Lonnie Wheatley, FAIRBURY, Neb. (July 16, 2021) – Tanner Thorson made it two USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget Series feature wins in as many nights by wiring the field in Friday night’s 30-lap Fourth Annual Riverside Chevrolet Midwest Midget Championship presented by Westin Packaged Meats and Schmidt’s Sanitation feature event atop the 1/5-mile Jefferson County Speedway clay oval.
Leading the field to the green flag from the pole position, Thorson gunned into the lead at the outset and kept Kevin Thomas, Jr., and Chris Windom at bay the entire distance to snare his fourth series win of the season aboard the Stanton SRX-11 powered Reinbold-Underwood Motorsports No. 19T AME Electrical/The Healing Tree Spike-chassis.
“I think what they say it’s better to be lucky than good any day, it was a good night to start on the front row,” Thorson said in victory lane. “The track was really fast, Cody Brewer and his track crew are second to none in this business.”
Following a pair of early incidents, the final 29 circuits ran off in non-stop fashion with Thorson leading the way ahead of Kevin Thomas, Jr., and Chris Windom.
Thomas, Jr., and Windom kept the pressure on as traffic came into play, but Thorson made a nifty maneuver past a pair of lapped cars with ten laps to go to amass enough breathing room to secure the victory and put himself in strong position for Saturday night’s Midwest Midget Championship $10,000 winner’s share.
Thorson knew that Thomas, Jr., was in striking position much of the way though, explaining that, “He’s really good at running the bottom, I was just trying to hit my marks the best that I could and get by lapped cars the best that I could.”
Thomas, Jr., settled for runner-up honors abord the Petry Motorsports Toyota-powered Gray Auto No. 5, summing up that, “We had a good car, Tanner got us on the start and that was all she wrote.”
Defending series champion brought the CB Industries NOS Energy Drink across the stripe in the show position with an eye on Saturday night, “ We’ll come and try to win the big show tomorrow.
Emerson Axsom was fourth with Justin Grant rounding out the top five. After establishing a quick time of 10.710 seconds in qualifying, Logan Seavey advanced from “B” Main action to climb from 11th to sixth in the main event with Ethan Mitchell, Trey Gropp, 18th-starter Thomas Meseraull and 20th-starter Cannon McIntosh completing the top ten.
The feature went red after one lap when Jerry Coons, Jr., took a wild tumble in turn three and then went immediately back to caution on the restart when the field stacked up and collected series points leader Buddy Kofoid along with Daison Pursley and Kyle Jones. The balance of the race went non-stop.
After Seavey set quick time over the 35-car field, Tyler Thomas, Coons, Jr., Jones and Grant topped heat races with Pursley rebounding from a turn one flip in hot laps to win the “B” Main.
USAC’s “Mid-America Midget Week” wraps up with Saturday night’s $10,000-to-win Midwest Midget Championship at Jefferson County Speedway.
Jefferson County Speedway – Fairbury, Neb.
USAC NOS Energy Drink Midgets “Riverside Chevrolet Midwest Midget Championship presented by Westin Packaged Meats and Schmidt’s Sanitation” Preliminary Results – July 16, 2021
FATHEADZ EYEWEAR QUALIFYING: 1. Logan Seavey, 25, Malloy-10.710; 2. Daison Pursley, 71K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-10.712; 3. Buddy Kofoid, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-10.745; 4. Trey Gropp, 00, Mounce/Stout-10.827; 5. Emerson Axsom, 15, Petry-10.840; 6. Chase Randall, 19A, Reinbold/Underwood-10.840; 7. Chris Windom, 89, CBI-10.865; 8. Ethan Mitchell, 19m, Bundy Built-10.869; 9. Kevin Thomas Jr., 5, Petry-10.871; 10. Tanner Thorson, 19T, Reinbold/Underwood-10.911; 11. Kaylee Bryson, 71, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-10.913; 12. Ryan Timms, 85T, CBI-10.919; 13. Bryant Wiedeman, 01, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-10.921; 14. Thomas Meseraull, 7x, RMS-10.948; 15. Sam Johnson, 72J, Johnson-10.951; 16. Cannon McIntosh, 08, Dave Mac-10.967; 17. Jason McDougal, 4, Klatt-10.994; 18. Brenham Crouch, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-10.999; 19. Kyle Jones, 7u, Tri-Fecta-11.017; 20. Justin Grant, 2J, RMS-11.053; 21. Tyler Thomas, 91T, Thomas-11.074; 22. Jerry Coons Jr., 85, Central-11.083; 23. Shannon McQueen, 7, McQueen-11.184; 24. Jake Bubak, 27B, Bourke-11.195; 25. Austin Barnhill, 17B, Johnson-11.222; 26. Travis Buckley, 7NZ, BLS-11.268; 27. Brett Becker, 2B, Becker-11.282; 28. Kyler Johnson, 45x, KJR-11.367; 29. Zac Taylor, 71T, Henry-11.387; 30. Keith Rauch, 27, Bourke-11.400; 31. Hayden Reinbold, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-11.411; 32. Cade Cowles, 70, Gariss-11.672; 33. Shaun Shapel, 84s, Shapel-12.014; 34. Blake Spicer, 4s, John-12.324; 35. J.R. Ewing, 2c, Ewing-12.795; 36. Hayden Williams, 1NZ, BSL-NT.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Tyler Thomas, 2. Bryant Wiedeman, 3. Emerson Axsom, 4. Kevin Thomas Jr., 5. Logan Seavey, 6. Jason McDougal, 7. Zac Taylor, 8. Austin Barnhill, 9. Shaun Shapel. NT
COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Jerry Coons Jr., 2. Thomas Meseraull, 3. Brenham Crouch, 4. Tanner Thorson, 5. Daison Pursley, 6. Chase Randall, 7. Keith Rauch, 8. Blake Spicer, 9. Travis Buckley. 1:51.210
INDY METAL FINISHING THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Kyle Jones, 2. Kaylee Bryson, 3. Chris Windom, 4. Buddy Kofoid, 5. Shannon McQueen, 6. Sam Johnson, 7. Hayden Reinbold, 8. Brett Becker, 9. J.R. Ewing. NT
INDY RACE PARTS FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Justin Grant, 2. Ryan Timms, 3. Cannon McIntosh, 4. Ethan Mitchell, 5. Trey Gropp, 6. Jake Bubak, 7. Hayden Williams, 8. Cade Cowles, 9. Kyler Johnson. 1:50.360 (New Track Record)
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (12 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature) 1. Daison Pursley, 2. Logan Seavey, 3. Jason McDougal, 4. Trey Gropp, 5. Chase Randall, 6. Sam Johnson, 7. Jake Bubak, 8. Austin Barnhill, 9. Hayden Reinbold, 10. Zac Taylor, 11. Kyler Johnson, 12. Keith Rauch, 13. Cade Cowles, 14. Shaun Shapel, 15. Hayden Williams, 16. Shannon McQueen, 17. Blake Spicer, 18. Travis Buckley. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Tanner Thorson (1), 2. Kevin Thomas Jr. (2), 3. Chris Windom (4), 4. Emerson Axsom (5), 5. Justin Grant (8), 6. Logan Seavey (11), 7. Ethan Mitchell (3), 8. Trey Gropp (13), 9. Thomas Meseraull (18), 10. Cannon McIntosh (20), 11. Brenham Crouch (22), 12. Daison Pursley (12), 13. Bryant Wiedeman (17), 14. Buddy Kofoid (6), 15. Chase Randall (14), 16. Ryan Timms (16), 17. Sam Johnson (19), 18. Kyle Jones (7), 19. Jason McDougal (21), 20. Kaylee Bryson (15), 21. Tyler Thomas (9), 22. Jerry Coons Jr. (10). NT
**Daison Pursley flipped during practice. Jerry Coons Jr. flipped on lap 2 of the feature.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-30 Tanner Thorson.