


 

(P) represents a provisional starter


 

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-2 C.J. Leary, Laps 3-8 Kyle Cummins, Laps 9-29 Brady Bacon, Lap 30 Jake Swanson.


 

**Daison Pursley flipped during the third heat. Isaac Chapple flipped during the fourth heat.


 

USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Brady Bacon-676, 2-Kyle Cummins-665, 3-Jake Swanson-660, 4-C.J. Leary-658, 5-Emerson Axsom-634, 6-Justin Grant-612, 7-Mitchel Moles-579, 8-Chase Stockon-534, 9-Matt Westfall-489, 10-Kevin Thomas Jr.-478.


 

BUBBY JONES MASTER OF GOIN’ FASTER PRESENTED BY SPIRE SPORTS + ENTERTAINMENT POINTS: 1-Jake Swanson-234, 2-Mitchel Moles-218, 3-C.J. Leary-211, 4-Brady Bacon-187, 5-Kyle Cummins-187, 6-Emerson Axsom-184, 7-Matt Westfall-152, 8-Chase Stockon-149, 9-Max Adams-144, 10-Carson Garrett-142.


 

OVERALL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Daison Pursley-50, 2-Chase Stockon-43, 3-Justin Grant-37, 4-Logan Seavey-37, 5-Matt Westfall-35, 6-Carson Garrett-31, 7-Brady Bacon-29, 8-C.J. Leary-27, 9-Thomas Meseraull-26, 10-Jake Swanson-23.


 

NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACES: June 13, 2023 – Grandview Speedway – Bechtelsville, Pennsylvania – 1/3-Mile Dirt Track – 16th Eastern Storm / Jesse Hockett Classic


 

 

CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:


 

Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Driver: Emerson Axsom (19.632)


 

Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier: Jake Swanson (19.642)


 

Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner: Mitchel Moles


 

Rod End Supply Second Heat Winner: Carson Garrett


 

T.J. Forged Third Heat Winner: C.J. Leary


 

Car IQ Fourth Heat Winner: Wesley Smith


 

Avanti Windows & Doors $500 Final Transfer Spot Bonus: Jake Swanson, Brady Bacon, Riley Kreisel & Max Adams


 

Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Semi Winner: J.J. Yeley


 

Avanti Windows & Doors $416 Transfer Bonus: J.J. Yeley, Chase Stockon, Charles Davis Jr., Logan Calderwood, Daison Pursley & Dalton Stevens


 

Avanti Windows & Doors $2,000 Hard Charger Bonus: Chase Johnson (19th to 7th)

 


HARD KNOX: CORN BELT CLASH NIGHT 1 RAINED OUT,USAC SPRINTS RETURN TO KNOXVILLE SATURDAY

 

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media


 

Knoxville, Iowa (June 2, 2023)………Continuous rainfall throughout late afternoon forced cancellation of Friday night’s Avanti Windows & Doors Corn Belt Clash at Iowa’s Knoxville Raceway.


 

Thirty-one drivers and cars were entered for the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship event, co-sanctioned by the USAC Wholesale Batteries Midwest Wingless Racing Association.


 

The Corn Belt Clash resumes on Saturday, June 3, with a complete event for the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship, culminating in a 30-lap feature paying $12,000-to-win. Knoxville Championship 410 Sprint Cars will be on hand Saturday.


 

On Saturday night, the front gates open at 6pm Central and hot laps at 6:30pm followed immediately by qualifying and racing. General admission tickets are $20 for adults, $15 for ages 13-19, $10 for ages 6-12 and free for ages 5 & under. Reserved tickets are $25 for adults, $20 for ages 13-19, $15 for ages 6-12 and free for ages 5 & under. Pit passes are $30.


 

Advance tickets are on sale at www.KnoxvilleRaceway.com.


 

The event can be watched LIVE on FloRacing at https://flosports.link/3ZjeooQ.


 

 
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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: June 2, 2023 – Knoxville Raceway – Knoxville, Iowa – 1/2-Mile Dirt Track – Avanti Windows & Doors Corn Belt Clash – Co-Sanctioned by the USAC Wholesale Batteries Midwest Wingless Racing Association


 

DRIVERS & TEAMS IN ATTENDANCE: (31) Justin Zimmerman (#1 D-Up), Don Droud Jr. (#1m Burch), Chase Johnson (#2 Yeley), Logan Seavey (#2B 2B Racing), J.J. Yeley (#2J Yeley), Kyle Cummins (#3R Rock Steady), Justin Grant (#4 TOPP), Daison Pursley (#5p KO), Chase Stockon (#5s KO), Isaac Chapple (#6 Chapple-Hall), Logan Calderwood (#6c Calderwood), Ben Woods (#11B B & R), Wyatt Burks (#11w Burks), Robert Ballou (#12 Ballou), Doug Sylvester (#12x Sylvester), Carson Garrett (#15 BGE Dougherty), C.J. Leary (#15x BGE Dougherty), Max Adams (#17GP Dutcher), Mitchel Moles (#19AZ Reinbold-Underwood), Jake Swanson (#21AZ Team AZ), Matt Westfall (#33m Marshall), Matt Mitchell (#37 Mitchell), Wesley Smith (#44 Smith), Charles Davis Jr. (#47 Davis), Emerson Axsom (#47BC Clauson Marshall), Brian Ruhlman (#49 Ruhlman), Eddie Tafoya Jr. (#51T Tafoya), Jonathan Hughes (#67 Hughes), Brady Bacon (#69 Dynamics), Vinny Ward (#82 Ward) & Dalton Stevens (#99x Stevens).


 

USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Kyle Cummins-621, 2-Brady Bacon-599, 3-C.J. Leary-589, 4-Jake Swanson-579, 5-Justin Grant-572, 6-Emerson Axsom-568, 7-Mitchel Moles-507, 8-Chase Stockon-506, 9-Kevin Thomas Jr.-478, 10-Robert Ballou-428.


 

USAC WHOLESALE BATTERIES MIDWEST WINGLESS RACING ASSOCIATION POINTS: 1-Braydon Cromwell-770, 2-Wyatt Burks-760, 3-Brad Wyatt-725, 4-Chad Winfrey-665, 5-Chris Parkinson-655, 6-Justin Johnson-555, 7-Zach Clark-525, 8-Buddy Parker-445, 9-Kory Schudy-445, 10-Chad Goff-400.


 

OVERALL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Daison Pursley-49, 2-Chase Stockon-43, 3-Justin Grant-37, 4-Carson Garrett-31, 5-C.J. Leary-27, 6-Matt Westfall-27, 7-Brady Bacon-26, 8-Thomas Meseraull-26, 9-Logan Seavey-24, 10-Kevin Thomas Jr.-20.


 

NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: June 3, 2023 – Knoxville Raceway – Knoxville, Iowa – 1/2-Mile Dirt Track – Avanti Windows & Doors Corn Belt Clash – Co-Sanctioned by the USAC Wholesale Batteries Midwest Wingless Racing Association

 

 


Welcome to the Palace: USAC’s Majestic Silver Crown Series Takes on Port Royal Saturday

Dave Dellinger

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media


 

Port Royal, Pennsylvania (June 15, 2023)………Last June, it was quite clear that Logan Seavey loves Port Royal Speedway and Port Royal’s love back to him was requited.


 

The Sutter, Calif. native’s first ever visit to the Pennsylvania half-mile dirt oval in 2022 resulted in a match made straight out of a storybook.


 

This Saturday night, June 17, Seavey returns to the scene for the second ever visit by the USAC Silver Crown National Championship to Port Royal in a fascinating doubleheader with the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship.


 

Seavey is one of 33 entries in Port Royal’s Silver Crown arsenal this weekend, a list that’s chockfull of stars, legends, up-and-comers and race winning contenders.


 

Seavey swept both USAC features that made him the first driver to capture main event wins in the USAC Silver Crown and USAC National Sprint Car divisions on the same day in nearly nine years. And his Silver Crown performance to close out the evening was the stuff made of legends.


 

On a restart with two to go, Matt Westfall led the initial lap following the lap 49 restart by running through the middle of the racetrack while Seavey committed himself to banging off the outside fence up top. Westfall stayed steady and led Seavey by a single car length as the two crossed under chief starter Warren Alston’s white flag.


 

Seavey clipped the turn two outside guardrail not once, but twice and possibly three times as he vaulted himself ahead of Westfall midway down the back straightaway. Once Seavey’s rear bumper cleared Westfall’s front bumper, Seavey changed course and headed to the bottom to steal away Westfall’s low line.


 

Both drivers couldn’t quite hold the grip on the bottom in turn three, and both simultaneously drifted up the track surface in synchronicity. Exiting turn four for the final time, Seavey could finally breathe a sense of relief with the finish line in sight and a two-car length gap separating himself from Westfall at the checkered flag.


 

 

THE DIRTY DOZEN


 

Twelve drivers are expected to pull double duty by crossing over between both the USAC Silver Crown and USAC National Sprint Cars this Saturday at Port Royal as they attempt to repeat Seavey’s feat.


 

Among the dozen pulling double-duty are Seavey himself as well as Matt Mitchell (Yorba Linda, Calif.), C.J. Leary (Greenfield, Ind.), Brady Bacon (Broken Arrow, Okla.), Jake Swanson (Anaheim, Calif.), Emerson Axsom (Franklin, Ind.), Chase Stockon (Fort Branch, Ind.), Shane Cottle (Kansas, Ill.), Matt Westfall (Pleasant Hill, Ohio), Justin Grant (Ione, Calif.), Mario Clouser (Auburn, Ill.) and Mitchel Moles (Raisin City, Calif.).


 

Seventeen drivers in last year’s feature starting lineup return to the fold this Saturday. Besides Seavey, Westfall will make his way back to Port Royal where he led a race-high 30 laps in 2022, finishing second and just narrowly missing out on his first career series win.


 

Bacon ran third a year ago with Leary fifth. Leary led the first 15 laps and qualified for the pole position by establishing a new track record for the series at Port Royal with a lap of 21.402 seconds. Cottle scored sixth with seven-time Silver Crown champion Kody Swanson (Kingsburg, Calif.) eighth and local hot shoe Carmen Perigo (Stoystown, Pa.), who earned hard charger honors by advancing from 19th to 10th.


 

Additional Port Royal Silver Crown returnees come from last year’s last chance qualifying race winner Stockon (12th), Sylvania, Ohio’s Austin Nemire (15th), Sunbury, Pennsylvania’s Mark Smith (16th), Anaheim, California’s Jake Swanson (17th), Pendleton, Indiana’s Travis Welpott (18th), Columbus, New Jersey’s Mark Bitner (19th), Argos, Indiana’s Tom Paterson (21st), 2020 USAC Silver Crown champion Justin Grant and 2022 Silver Crown Rookie of the Year Gregg Cory from Shelbyville, Ind.


 

 

CHANGE UPS


 

The initial entry list showed Emerson Axsom as the driver of the Five Three Motorsports. That particular seat will now be occupied by Steve Buckwalter (Royersford, Pa.) who returns to the series, and the same team for which he drove for, for the first time since 2019.


 

Buckwalter, a veteran of 26 Silver Crown starts between 2006-2019, nearly won the series round in his home state of Pennsylvania in 2019 until a last lap incident quashed their chances of victory.


 

Kevin Thomas Jr. had piloted the Five Three Motorsports No. 53 this past May at the Belleville (Kan.) High Banks.


 

Furthermore, Shane Cockrum (Benton, Ill.) intended to return for the event after finishing seventh a year ago but will be absent.


 

 

FIRST TIMERS IN THE PALACE


 

While 16 drivers in this Saturday’s lineup started the Silver Crown race at Port Royal a year ago, 17 more will be attempting to crack their first Port Royal lineup.


 

Three individuals attempted to make the show in 2022 but missed the cut due to mechanical troubles and/or not transferring out of the qualifying race: Kaylee Bryson (Muskogee, Okla.), Russ Gamester (Peru, Ind.) and Dave Berkheimer (Mechanicsburg, Pa.).


 

For 14 others, Port Royal in a Silver Crown machine will be a fully new experience. A ride shuffle has seen Kevin Thomas Jr. (Cullman, Ala.) take over the seat of the Legacy Autosport No. 19 after Tyler Roahrig stepped away from the dirt side of the series.


 

The Silver Crown experienced – but new to Port Royal – drivers in the field include Taylor Ferns (Shelby Township, Mich.), the only woman to finish on the podium of a Silver Crown event, plus Kyle Steffens (St. Charles, Mo.), Trey Burke (Alvin, Texas), Wayne Johnson (Tuttle, Okla.), Chris Fetter (Troy, Mo.) and Patrick Bruns (Champaign, Ill.).


 

Planning to make their first Silver Crown main event starts of any kind are Matt Mitchell (Yorba Linda, Calif.), Ryan Thomas (Indianapolis, Ind.), Joe Trenca (Clay, N.Y.) and Chase Dietz (York, Pa.).


 

 

RACE DETAILS


 

Saturday night’s Eastern Storm/Open Wheel Madness/USAC Eastern Blast features both the USAC Silver Crown National Championship and the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship along with 410 Wing Sprint Cars.


 

Pits open at 4pm Eastern, front gates open at 4pm and hot laps at 6pm, followed by qualifying and racing. Adult admission tickets are $30, students age 13 to 18 are $15 and children 12 and under will be admitted free. Pit passes are $35 for members and $40 for non-members.


 

                                                                                           

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PORT ROYAL USAC SILVER CROWN ENTRY LIST: (33 DRIVERS & CARS)


 

01 MARK SMITH/Sunbury, PA (L & M Motorsports)

08 KYLE STEFFENS/St. Charles, MO (Gordon Steffens)

4 MARK BITNER/Columbus, NJ (Henry Yeska)

5 (R) MATT MITCHELL/Yorba Linda, CA (DMW Motorsports)

6 C.J. LEARY/Greenfield, IN (Klatt Enterprises)

9 BRADY BACON/Broken Arrow, OK (Chris Dyson Racing)

10 JAKE SWANSON/Anaheim, CA (DMW Motorsports)

11 (R) TREY BURKE/Alvin, TX (Davey Hamilton Racing/SRG)

12 (R) WAYNE JOHNSON/Oklahoma City, OK (Two C Racing)

15 CHRIS FETTER/Troy, MO (Chris Fetter)

16 AUSTIN NEMIRE/Sylvania, OH (Nemire-Lesko Racing)

18 TRAVIS WELPOTT/Pendleton, IN (Welpott Racing)

19 KEVIN THOMAS JR./Cullman, AL (Legacy Autosport)

22 LOGAN SEAVEY/Sutter, CA (Rice Motorsports)

26 (R) KAYLEE BRYSON/Muskogee, OK (Sam Pierce)

31 DAVE BERKHEIMER/Mechanicsburg, PA (Berkheimer Racing)

32 GREGG CORY/Shelbyville, IN (Williams Racing)

51 RUSS GAMESTER/Peru, IN (Gamester Racing)

52 CARMEN PERIGO/Stoystown, PA (John Stehman)

53 STEVE BUCKWALTER/Royersford, PA (Five Three Motorsports)

66 JOE TRENCA/Clay, NY (T.J. Karlsen)

69 CHASE STOCKON/Fort Branch, IN (Pink 69 Racing)

74 SHANE COTTLE/Kansas, IL (Hodges Motorsports)

77 KODY SWANSON/Kingsburg, CA (Doran-Binks Racing)

81 MATT WESTFALL/Pleasant Hill, OH (BCR Group)

86 CHASE DIETZ/York, PA (Bruce Lee)

91 JUSTIN GRANT/Ione, CA (Hemelgarn Racing)

92 MARIO CLOUSER/Auburn, IL (Kazmark Motorsports)

95 PATRICK BRUNS/Champaign, IL (Full Throttle Racing)

97 (R) MITCHEL MOLES/Raisin City, CA (Hans Lein)

111 TOM PATERSON/Argos, IN (Tom Paterson)

118 RYAN THOMAS/Indianapolis, IN (Wingo Brothers Racing)

555 TAYLOR FERNS/Shelby Township, MI (Taylor Ferns Racing)

(R) represents a USAC Silver Crown Rookie of the Year Contender

 


 

TRACK RECORDS FOR USAC SILVER CROWN AT PORT ROYAL SPEEDWAY:

1 Lap - 6/18/2022 - C.J. Leary - 21.402

50 Laps - 6/18/2022 - Logan Seavey - 31:43.07


 

 

PENNSYLVANIA USAC SILVER CROWN WINS:

2-Logan Seavey

1-Brady Bacon, Gary Bettenhausen, Shane Cockrum. Shane Cottle, Russ Gamester, Tracy Hines, Jimmy Horton, Kasey Kahne, Keith Kauffman, Sheldon Kinser, Eddie Leavitt, Jason Leffler, Jim McElreath, Kody Swanson, Tyler Walker & Chris Windom


 

 

PENNSYLVANIA USAC SILVER CROWN WINNERS:

1971: Jim McElreath (6/20 at Nazareth National Speedway)

1980: Sheldon Kinser (7/5 at Williams Grove Speedway)

1981: Eddie Leavitt (7/5 at Williams Grove Speedway)

1982: Keith Kauffman (12/4 at Nazareth National Motor Speedway)

1983: Gary Bettenhausen (3/26 at Nazareth National Motor Speedway) & Jimmy Horton (7/3 at Nazareth National Motor Speedway)

1999: Jason Leffler (7/17 at Nazareth Speedway)

2000: Tracy Hines (4/8 at Nazareth Speedway)

2001: Russ Gamester (5/5 at Nazareth Speedway)

2003: Kasey Kahne (8/24 at Nazareth Speedway)

2004: Tyler Walker (8/29 at Nazareth Speedway)

2016: Chris Windom (6/10 at Williams Grove Speedway)

2017: Kody Swanson (6/16 at Williams Grove Speedway)

2019: Brady Bacon (6/14 at Williams Grove Speedway)

2020: Shane Cottle (8/9 at Selinsgrove Speedway)

2021: Shane Cockrum (6/18 at Williams Grove Speedway) & Logan Seavey (8/8 at Selinsgrove)

2022: Logan Seavey (6/18 at Port Royal Speedway)


 

 

PAST RESULTS FOR USAC SILVER CROWN AT PORT ROYAL SPEEDWAY:


 

2022 FEATURE: (50 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Logan Seavey (6), 2. Matt Westfall (4), 3. Brady Bacon (2), 4. Dallas Hewitt (11), 5. C.J. Leary (1), 6. Shane Cottle (7), 7. Shane Cockrum (10), 8. Kody Swanson (5), 9. Jason McDougal (12), 10. Carmen Perigo (19), 11. Brian Tyler (16), 12. Chase Stockon (17), 13. Brian Ruhlman (15), 14. Jimmy Light (18), 15. Austin Nemire (21), 16. Mark Smith (9), 17. Jake Swanson (3), 18. Travis Welpott (23), 19. Mark Bitner (22), 20. Mike Haggenbottom (20), 21. Tom Paterson (24), 22. Justin Grant (8), 23. Gregg Cory (14), 24. Kyle Robbins (13). 31:43.07

 


 

 

It’s Not Over: Seavey Comes Back from the Brink to Win USAC Indiana Midget Week

indy Racing Images

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media


 

Speedway, Indiana (June 12, 2023)………Logan Seavey, the 2023 USAC Indiana Midget Week champion, truly thought it was all over after Circle City.


 

After the utmost heartbreak of seeing a surefire victory go to the wayside just three laps from the finish line due to an ignition switch failure, the Sutter, Calif. native was certain his opportunity to capture the Indiana Midget Week title had gone to the waste bin.


 

Yet, as it turned out, that’s only where the story of Seavey’s triumphant week began.


 

“Really, at that time, I didn’t think we had a chance,” Seavey admitted. “Up to that point, Jacob Denney had been lights out, but they had their issues as well, but this is an odd week. Nobody was great all week and everybody had something go wrong, made mistakes or whatnot. Ultimately, we filled that role of being the guys who were good every time at the racetrack and could make moves to get to the podium, qualify well and have a really stellar week.”


 

One race later on Wednesday night, Seavey conjured up a masterful late race drive at Gas City I-69 Speedway, zipping around the outside of Emerson Axsom with two laps to go despite the ailment of a destroyed left rear shock. The emotion was raw, and tears of joy were shed as Abacus Racing won its very first race, a goal they had set when they hired Seavey to be their wheelman late in the 2022 season.


 

“These guys want to win, but they had never even led a lap before we got to this year, no podiums or anything,” Seavey revealed. “I knew we could get there eventually. We were okay in May, but not lights out by any means. To think we were going to win that first one for them at Circle City, and for it to go bad, was as heartbreaking as it gets. Luckily, we didn’t have to wait too long to get another chance.”


 

After initially dismissing the notion of an Indiana Midget Week title, Seavey suddenly found himself third in the standings with three races to go in an annual week that is truly a testament of “survival of the fittest.”


 

A repeat winning performance wasn’t quite in the cards for Seavey on Thursday at Lincoln Park Speedway. Nonetheless, a third-place finish did pay dividends, moving him up to second in the IMW standings, which essentially was the lead with actual point leader Buddy Kofoid’s exodus from the series following the LPS round.


 

Seavey, celebrating his 26th birthday on Friday night at Bloomington Speedway, doubled up as both the official new Indiana Midget Week point leader and brand new overall USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship point leader following a second consecutive third-place result in his Abacus Racing/Indy Custom Stone – CG CPAs – Dozer’z Nut’z & Bolt’z/Spike/Stanton SR-11x.


 

Showcasing just how much confidence they had throughout the week, the team didn’t panic when faced with another set of seemingly dire set of events just as their car was being pushed off for practice in what turned out to be the final round of the series on Saturday at Lawrenceburg Speedway.


 

Just after engine heat, the team heard an undesirable noise emanating from under the hood, which ultimately forced them to a backup car. Seavey promptly responded to the set of circumstances by setting second quick time, winning his heat, and finishing second in the feature, thus solidifying his position at the top of the USAC Indiana Midget Week leaderboard with his fourth-straight “podium” finish.


 

With Sunday’s rain out in the intended series finale at Kokomo Speedway, Seavey had clinched the title in very much the same manner as he did during his first in 2019, escaping the rain at Kokomo to celebrate with his team in the drier climate of his team’s race shop, a sort of déjà vu moment, and a welcoming into an exclusive club.


 

“Buddy (Kofoid) texted me and said, “welcome to the two-time club,” Seavey relayed of the message sent by the 2021-22 IMW titlist. “It’s cool to do it not just once, but twice, and just to be that strong. It was pretty much a top-three every night since our one failure, but it seemed like everybody had one bad night. This is a tough week; it was hot all week; tracks were tough with big curbs, and it was really technical everywhere we went, but that fits my style.”


 

Seavey became just the sixth driver to win the USAC Indiana Midget Week title on multiple occasions in his career, joining Shane Cottle (2005 & 2006), Tracy Hines (2008 & 2010), Bryan Clauson (2009, 2011 & 2016), Rico Abreu (2014 & 2015) and Buddy Kofoid (2021 & 2022).


 

Furthermore, Seavey joined Rico Abreu (2015) as the second driver to win both the Chili Bowl Nationals and the Indiana Midget Week title in the same season.


 

With those crowns already on his mantle, plus his presence as the current USAC National Midget point leader, it’s a far cry from where the team began the season, as they began to jell and form a foundation. Seavey and Abacus entered Indiana Midget Week eighth in series points, but now stand as the toast of the town with the season entering the summer stretch.


 

“For this team to build me two new cars this year and be that good is really amazing, and when we pulled out a backup car for Lawrenceburg, we nearly won with it too,” Seavey lauded. “We just have so much speed right now with good cars and good engines and a good crew to make sure we’re fast all night. We’re all having fun racing and that’s what it’s all about.”


 

Abacus Racing owner Brent Cox’s dream to start a team began on September of 2020 in his garage as he was watching the live stream of a USAC National Midget event on FloRacing. The tight-knit group came together with an ironclad goal, and with the entire team pulling in one direction all together, they were able to accomplish a feat they’ll always remember.


 

“This is what wins championships,” Cox stated. “This team never gave up, and no matter how much success we had this week, they never stopped working on the cars. It was a constant flurry of activity. The path to get here was not easy. As a team, there are so many components that have gotten us to where we have gotten. I know that if you remove any one of a key few, we are not where we are at today.”


 

Elsewhere throughout Indiana Midget Week, Jacob Denney (Galloway, Ohio), who just graduated from high school a week earlier, stood tall when posed with the final exam of answering not one, but two slide jobs levied by two-time USAC National Midget champ Buddy Kofoid during the final six laps en route to capturing the opening round of the series at Haubstadt, Indiana’s Tri-State Speedway, his first win for the Tom Malloy owned team.


 

Due to weekend sprint car obligations, Kofoid was only available to Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports for the first four rounds of the series. However, he sure made the most of his brief, but thrilling appearances. Kofoid was the lone multi-time winner of the week, scoring victories at Circle City and Lincoln Park, plus a second at Tri-State and a fourth at Gas City. When he left after Thursday’s round, he held a commanding 46-point lead, but his absence for the final two rounds dropped him down to eighth in the final tally.


 

Gavin Miller made his grand introduction to the USAC National Midget racing stage during USAC Indiana Midget Week. The leading USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship Rookie of the Year contender, six-time USAC National .25 Midget champion and micro sprint standout from Allentown, Pa. earned his first career USAC national victory on the big stage at Bloomington Speedway. Additionally, he passed 35 cars throughout the week to earn the Indiana Midget Week ProSource Passing Master title.


 

After a tumultuous Indiana Midget Week without only one top-10 result in his first five starts, Ryan Timms (Oklahoma City, Okla.) broke through for a victory in what his first ever visit to Lawrenceburg Speedway during the series finale on Saturday night, giving his Kunz/Curb-Agajanian its third-straight IMW victory with a third different driver following Kofoid and Miller. Following Kofoid’s departure, Timms assumed duties in Kofoid’s ride, and achieved a strong finish to the week.


 

In the end, Seavey captured the Indiana Midget Week championship by 31 points over Justin Grant (Ione, Calif.) who finished as the runner-up in the IMW standings for the second consecutive season. Meanwhile, Bryant Wiedeman (Colby, Kan.) earned a career-best third-place result in IMW points.


 

Jade Avedisian (Clovis, Calif.) earned the best points finish by a woman in IMW history, taking fourth while also tying as the best finishing woman in an IMW feature event. Her third place run at Lawrenceburg equaled the third-place result by Holly Shelton at Lawrenceburg in 2017. Emerson Axsom (Franklin, Ind.) rounded out the top-five in the standings, topping off with back-to-back runner-up feature finishes at Gas City and Lincoln Park.


 

Axsom and Seavey shared honors as the driver leading the most laps throughout Indiana Midget Week with 29 apiece. Four different drivers achieved five top-tens in six IMW events: Jade Avedisian, Justin Grant, Logan Seavey & Bryant Wiedeman.


 

Justin Grant was the only driver to capture multiple Honest Abe Fast Qualifying times, topping the leaderboard during the last two nights at Bloomington and Lawrenceburg. Brenham Crouch, Justin Grant, Buddy Kofoid, Daison Pursley and Logan Seavey each won a pair of heat races during the week. Tanner Thorson made the biggest single-race charge during IMW, advancing from 17th to 4th during the feature at Circle City.


 

Forty-two drivers appeared in a 2023 Indiana Midget Week event. Seventeen individuals started all six IMW feature events: Jake Andreotti, Jade Avedisian, Emerson Axsom, Chance Crum, Jacob Denney, Justin Grant, Jesse Love, Chase McDermand, Cannon McIntosh, Gavin Miller, Daison Pursley, Taylor Reimer, Hayden Reinbold, Logan Seavey, Kevin Thomas Jr., Ryan Timms and Bryant Wiedeman. Nineteen drivers were in attendance at all six events, adding Thomas Meseraull and Chelby Hinton.


 

 
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2023 USAC INDIANA MIDGET WEEK STAT LEADERS


 

Driver Champion: Logan Seavey


 

Most Feature Wins: 2-Buddy Kofoid


 

Laps Led: 29-Emerson Axsom & Logan Seavey


 

Top-Fives: 5-Logan Seavey


 

Top-Tens: 5-Jade Avedisian, Justin Grant, Logan Seavey & Bryant Wiedeman


 

Fast Qualifying Times: 2-Justin Grant


 

Heat Race Wins: 2-Brenham Crouch, Justin Grant, Buddy Kofoid, Daison Pursley & Logan Seavey


 

Feature Starts: 6-Jake Andreotti, Jade Avedisian, Emerson Axsom, Chance Crum, Jacob Denney, Justin Grant, Jesse Love, Chase McDermand, Cannon McIntosh, Gavin Miller, Daison Pursley, Taylor Reimer, Hayden Reinbold, Logan Seavey, Kevin Thomas Jr., Ryan Timms & Bryant Wiedeman


 

Most Positions Gained in a Feature: Jun 5: Circle City Raceway - Tanner Thorson (17th to 4th)


 

 

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2023 USAC INDIANA MIDGET WEEK SCHEDULE & RESULTS


 

Jun 4: Tri-State Speedway | Haubstadt, IN

WINNER: Jacob Denney (Tom Malloy #25)


 

Jun 5: Circle City Raceway | Indianapolis, IN

WINNER: Buddy Kofoid (Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports #67K)


 

Jun 7: Gas City I-69 Speedway | Gas City, IN

WINNER: Logan Seavey (Abacus Racing #57)


 

Jun 8: Lincoln Park Speedway | Putnamville, IN

WINNER: Buddy Kofoid (Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports #67K)


 

Jun 9: Bloomington Speedway | Bloomington, IN

WINNER: Gavin Miller (Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports #97)


 

Jun 10: Lawrenceburg Speedway | Lawrenceburg, IN

WINNER: Ryan Timms (Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports #67)


 

Jun 11: Kokomo Speedway | Kokomo, IN

WINNER: Rained Out


 

 
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2023 USAC INDIANA MIDGET WEEK DRIVER POINT STANDINGS


 

POS.    PTS.     DRIVER, HOMETOWN


 

1.          405       Logan Seavey, Sutter, Calif.


 

2.          374       Justin Grant, Ione, Calif.


 

3.          353       Bryant Wiedeman, Colby, Kan.


 

4.          331       Jade Avedisian, Clovis, Calif.


 

5.          329       Emerson Axsom, Franklin, Ind.


 

6.          328       Jacob Denney, Galloway, Ohio


 

7.          328       Kevin Thomas Jr., Cullman, Ala.


 

8.          298       Buddy Kofoid, Penngrove, Calif.


 

9.          298       Daison Pursley, Locust Grove, Okla.


 

10.        292       Ryan Timms, Oklahoma City, Okla.


 

11.        290       Taylor Reimer, Bixby, Okla.


 

12.        281       Gavin Miller, Allentown, Pa.


 

13.        258       Cannon McIntosh, Bixby, Okla.


 

14.        254       Chase McDermand, Springfield, Ill.


 

15.        246       Jake Andreotti, Castro Valley, Calif.


 

16.        245       Jesse Love, Menlo Park, Calif.


 

17.        201       Thomas Meseraull, San Jose, Calif.


 

18.        186       Daniel Whitley, Ferndale, Calif.


 

19.        183       Chance Crum, Snohomish, Wash.


 

20.        154       Hayden Reinbold, Gilbert, Ariz.


 

21.        121       Tanner Thorson, Minden, Nev.


 

22.        113       Ethan Mitchell, Mooresville, N.C.


 

23.        113       Chelby Hinton, Dubberly, La.


 

24.        96         Kyle Cummins, Princeton, Ind.


 

25.        95         Steve Buckwalter, Royersford, Pa.


 

26.        79         Brenham Crouch, Lubbock, Texas


 

27.        71         Chase Johnson, Penngrove, Calif.


 

28.        62         Bryan Stanfill, Bakersfield, Calif.


 

29.        53         Zach Daum, Pocahontas, Ill.


 

30.        50         Robert Carson, Concord, Calif.


 

31.        49         Kyle Beilman, Los Angeles, Calif.


 

32.        30         Oliver Akard, Fort Myers, Fla.


 

33.        30         Eastin Ashbrooke, Marion, Ind.


 

34.        20         Justin Dickerson, Pittsboro, Ind.


 

35.        20         Rylan Gray, Greenfield, Ind.


 

36.        20         Jeff Schindler, Evansville, Ind.


 

37.        10         Jakeb Boxell, Zanesville, Ind.


 

38.        10         Critter Malone, Speedway, Ind.


 

39.        10         Scott Orr, Columbia City, Ind.


 

40.        10         Kayla Roell, Dillsboro, Ind.


 

41.        10         Adam Taylor, Wheatfield, Ind.


 

42.        10         Ashton Thompson, Salem, Ind.


 

 
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2023 USAC INDIANA MIDGET WEEK STATISTICS

 

2023 USAC INDIANA MIDGET WEEK FEATURE WINS


 

2-Buddy Kofoid (Jun 5 at Circle City Raceway & Jun 8 at Lincoln Park Speedway)


 

1-Jacob Denney (Jun 4 at Tri-State Speedway)


 

1-Gavin Miller (Jun 9 at Bloomington Speedway)


 

1-Logan Seavey (Jun 7 at Gas City I-69 Speedway)


 

1-Ryan Timms (Jun 10 at Lawrenceburg Speedway)


 

 
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2023 USAC INDIANA MIDGET WEEK FEATURE LAPS LED


 

29-Emerson Axsom & Logan Seavey


 

28-Gavin Miller & Ryan Timms


 

22-Jacob Denney


 

20-Buddy Kofoid


 

14-Jade Avedisian


 

8-Justin Grant


 

2-Jake Andreotti


 

 
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2023 USAC INDIANA MIDGET WEEK TOP-5 FEATURE FINISHES


 

5-Logan Seavey


 

4-Buddy Kofoid


 

3-Emerson Axsom, Justin Grant & Bryant Wiedeman


 

2-Jacob Denney & Chase McDermand


 

1-Jade Avedisian, Kyle Cummins, Cannon McIntosh, Thomas Meseraull, Gavin Miller, Kevin Thomas Jr., Tanner Thorson & Ryan Timms


 

 
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2023 USAC INDIANA MIDGET WEEK TOP-10 FEATURE FINISHES


 

5-Jade Avedisian, Justin Grant, Logan Seavey & Bryant Wiedeman


 

4-Buddy Kofoid, Cannon McIntosh, Gavin Miller, Taylor Reimer & Kevin Thomas Jr.


 

3-Emerson Axsom, Jacob Denney & Daison Pursley


 

2-Chase McDermand, Tanner Thorson & Ryan Timms


 

1-Jake Andreotti, Kyle Cummins, Zach Daum, Thomas Meseraull & Daniel Whitley


 

 
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2023 USAC INDIANA MIDGET WEEK HONEST ABE ROOFING FAST QUALIFYING TIMES


 

2-Justin Grant


 

1-Jacob Denney, Jesse Love, Logan Seavey & Kevin Thomas Jr.


 

 
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2023 USAC INDIANA MIDGET WEEK HONEST ABE ROOFING FAST QUALIFIERS


 

Jun 4: Tri-State Speedway - Jacob Denney (13.612)


 

Jun 5: Circle City Raceway - Kevin Thomas Jr. (12.385)


 

Jun 7: Gas City I-69 Speedway - Jesse Love (11.788)


 

Jun 8: Lincoln Park Speedway - Logan Seavey (12.834)


 

Jun 9: Bloomington Speedway - Justin Grant (11.945)


 

Jun 10: Lawrenceburg Speedway - Justin Grant (14.762)


 

 
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2023 USAC INDIANA MIDGET WEEK HEAT RACE WINS: (Presented by Simpson Race Products, Rod End Supply, T.J. Forged & Car IQ)


 

2-Brenham Crouch, Justin Grant, Buddy Kofoid, Daison Pursley & Logan Seavey


 

1-Jade Avedisian, Emerson Axsom, Brenham Crouch, Kyle Cummins, Jacob Denney, Chelby Hinton, Chase Johnson, Cannon McIntosh, Thomas Meseraull, Ethan Mitchell & Bryant Wiedeman


 

 
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2023 USAC INDIANA MIDGET WEEK FEATURE STARTS


 

6-Jake Andreotti, Jade Avedisian, Emerson Axsom, Chance Crum, Jacob Denney, Justin Grant, Jesse Love, Chase McDermand, Cannon McIntosh, Gavin Miller, Daison Pursley, Taylor Reimer, Hayden Reinbold, Logan Seavey, Kevin Thomas Jr., Ryan Timms & Bryant Wiedeman


 

5-Thomas Meseraull & Daniel Whitley


 

4-Buddy Kofoid


 

3-Steve Buckwalter, Chelby Hinton & Ethan Mitchell


 

2-Kyle Beilman, Brenham Crouch, Kyle Cummins, Chase Johnson, Bryan Stanfill & Tanner Thorson


 

1-Zach Daum


 

 
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2023 USAC INDIANA MIDGET WEEK ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI-FEATURE WINS


 

2-Kevin Thomas Jr.


 

1-Jade Avedisian, Logan Seavey & Tanner Thorson


 

 
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2023 USAC INDIANA MIDGET WEEK IRVIN KING HARD CHARGERS OF THE RACE


 

Jun 4: Tri-State Speedway - Gavin Miller (21st to 10th)


 

Jun 5: Circle City Raceway - Tanner Thorson (17th to 4th)


 

Jun 7: Gas City I-69 Speedway - Gavin Miller (19th to 10th)


 

Jun 8: Lincoln Park Speedway - Buddy Kofoid (7th to 1st)


 

Jun 9: Bloomington Speedway - Cannon McIntosh (12th to 5th)


 

Jun 10: Lawrenceburg Speedway - Jesse Love (21st to 12th)


 

 
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2023 USAC INDIANA MIDGET WEEK DIRT DRAFT FASTEST HOT LAP DRIVER


 

Jun 4: Tri-State Speedway - Kevin Thomas Jr. (13.814)


 

Jun 5: Circle City Raceway - Jesse Love (12.366)


 

Jun 7: Gas City I-69 Speedway - Logan Seavey (12.252)


 

Jun 8: Lincoln Park Speedway - Jesse Love (12.198)


 

Jun 9: Bloomington Speedway - Logan Seavey (13.033)


 

Jun 10: Lawrenceburg Speedway - Logan Seavey (14.709)


 

 
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ALL-TIME USAC INDIANA MIDGET WEEK STATISTICS

 

ALL-TIME USAC INDIANA MIDGET WEEK CHAMPIONS


 

2005: Shane Cottle


 

2006: Shane Cottle


 

2007: Jerry Coons Jr.


 

2008: Tracy Hines


 

2009: Bryan Clauson


 

2010: Tracy Hines & Brad Kuhn


 

2011: Bryan Clauson


 

2012: Darren Hagen


 

2013: Christopher Bell


 

2014: Rico Abreu


 

2015: Rico Abreu


 

2016: Bryan Clauson


 

2017: Shane Golobic


 

2018: Spencer Bayston


 

2019: Logan Seavey


 

2020: Kyle Larson


 

2021: Buddy Kofoid


 

2022: Buddy Kofoid


 

2023: Logan Seavey


 

 
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ALL-TIME USAC INDIANA MIDGET WEEK FEATURE WINS: (2005-2023)


 

9-Bryan Clauson & Kyle Larson


 

5-Christopher Bell, Buddy Kofoid & Tanner Thorson


 

4-Rico Abreu


 

3-Spencer Bayston, Shane Cottle, Tyler Courtney, Darren Hagen, Brad Kuhn, Michael Pickens, Logan Seavey & Chris Windom


 

2-Jerry Coons Jr., Jacob Denney, Thomas Meseraull, Davey Ray & Brad Sweet


 

1-Brady Bacon, Chad Boat, Steve Buckwalter, Kyle Cummins, Dave Darland, Zach Daum, Corey Day, Jay Drake, Justin Grant, Tracy Hines, Levi Jones, Cannon McIntosh, Gavin Miller, Johnny Rodriguez, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Kevin Swindell, Kevin Thomas Jr. & Ryan Timms


 

 
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ALL-TIME USAC INDIANA MIDGET WEEK FAST QUALIFIERS


 

9-Rico Abreu & Kyle Larson


 

5-Bryan Clauson


 

4-Brady Bacon, Justin Grant & Chris Windom


 

3-Chad Boat, Steve Buckwalter, Logan Seavey, Brad Sweet & Tanner Thorson


 

2-Christopher Bell, Jerry Coons Jr., Corey Day, Bobby East, Shane Golobic, Tracy Hines, Buddy Kofoid, Ethan Mitchell & Kevin Thomas Jr.


 

1-Jade Avedisian, Spencer Bayston, Tanner Carrick, Tyler Courtney, Chance Crum, Dave Darland, Zach Daum, Jacob Denney, Darren Hagen, Jesse Love, Cannon McIntosh, Thomas Meseraull, Michael Pickens, Chase Randall & Danny Stratton


 

 
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ALL-TIME USAC INDIANA MIDGET WEEK TOP-5 FEATURE FINISHES


 

28-Bryan Clauson


 

22-Tracy Hines


 

21-Jerry Coons Jr. & Kyle Larson


 

18-Chris Windom


 

17-Tanner Thorson


 

16-Justin Grant & Buddy Kofoid


 

15-Rico Abreu


 

14-Brad Kuhn & Logan Seavey


 

13-Darren Hagen


 

12-Brady Bacon, Christopher Bell & Tyler Courtney


 

10-Spencer Bayston, Shane Cottle & Brad Sweet


 

9-Kevin Thomas Jr.


 

8-Dave Darland


 

7-Emerson Axsom, Cannon McIntosh & Michael Pickens


 

6-Chad Boat, Steve Buckwalter, Zach Daum & Thomas Meseraull


 

5-Kyle Cummins, Jacob Denney, Bobby East, Shane Golobic, Davey Ray & Bryant Wiedeman


 

4-Levi Jones, Jason McDougal, Kevin Swindell & Cole Whitt


 

3-Caleb Armstrong, Brenham Crouch, Brad Mosen, Daison Pursley, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Tyler Thomas & Josh Wise


 

2-Alex Bright, Kaylee Bryson, Tanner Carrick, Corey Day, Jay Drake, Brad Loyet, Chase McDermand, Mitchel Moles, Jeremy Warren & Zeb Wise


 

1-Gary Altig, Jade Avedisian, Brent Beauchamp, Clinton Boyles, Chance Crum, Andrew Felker, Brian Gerster, Ryan Kaplan, Gavin Miller, Ethan Mitchell, Jace Park, Johnny Rodriguez, Gio Scelzi, Hunter Schuerenberg, Holly Shelton, Jon Stanbrough, Chase Stockon, Gary Taylor, Ryan Timms & Dillon Welch


 

 
=================

 

 

ALL-TIME USAC INDIANA MIDGET WEEK TOP-10 FEATURE FINISHES


 

42-Jerry Coons Jr.


 

35-Tracy Hines


 

34-Bryan Clauson


 

29-Chris Windom


 

28-Tanner Thorson


 

27-Brady Bacon


 

26-Rico Abreu & Justin Grant


 

24-Darren Hagen & Brad Kuhn


 

23-Logan Seavey


 

22-Zach Daum, Buddy Kofoid, Kyle Larson & Kevin Thomas Jr.


 

20-Michael Pickens


 

17-Steve Buckwalter, Dave Darland & Thomas Meseraull


 

16-Spencer Bayston, Chad Boat & Shane Cottle


 

15-Tyler Courtney & Cannon McIntosh


 

14-Shane Golobic


 

13-Bobby East


 

12-Christopher Bell & Jason McDougal


 

11-Brad Sweet


 

10-Caleb Armstrong, Levi Jones, Daison Pursley & Tyler Thomas


 

9-Bryant Wiedeman


 

8-Emerson Axsom, Kaylee Bryson, Tanner Carrick, Kyle Cummins & Brad Loyet


 

7-Jacob Denney & Davey Ray


 

6-Alex Bright, Andrew Felker, Brad Mosen, Taylor Reimer & Ryan Robinson


 

5-Jade Avedisian, Brent Beauchamp, Corey Day, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Cole Whitt, Josh Wise & Zeb Wise


 

4-Brenham Crouch, Carson Macedo, Gavin Miller, Chase Stockon & Kevin Swindell


 

3-Clinton Boyles, Cole Carter, Shane Hmiel, Chase McDermand, Kody Swanson & Ryan Timms


 

2-Gary Altig, Chase Barber, Jay Drake, Damion Gardner, Ronnie Gardner, Brian Gerster, Shane Hollingsworth, Darren Jenkins, Chase Randall, Johnny Rodriguez, Holly Shelton, Matt Smith, Gary Taylor, Jeremy Warren & Hayden Williams


 

1-Garrett Aitken, Jake Andreotti, Dakoda Armstrong, Teddy Beach, Ryan Bernal, Cole Bodine, Austin Brown, Brian Carber, Henry Clarke, Jesse Colwell, Colten Cottle, Chance Crum, Ryan Durst, Blake Fitzpatrick, Josh Ford, Alfred Galedrige, Dominic Gorden, Chuck Gurney Jr., Scott Hatton, Jonathan Hendrick, A.J. Anderson, A.J. Fike, Chase Johnson, Ryan Kaplan, Tucker Klaasmeyer, Trevor Kobylarz, Andrew Layser, Brock Maskovich, Ethan Mitchell, Mat Neely, Jake Neuman, Jace Park, Justin Peck, Parker Price-Miller, Jimi Quin, Gio Scelzi, Hunter Schuerenberg, Matt Sherrell, Jake Slotten, Nathan Smee, Jon Stanbrough, Danny Stratton, Brandon Wagner, Gage Walker, Dillon Welch, Daniel Whitley & John Wolfe


 

 
=================

 

 

ALL-TIME USAC INDIANA MIDGET WEEK FEATURE STARTS


 

64-Jerry Coons Jr.


 

51-Zach Daum


 

46-Brady Bacon & Tanner Thorson


 

45-Justin Grant, Thomas Meseraull & Chris Windom


 

44-Dave Darland


 

42-Bryan Clauson


 

40-Steve Buckwalter, Darren Hagen & Tracy Hines


 

38-Kevin Thomas Jr.


 

36-Brad Kuhn


 

35-Rico Abreu


 

33-Michael Pickens


 

32-Chad Boat


 

30-Davey Ray


 

29-Logan Seavey


 

28-Alex Bright, Tyler Courtney & Cannon McIntosh


 

27-Bobby East


 

26-Levi Jones


 

25-Tyler Thomas


 

24-Shane Cottle, Kyle Larson & Jason McDougal


 

23-Caleb Armstrong & Buddy Kofoid


 

22-Shane Golobic


 

21-Tanner Carrick


 

20-Spencer Bayston & Daison Pursley


 

19-Bryant Wiedeman


 

18-Christopher Bell & Kyle Cummins


 

17-Brad Loyet, Ethan Mitchell & Brad Sweet


 

16-Kaylee Bryson


 

15-Brenham Crouch & Holly Shelton


 

14-Emerson Axsom, Cole Bodine & Ryan Robinson


 

13-Brad Mosen & Hayden Reinbold


 

12-Ronnie Gardner, Jake Neuman, Taylor Reimer & Gage Walker


 

11-Jade Avedisian, Mario Clouser, Chance Crum, Jacob Denney, Tucker Klaasmeyer, Danny Stratton, Dillon Welch & Hayden Williams


 

10-Chase Barber, Andrew Felker, Sam Johnson, Chase McDermand, Jimi Quin, Nathan Smee & Cole Whitt


 

9-Trevor Kobylarz, Andrew Layser, Josh Wise & Zeb Wise


 

8-Brenden Bright, Corey Day, Shane Hmiel, Chase Johnson, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Kevin Swindell & Ryan Timms


 

7-Dalton Armstrong, Brent Beauchamp, Cole Carter, Henry Clarke, Maria Cofer, Tom Hessert III, Chase Randall, Levi Roberts, Matt Smith & Kody Swanson


 

6-Jake Andreotti, Dakoda Armstrong, Brian Carber, Ryan Greth, Trey Gropp, Shane Hollingsworth, Jesse Love, Brayton Lynch, Carson Macedo, Gavin Miller & Matt Westfall


 

5-Austin Brown, C.J. Leary, Jesse Colwell, Trey Marcham, Mitchel Moles, Dustin Morgan, Billy Pauch Jr. & Daniel Whitley


 

4-Gary Altig, Ryan Bernal, Clinton Boyles, David Budres, Ryan Criswell, Ricky Ehrgott, Scott Hatton, Holley Hollan, Dayne Kingshott, Tyler Nelson, Jace Park, Chase Stockon, Tanner Swanson, Gary Taylor, Bryce Townsend & Nick Wean


 

3-A.J. Fike, Garrett Aitken, Isaac Chapple, Tony DiMattia, Jay Drake, Mariah Ede, Karsyn Elledge, Josh Ford, Noah Gass, Chett Gehrke, Brian Gerster, Dominic Gorden, Zane Hendricks, Mike Hess, Chelby Hinton, Darren Jenkins, Ryan Kaplan, Jimmy Light, Critter Malone, Dene McAllan, Justin Peck, Parker Price-Miller, Johnny Rodriguez, Hunter Schuerenberg, Ryan Smith, Jon Stanbrough, Bryan Stanfill & Jeremy Warren


 

2-A.J. Anderson, Teddy Beach, Kyle Beilman, Alex Bowman, Cody Brewer, Daron Clayton, Kellen Conover, Colten Cottle, Courtney Crone, Robert Dalby, Ryan Durst, Tony Elliott, Damion Gardner, Bobby Grewohl, Chuck Gurney Jr, Garrett Hansen, Nathan High, Chase Jones, Cade Lewis, Greg Lueckert, Brock Maskovich, Jaimie McKinlay, Matt Moore, Adam Pierson, Daryn Pittman, Domain Ramsay, Gio Scelzi, Kent Schmidt, Matt Sherrell, Jimmy Simpson & Jason Yount


 

1-Robert Ballou, Adam Barth, Chris Baue, Jeff Bland Jr., Blake Brannon, Kaidon Brown, Mark Brown, Travis Buckley, Adam Clarke, Shane Cockrum, Kyle Craker, Justin Dickerson, Sean Dodenhoff, Don Droud Jr., Dave Ely, Murray Erickson, A.J. Felker, Blake Fitzpatrick, Alfred Galedrige, Bradley Galedrige, Rylan Gray, Ron Gregory, Russ Harper, Jonathan Hendrick, Ted Hines, Matt Hummel, Logan Jarrett, Kyle Jones, Cory Kruseman, Michael Lewis, Joe Liguori, Andy Malpocker, Mario Marietta, Chance Morton, Seth Motsinger, Mat Neely, Brian Postle, Brody Roa, Nick Rowe, Stephen Schnapf, Kyle Schuett, Alex Schutte, Jonathan Shafer, Casey Shuman, Landon Simon, Jake Slotten, Brandon Wagner, Todd Wanless & John Wolfe

 


 

 

Riders on the Storm: USAC’s Eastern Storm Contenders for 2023

Dave Higgins

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media

 
Speedway, Indiana (June 6, 2023)………To win an Eastern Storm title is to be the best at your trade in a pressurized situation.

 
Six races in six nights can be daunting and it can be challenging, but most importantly, it can be rewarding. A select few individuals would be able to provide a testimonial on how this accomplishment immediately became one of the highlights of their career.

 
A handful of those drivers and crew members have Eastern Storm marked on their calendars each year. And just like clockwork, the month of June rolls in just like the storm of a field of USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Cars invading Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

 
All roads lead to the east between June 13-18, 2023, with the best of the best hitting the scene for the 16th edition of the series.

 
It’s a road that begins at Grandview Speedway on June 13, then takes us to Bridgeport Motorsports Park on June 14, Big Diamond Speedway on June 15, Williams Grove Speedway on June 16, Port Royal Speedway on June 17 and to the series’ first ever appearance at Action Track USA with an appearance points only event to cap off the busy weekend on June 18.

 
Without further ado, here are the drivers and teams who’ll be heading straight into the eye of the storm in 2023.

 

 
BEASTS OF THE EAST

 
Four previous champions are prepared to take on the challenge that Eastern Storm brings. Robert Ballou (2015 & 2021), Logan Seavey (2022), C.J. Leary (2019) and Brady Bacon (2014) have all previously conquered the week as Eastern Storm champions and will aim to do so once again.

 
Leary (Greenfield, Ind.) and Bacon (Broken Arrow, Okla.) have each won twice during the season while Ballou (Rocklin, Calif.) and Seavey (Sutter, Calif.) are both seeking out victory number one in 2023.

 

 
PLEASE COME EAST FOR THE SPRINGTIME

 
After an eight-year absence, Kyle Cummins will make his return to Eastern Storm for the first time since 2015 as he’s committed to running the entirety of the 2023 USAC National Sprint Car schedule for the initial time in his career.

 
Three-time Eastern Storm feature winner and reigning USAC National Sprint Car champ Justin Grant (Ione, Calif.) will try to lock down his first Eastern Storm title this year as will Jake Swanson (Anaheim, Calif.), winner of the most recent USAC National Sprint Car event last Saturday at Iowa’s Knoxville Raceway. Meanwhile, three-time Eastern Storm A-Main winner Kevin Thomas Jr. (Cullman, Ala.) has plans to run the whole Eastern Storm docket as well.
F
ellow one-time Eastern Storm main event winners Shane Cottle (Kansas, Ill.) and Chase Stockon (Fort Branch, Ind.) have sights set on adding more to the win column this week. Cottle, who’ll wheel the Hodges Motorsports No. 74x, was an Eastern Storm victor a decade ago in 2013 while Stockon notched the Grandview opener in 2014. Stockon will be one of two full-time entries out of the KO Motorsports stable along with leading series Rookie Daison Pursley (Locust Grove, Okla.).

 
Pursley is among a group making their Eastern Storm debuts in 2023 along with two-time series winner Mitchel Moles (Raisin City, Calif.), recent Tri-State Speedway Midwest Sprint Car Series victor Carson Garrett (Littleton, Colo.) and Matt Mitchell (Yorba Linda, Calif.), already a winner on the AMSOIL USAC CRA Sprint Car scene this season at California’s Perris Auto Speedway.

 
Returning to the Eastern Storm fold for another run in 2023 are past series Rookies of the Year, Franklin, Indiana’s Emerson Axsom (2022) and Worthington, Indiana’s Jadon Rogers (2020), plus USAC National Sprint Car feature winner Matt Westfall (Pleasant Hill, Ohio) and USAC Southwest Sprint Car champ Charles Davis Jr. (Buckeye, Ariz.). Additionally, the No. 17GP of Michael Dutcher Motorsports will make the trip east and is seeking its first Eastern Storm win.

 

 
EAST COAST CONTINGENT

 
Also competing throughout the entirety of events on the Eastern Storm slate this time around are several of the top studs from the USAC Rapid Tire East Coast Sprint Cars Presented by Capitol Custom Trailers circuit. Briggs Danner (Allentown, Pa.) is the current series point leader for Hogue Enterprises as well as the reigning USAC EC champ.

 
Alex Bright (Collegeville, Pa.) has recently taken the helm of the Heffner Racing Enterprises machine and is the 2021 USAC EC champ. Both Danner and Bright finished a career best second during Eastern Storm action a year ago.

 
Also scheduled for a full Eastern Storm run are Joey Amantea (Mount Pocono, Pa.) and Jason Cherry (Blandon, Pa.). Amantea currently resides third in USAC EC points with Cherry 10th.

 

 
PART-TIME & READY FOR A GOOD TIME

 
Competing in the bulk of the Eastern Storm schedule, but not full-time, are two-time Eastern Storm feature winner Thomas Meseraull (San Jose, Calif.), who’ll take part in all but the Port Royal round. Three-time USAC East Coast Sprint Car champ Steven Drevicki (Reading, Pa.) will compete in all rounds but the finale at Action Track USA. Preston Lattomus (Lewes, Del.), who won with USAC EC just two weeks ago, will take on all but Big Diamond.

 
Also planning to find spot duty throughout Eastern Storm this year are Isaac Chapple (Willow Branch, Ind.), who plans to bounce back after enduring a major crash last weekend at Knoxville. Mario Clouser will compete in multiple events with the miniseries as will Mark Smith (Sunbury, Pa.), Carmen Perigo (Stoystown, Pa.), Ed Aikin (Lincoln University, Pa.), Bobby Butler (Milford, N.J.), Billy Ney (Reading, Pa.), Billy Pauch Jr. (Frenchtown, N.J.) and Troy Fraker (Newville, Pa.), just to name a few.

 

 
RACE DETAILS

 
For more information on each event, visit the “Schedule/Results” tab on www.usacracing.com, then click on “Sprint Cars” and “AMSOIL National.” From there, click on “Event Info” next to the corresponding event on the schedule.

 
The entire week of events can be watched LIVE on FloRacing at https://flosports.link/3ZjeooQ.

 

 
=================

 

 
USAC EASTERN STORM CHAMPIONS (2007-2022)

 
2007: Levi Jones

 
2008: Cole Whitt

 
2009: Cole Whitt

 
2010: Levi Jones

 
2011: Levi Jones

 
2012: Bryan Clauson

 
2013: Bryan Clauson

 
2014: Brady Bacon

 
2015: Robert Ballou

 
2016: Bryan Clauson

 
2017: Chris Windom

 
2018: Chris Windom

 
2019: C.J. Leary

 
2020: Not Held

 
2021: Robert Ballou

 
2022: Logan Seavey

 

 
USAC EASTERN STORM FEATURE WINS (2007-2022)

 
6-Brady Bacon, Bryan Clauson, Levi Jones & Chris Windom

 
5-Robert Ballou

 
3-Justin Grant, Kevin Thomas Jr. & Cole Whitt

 
2-Tyler Courtney, Thomas Meseraull & Logan Seavey

 
1-Chad Boat, Chad Boespflug, Daron Clayton, Shane Cottle, Dave Darland, Bobby East, Damion Gardner, Jesse Hockett, Jason McDougal, Hunter Schuerenberg, Jon Stanbrough, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. & Chase Stockon

 
(1 SE) Landon Simon

 
**(SE) represents a non-points, special event feature. 

 


 

  buckeye outlaw sprint series 

www.buckeyesprints.com 

Buckeye Outlaw Sprint Series Profile and History The Buckeye Outlaw Sprint Series is excited to announce the 2017 tour dates for the "Last True Outlaws" of auto racing. The upcoming season will mark the sixth full seasonal tour for the Ohio based traditional wingless sprint tour that was established and opened in 2011.


 

 


 
Big BOSS Weekend Ahead With Eldora and Lawrenceburg

 
With seven events already completed in the 2023 season, the teams on the MPD Racing Buckeye Outlaw Sprint Series tour are in the heart of their schedule.  Fresh off a 2-day weekend in Pennsylvania, the teams now face 2 of their biggest tests of the year.  The world-famous Eldora Speedway on Friday night and the ultra-fast Lawrenceburg Speedway on Saturday night.  With just a weekend off following, the hard-working band of last true outlaws will see their only 3-day weekend of the year when they return to Pennsylvania for 2 nights, then close on Monday, July 3rd with the prestigious "Jack Hewitt Classic".

 
Oxnard, California's Ricky Lewis leads the current tour standings following a strong weekend in the Keystone state, scoring yet another of his plethora of runner-up finishes.  Second place Korbyn Hayslett actually closed the gap on Lewis over the weekend, but both young men are searching for their first ever tour win.  A pair of two-time winners sit in the 3rd and 4th spots respectively in Cody Gardner and Paul Dues.  Lee Underwood rounds out the top 5 on the heels of his best finish of the year Saturday at Mercer with a fourth.  Underwood has one tour win to his credit.

 
The balance of the top 10 includes Brian Ruhlman, a multi-time Eldora Speedway track champion in stock cars.  Ruhlman has a BOSS sprint car win to his credit from last season.  Dustin Ingle, another driver with a BOSS tour win, holds down the 7th spot.  Defending champion, Isaac Chapple, has climbed back to the number 8 position after claiming his first win of 2023 on Sunday at Knox Raceway.  Hoosier state brothers Jesse Vermillion and Blake Vermillion round out the top 10 positions.  Steve Little is 11th while the 12th spot is held by 2023 four-time feature winner Carmen Perigo who is not committed to the full schedule.  The balance of the top 15 includes Tayte Williamson, Parker Frederickson and Matt Cooley.

 
On Friday at Eldora Speedway, early pit pass sales will begin at 1:30 and pit gates will open at 2.  General admission gates will open at 4 with hot laps at 6:30 and racing to immediately follow.  Adult general admission is $25 with reserved seats available for $30.  Kids 13 and under are free in general admission and a reserved seat is just $10.  Pit passes are $35.  We will be using the yellow Westhold transponders and rental will be $10.  The track will have methanol available and the BOSS tour will have Hoosier tires available for purchase.

 
Saturday at Lawrenceburg Speedway, pit gates will open at 4 pm with general admission gates opening at 5.  Adult general admission is $22, kids ages 7-12 are just $7 and kids 6 and under are free.  Pit passes are $35.  Lawrenceburg Speedway graciously provides the transponders but mufflers ARE required.  There will be methanol at the track and the BOSS tour will again have tires available for purchase

 
For competing teams, all cars must be on four corner Hoosier tires.  The right rear must be a 2022 or 2023 spec tire.  The Medium, H15 or D15A are all legal on the right rear.  The left rear is open to any Hoosier left rear tire.  You do not need to run the same right rear all night.  Teams are encouraged to contact the BOSS tour to reserve tires ahead of time and specify chalk marks.  There are no membership or entry fees with BOSS.

 
The following purse is on the line for both nights:  2000, 1000, 750, 650, 550, 500, 450, 425, 400, 375, 350, 340, 330, 320, 310, 300, 300, 300, 300, 300.  Heat race money of 40, 30, 20, 10 to the top 4 is provided by Mad Tree Brewing of Cincinnati, Outsider's Merchandise & Apparel, the official merchandiser of BOSS & FAST, and Elizabeth Gardner Photography.  The race winner also gets a free tire courtesy of Hoosier Racing Tire and $50 bonus awards are paid out by All Pro Aluminum Cylinder Heads, Cowen Truck Line, All Star Performance, Jason Imler and E A Home Supply.

 
Saturday at Lawrenceburg Speedway, some added bonus money has been donated by some friends and fellow racers of the late Justin Owen.  The Harrison, Ohio driver was a four-time race winner with BOSS.  He began his career in his own number 26 but found even more success in the Fischesser-Owen number four.  Therefore, $264 has been added to the winner's purse, raising it to $2,264 to win the 26-lap main event.  In addition, every fourth-place finisher in the heats at Lawrenceburg will get $26 added and every main event pay envelope will have an added $4 to remind the drivers that Justin will always be a part of the BOSS tour.  

 
We encourage everyone to support this special weekend as BOSS returns to Eldora for the first time in 5 years.  A day later, we will pay tribute to Justin Owen with an "extra lap for The Juice"!  

 

BOSS Heads East for Pennsylvania Showdown


 
For the fourth time already in 2023, the MPD Racing Buckeye Outlaw Sprint Series will venture into new territory.  This Saturday, June 10th, the stars and cars of BOSS return to Michael's Mercer Raceway after a few years hiatus.  Then, on Sunday, the traveling tour will make their first ever appearance at the Knox Raceway, just minutes to the east.  The pair of events will mark the fifth different state the drivers have competed in, in just their first seven events.

 
California native Ricky Lewis will lead the teams into the Keystone state with the points lead over Korbyn Hayslett, Cody Gardner and Paul Dues.  Tayte Williamson and Lee Underwood are dead-locked at the number 5 spot with Parker Frederickson, Blake Vermillion, Brian Ruhlman, and Dustin Ingle holding down top 10 positions.  Steve Little and Jesse Vermillion are in the 11th and 12th spots with defending champion, Isaac Chapple, in the 13th spot.  Isaac missed a show to compete in the prestigious "Little 500", but has all season to climb back into the hunt.  Matt Cooley and Greg Mitchell make up the balance of the top 15.

 
In addition to those already mentioned, a strong contingent of Pennsylvania traditional sprint car racers are expected, including 3-time feature winner this season already, Carmen Perigo.  He swept the cards at Ohio Valley, Hilltop and Wayne County and looks to return to the series and continue that streak.  Also expected are Joey Amantea, Steve Drevicki and a host of local drivers.  Two-time tour champion Matt Westfall is also expected to be in the field on his way to compete in the USAC Eastern Storm events.

 
On Saturday at Mercer, pit gates will open at 4 with general admission gates opening at 5.  Pill draw closes and driver meeting will begin at 5:45. Hot Laps will be at 6:15 with racing at 7.  Adult general admission is $18 with seniors $15 and kids 10 and under free.  Pit passes are $35 with kids and seniors pit passes at $30.  

 
On Sunday at Knox Raceway, all gates will open at 2 pm.  Pill draw will close and driver meeting begin at 4:15. Hot laps will begin at 4:45 with racing at 6 pm.  Adult general admission is $18 with pit passes $35.  Our FAST event a month ago at Knox was over and teams were on the road shortly after 8 pm.  The BOSS tour will run first all evening.

 
Both of this weekend's events will feature the standard BOSS purse as follows:  2000, 1000, 750, 650, 550, 500, 450, 425, 400, 375, 350, 340, 330, 320, 310, 300, 300, 300, 300, 300.  Heat races will pay: 40, 30, 20, 10 to the top 4 thanks to Mad Tree Brewing of Cincinnati, Ohio, Outsider's Merchandise & Apparel and Elizabeth Gardner Photography.  There will also be a free right rear tire to the main event winner courtesy of Hoosier Racing tire and 4 other $50 cash bonus awards thanks to All Pro Aluminum Cylinder Heads, Cowen Truck Line Inc, All Star Performance and E A Home Supply.  

 
For competing teams, there are ZERO membership or entry fees.  Cars must be on 4 corner Hoosier Racing Tires with the rears being any national spec rear tire from 2022 or 2023.  Legal tires on the right rear are the Medium, H15, D15A or any limited series spec right rear like the RaceSaver.  Left rears must be the H12, RD12 or SC12 or any limited series spec left rear.  We do NOT mark tires and you do not have to run the same right rear all night.

 
All cars must run the red AMB "my laps" transponders and we will have them for rent for just $10 this year.  Transponder will be mounted on the right front corner of the cars.  All drivers must have a working RaceCeiver radio on at all times cars are under power on channel 454.000.  Mufflers are NOT required at either facility.  The BOSS series will have non wing tires available along with a limited supply of methanol.  There will be another dealer with methanol at Knox on Sunday.  Please contact Aaron at 740-703-3768 to reserve specific chalk marks or a specific amount of fuel.  

 
The host hotel for the weekend is the official hotel of Mercer Raceway, the Rodeway Inn at 835 Perry Highway in Mercer.  Ask for the "BOSS Racers" rate of just $65 plus tax.  There is plenty of parking for trailers.  The hotel phone number direct line is 724-748-3030 to make a reservation.  

 
We look forward to seeing our Pennsylvania race fans this weekend.  Please be sure to support Mercer Raceway and Knox Raceway, but if you are not in the area, you can catch the action live on TheCushion.com.  

 

  midwest sprint car series  

www.mscssprints.com

Midwest Sprint Car Series is an auto racing sanctioning body for 410 non-wing sprint cars. The series races in Indiana and adjoining states


 

 


 

united states auto club buckeye outlaw sprint series  midwest sprint car series

2023 USAC SILVER CROWN SCHEDULE


 

Apr 16: TBA


 

Apr 23: (P) (A) Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park | Brownsburg, IN | Hoosier Hundred | $25,000-To-Win


 

May 19-20: (D) Belleville High Banks | Belleville, KS | $8,000-To-Win


 

May 26: (P) Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park | Brownsburg, IN | Carb Night Classic | $10,000-To-Win


 

Jun 17: (D) Port Royal Speedway | Port Royal, PA | $8,000-To-Win


 

Jun 23: (P) Madison International Speedway | Oregon, WI | Dairyland 100 | $8,000-To-Win


 

Jul 20: (P) Winchester Speedway | Winchester, IN | Rich Vogler Classic | $8,000-To-Win


 

Aug 5: (P) Toledo Speedway | Toledo, OH | Rollie Beale Classic | $8,000-To-Win


 

Aug 19: (D) Illinois State Fairgrounds | Springfield, IL | Bettenhausen 100 | $10,000-To-Win


 

Aug 27: (P) World Wide Technology Raceway | Madison, IL | $10,000-To-Win


 

Sep 2: (D) Du Quoin State Fairgrounds | Du Quoin, IL | Ted Horn 100 | $10,000-To-Win


 

Sep 22-23: (D) Eldora Speedway | Rossburg, OH | 4-Crown Nationals | $10,000-To-Win


 

Oct 14: (P) Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park | Brownsburg, IN | $10,000-To-Win


 

======================


 

(A) represents an event paying appearance points only


 

(P) represents a pavement track event


 

(D) represents a dirt track event


 

Race dates & payouts subject to change


 

 

2023 USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP


 

Apr 21: Kokomo Speedway | Kokomo, IN | Kokomo Grand Prix | $4,000-To-Win


 

Apr 22: Kokomo Speedway | Kokomo, IN | Kokomo Grand Prix | $5,000-To-Win


 

May 19: Belleville Short Track | Belleville, KS | $4,000-To-Win


 

May 20: Belleville Short Track | Belleville, KS | $6,000-To-Win


 

May 21: Sweet Springs Motorsports Complex | Sweet Springs, MO | $6,000-To-Win


 

Jun 4: Tri-State Speedway | Haubstadt, IN | Indiana Midget Week | $5,000-To-Win


 

Jun 5: Circle City Raceway | Indianapolis, IN | Indiana Midget Week | $4,000-To-Win


 

Jun 7: Gas City I-69 Speedway | Gas City, IN | Indiana Midget Week | $4,000-To-Win


 

Jun 8: Lincoln Park Speedway | Putnamville, IN | Indiana Midget Week | $4,000-To-Win


 

Jun 9: Bloomington Speedway | Bloomington, IN | Indiana Midget Week | $5,000-To-Win


 

Jun 10: Lawrenceburg Speedway | Lawrenceburg, IN | Indiana Midget Week | $5,000-To-Win


 

Jun 11: Kokomo Speedway | Kokomo, IN | Indiana Midget Week | $5,000-To-Win


 

Jul 11: Red Dirt Raceway | Meeker, OK | Tuesday Night Thunder | $4,000-To-Win


 

Jul 12: Solomon Valley Raceway | Beloit, KS | Chad McDaniel Memorial | $4,000-To-Win


 

Jul 14: Jefferson County Speedway | Fairbury, NE | Midwest Midget Championship | $4,000-To-Win


 

Jul 15: (F) Jefferson County Speedway | Fairbury, NE | Midwest Midget Championship | $10,000-To-Win


 

Aug 18: (F) Wayne County Speedway | Wayne City, IL | Jason Leffler Memorial | $5,000-To-Win


 

Aug 19: Macon Speedway | Macon, IL | $5,000-To-Win


 

Sep 3: Angell Park Speedway | Sun Prairie, WI | Firemen's Nationals | $5,000-To-Win


 

Sep 4: Angell Park Speedway | Sun Prairie, WI | $5,000-To-Win


 

Sep 21: Gas City I-69 Speedway | Gas City, IN | James Dean Classic | $4,000-To-Win


 

Sep 22: Eldora Speedway | Rossburg, OH | 4-Crown Nationals | $5,000-To-Win


 

Sep 23: (F) Eldora Speedway | Rossburg, OH | 4-Crown Nationals | $10,000-To-Win


 

Nov 14: Bakersfield Speedway | Bakersfield, CA | November Classic | $4,000-To-Win


 

Nov 16: (A) Placerville Speedway | Placerville, CA | Hangtown 100 | $5,000-To-Win


 

Nov 17: (A) Placerville Speedway | Placerville, CA | Hangtown 100 | $5,000-To-Win


 

Nov 18: (F) Placerville Speedway | Placerville, CA | Hangtown 100 | $20,000-To-Win


 

Nov 21: Merced Speedway | Merced, CA | $4,000-To-Win


 

Nov 22: Merced Speedway | Merced, CA | $4,000-To-Win


 

Nov 25: Ventura Raceway | Ventura, CA | Turkey Night Grand Prix | $10,000


 

TBA: (F) The Dirt Track at IMS | Speedway, IN


 

=====================


 

(F) represents an event paying feature points only


 

(A) represents an event paying appearance points only


 

Race dates & payouts subject to change

 
 

2023 USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP SCHEDULE


 

Feb 13: Volusia Speedway Park (SE) | Barberville, FL | $5,000-To-Win


 

Feb 14: Volusia Speedway Park (SE) | Barberville, FL | $10,000-To-Win


 

Feb 16: Bubba Raceway Park | Ocala, FL | Winter Dirt Games | $5,000-To-Win


 

Feb 17: Bubba Raceway Park | Ocala, FL | Winter Dirt Games | $5,000-To-Win


 

Feb 18: Bubba Raceway Park (F) | Ocala, FL | Winter Dirt Games | $10,000-To-Win


 

Apr 1: Lawrenceburg Speedway | Lawrenceburg, IN | $5,000-To-Win


 

Apr 14: Bloomington Speedway | Bloomington, IN | $5,000-To-Win


 

Apr 15: Tri-State Speedway (M) | Haubstadt, IN | Spring Showdown | $5,000-To-Win


 

Apr 27: Rocket Raceway Park (E) | Petty, TX | $6,000-To-Win


 

Apr 28: Devil’s Bowl Speedway (E) | Mesquite, TX | $6,000-To-Win


 

Apr 29: Devil’s Bowl Speedway (E) | Mesquite, TX | $10,000-To-Win


 

May 5: Eldora Speedway | Rossburg, OH | #LetsRaceTwo | $10,000-To-Win


 

May 6: Eldora Speedway | Rossburg, OH | #LetsRaceTwo | $10,000-To-Win


 

May 24: TBA


 

May 25: Circle City Raceway | Indianapolis, IN | Week of Indy | $10,000-To-Win


 

Jun 2: Knoxville Raceway | Knoxville, IA | Corn Belt Clash | $6,000-To-Win


 

Jun 3: Knoxville Raceway | Knoxville, IA | Corn Belt Clash | $8,000-To-Win


 

Jun 13: Grandview Speedway | Bechtelsville, PA | Eastern Storm | $6,000-To-Win


 

Jun 14: Bridgeport Motorsports Park | Swedesboro, NJ | Eastern Storm | $6,000-To-Win


 

Jun 15: Big Diamond Speedway | Pottsville, PA | Eastern Storm | $6,000-To-Win


 

Jun 16: Williams Grove Speedway | Mechanicsburg, PA | Eastern Storm | $6,000-To-Win


 

Jun 17: Port Royal Speedway | Port Royal, PA | Eastern Storm | $6,000-To-Win


 

Jun 18: Action Track USA (A) | Kutztown, PA | $6,000-To-Win


 

Jun 24: Wilmot Raceway | Wilmot, WI | $6,000-To-Win


 

Jun 25: Angell Park Speedway | Sun Prairie, WI | $6,000-To-Win


 

Jun 30: Lincoln Park Speedway (A) (M) | Putnamville, IN | Bill Gardner Sprintacular | $5,000-To-Win


 

Jul 1: Lincoln Park Speedway (M) | Putnamville, IN | Bill Gardner Sprintacular | $10,000-To-Win


 

Jul 7: Macon Speedway (A) | Macon, IL | $5,000-To-Win


 

Jul 8: Macon Speedway (A) | Macon, IL | $10,000-To-Win


 

Jul 21: Gas City I-69 Speedway | Gas City, IN | Indiana Sprint Week | $8,000-To-Win


 

Jul 22: Kokomo Speedway | Kokomo, IN | Indiana Sprint Week | $8,000-To-Win


 

Jul 23: Lawrenceburg Speedway | Lawrenceburg, IN | Indiana Sprint Week | $8,000-To-Win


 

Jul 24: Circle City Raceway | Indianapolis, IN | Indiana Sprint Week | $8,000-To-Win


 

Jul 26: TBA


 

Jul 27: Lincoln Park Speedway | Putnamville, IN | Indiana Sprint Week | $8,000-To-Win


 

Jul 28: Bloomington Speedway | Bloomington, IN | Indiana Sprint Week / Sheldon Kinser Memorial | $8,000-To-Win


 

Jul 29: Tri-State Speedway | Haubstadt, IN | Indiana Sprint Week | $8,000-To-Win


 

Aug 24: Kokomo Speedway | Kokomo, IN | Sprint Car Smackdown | $6,000-To-Win


 

Aug 25: Kokomo Speedway | Kokomo, IN | Sprint Car Smackdown | $6,000-To-Win


 

Aug 26: Kokomo Speedway | Kokomo, IN | Sprint Car Smackdown | $30,000-To-Win


 

Sep 15: Circle City Raceway | Indianapolis, IN | $5,000-To-Win


 

Sep 16: Tri-State Speedway | Haubstadt, IN | Haubstadt Hustler | $20,000-To-Win


 

Sep 21: Gas City I-69 Speedway | Gas City, IN | James Dean Classic | $5,000-To-Win


 

Sep 23: Eldora Speedway | Rossburg, OH | 4-Crown Nationals | $10,000-To-Win


 

Oct 6: TBA


 

Oct 7: Lawrenceburg Speedway | Lawrenceburg, IN | Fall Nationals | $20,000-To-Win


 

Oct 27: Red Dirt Raceway | Meeker, OK | $6,000-To-Win


 

Oct 28: Red Dirt Raceway | Meeker, OK | $10,000-To-Win


 

======================


 

(SE) represents a non-points special event


 

(F) represents an event paying feature points only


 

(A) represents an event paying appearance points only

 

2023 midwest sprint car series schedule

 

DATE TRACK LOCATION SIZE LAPS TO WIN SPECIAL
Saturday, Apr 15  Tri-State Speedway Haubstadt, IN  1/4 mile  30  $5,000  Spring Showdown 
Saturday, May 13  Tri-State Speedway Haubstadt, IN  1/4 mile  25  $3,000  Midwest Madness 
Saturday, May 20  Paragon Speedway Paragon, IN  3/8 mile  25  $5,000  MSCS Paragon Special 
Friday, May 26  Bloomington Speedway Bloomington, IN  1/4 mile  30  $3,000  Josh Burton Memorial 
Saturday, May 27  Lincoln Park Speedway Putnamville, IN  1/4 mile  25  $2,500  Memorial Weekend Special 
Sunday, May 28  Tri-State Speedway Haubstadt, IN  1/4 mile  25  $3,000  Memorial Weekend Classic 
Sunday, June 4  Tri-State Speedway Haubstadt, IN  1/4 mile  25  $2,000  USAC Midget Week 
Saturday, June 10  Circle City Raceway Indianapolis, IN  1/4 mile  25  $3,000  MSCS in Indy 
Saturday, June 24  Tri-State Speedway Haubstadt, IN  1/4 mile  25  $3,000  Summer Shootout 
Friday, June 30  Lincoln Park Speedway Putnamville, IN  1/4 mile  30  $5,000  Bill Gardner Sprintacular 
Saturday, July 1  Lincoln Park Speedway Putnamville, IN  1/4 mile  30  $10,000  Bill Gardner Sprintacular 
Friday, July 7  Gas City Speedway Gas City, IN  1/4 mile  25  $3,000  MSCS Sizzler 
Saturday, July 8  Circle City Raceway Indianapolis, IN  1/4 mile  30  $3,000  CC Classic 
Saturday, July 15  Paragon Speedway Paragon, IN  3/8 mile  25  $5,000  Leon Gentry Memorial 
Saturday, Aug 12  Tri-State Speedway Haubstadt, IN  1/4 mile  30  $5,000  19th Hoosier Sprint Nationals 
Saturday, Aug 19  Lincoln Park Speedway Putnamville, IN  1/4 mile  30  $3,000  Return to Putnamville 
Friday, Sept 1  Bloomington Speedway Bloomington, IN  1/4 mile  30  $3,000  Labor Day Weekend Special 
Sunday, Sept 3  Tri-State Speedway Haubstadt, IN  1/4 mile  25  $3,000  Labor Day Weekend Challenge 
Saturday, Sept 16  Tri-State Speedway Haubstadt, IN  1/4 mile  40  $20,000  Haubstadt Hustler 
Saturday, Oct 14  Tri-State Speedway Haubstadt, IN  1/4 mile  30  $8,000  Harvest Cut 

 




 

 

     

 

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