THORSON’S BACK-TO-BACK 7 WIN
Tanner Thorson (Minden, Nev.) recently became just the 10th driver in USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget history to win seven feature events in back-to-back seasons. (DB3, Inc. Photo)
THORSON’S BACK-TO-BACK 7-WIN BENCHMARK
By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Brandon, South Dakota (September 8, 2021)………Coming off a late-season flurry a year ago that provided him with a career-best seven victories in a single season, Tanner Thorson has already equalled that mark through the first 25 races of the 2021 USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship season.
His series-leading seventh victory of the season came last Sunday at Wisconsin’s Angell Park Speedway and he now faces three more potential shots at adding to his win total this coming weekend on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, September 10-11-12, at the inaugural Huset’s Speedway USAC Nationals in Brandon, South Dakota.
Thorson’s back-to-back seven win USAC National Midget seasons are relatively rare. In fact, over the past four decades, only one other driver has accomplished the feat – Christopher Bell in 2013 and 2014.
Just 10 drivers throughout the past 66 years of USAC National Midget racing have won at least seven feature events in consecutive seasons, a list in which Thorson of Minden, Nev. has now joined.
The list includes Gene Hartley (1959-60), Jimmy Davies (1960-61-62), Bob Wente (1962-63), Mel Kenyon (1964-65 & 1967-68-69), Bob Tattersall (1965-66), Jimmy Caruthers (1970-71), Sleepy Tripp (1975-76), Rich Vogler (1978-79), plus Bell (2013-14) and now Thorson (2020-21).
All seven of Thorson’s wins have come aboard the Reinbold-Underwood Motorsports/AME Electrical – MVT – Smith Titanium/Spike/Stanton SR-11x at Port City Raceway, Lincoln Park Speedway, Solomon Valley Raceway, Jefferson County Speedway, Bridgeport Motorsports Park, Bloomsburg Fair Raceway and Angell Park Speedway.
The latest of his victories, worth $5,000, at Angell Park was the 27th of Thorson’s USAC National Midget career, tying him with Tony Stewart and Gary Bettenhausen for 14th all-time.
Thorson, the 2016 USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget Champion, has already won series features in five different months this season and leads in laps led as well with 129, and four fast qualifying times, while his seven wins are among his 10 top-tens.
Penngrove, (Calif.) driver Buddy Kofoid’s championship point lead has shrunk to single digits with just nine separating him and Emerson Axsom (Franklin, Ind.) entering Huset’s. Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports holds the same margin of lead in the entrant standings over Petry Motorsports.
Only 25 points out of the championship lead is reigning titlist Chris Windom (Canton, Ill.), who leads all drivers with 17 top-fives while fourth in the standings is Justin Grant (Ione, Calif.), 85 points behind the leader, who owns a series-leading eight heat race wins.
Chase Randall (Waco, Texas) maintains his stranglehold of the Rookie of the Year race, 267 points ahead of his nearest fellow Rookie, and is 11th overall in the tally.
Nine drivers have started all 25 features run this far in 2021: Axsom, Grant, Kofoid, Thorson, Windom, Cannon McIntosh (Bixby, Okla.), Thomas Meseraull (San Jose, Calif.), Daison Pursley (Locust Grove, Okla.) and Logan Seavey (Sutter, Calif.).
A Thursday practice night begins the festivities for both divisions on September 9 starting at 6pm Central. All will head this weekend to South Dakota’s Huset’s Speedway USAC Nationals for what will be a first-time endeavor for all participants with it being the first time in 25 years that USAC National Midgets have competed at the track.
For the first two nights of racing at Huset’s on Friday, September 10 and Saturday, September 11, pit gates open at Noon Central. The front gates will open at 4pm with the drivers meeting at 3:30pm and engine heat and cars on track at 5:15pm. The Sprintcar and Midget features will each pay $5,000 to win on Friday and Saturday.
On the final night, championship night, on Sunday, September 12, pit gates open at Noon Central. The front gates will open at 3pm with the drivers meeting at 4:15pm and cars on track at 4:45pm. The Sprintcar and Midget features will each pay $20,000 to win on Sunday.
If you can’t make it to the event in person, all three nights of racing action at the Huset’s Speedway USAC Nationals will be aired live on FloRacing at https://bit.ly/2ZpafUr.
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2021 USAC MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP OWNER POINT STANDINGS (TOP-10)
POS. PTS. ENTRANT, TEAM LOCATION
1 1607 Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports, Columbus, Ind. (#67)
2 1598 Petry Motorsports, Greenfield, Ind. (#15)
3 1582 CB Industries, Mooresville, N.C. (#89)
4 1532 RMS Racing, Western Springs, Ill. (#2J)
5 1466 Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports, Columbus, Ind. (#71K)
6 1375 Reinbold-Underwood Motorsports, Gilbert, Ariz. (#19T)
7 1352 Tom Malloy, El Monte, Calif. (#25)
8 1329 RMS Racing, Western Springs, Ill. (#7x)
9 1315 Petry Motorsports, Greenfield, Ind. (#5)
10 1188 Dave Mac Motorsports, Bixby, Okla. (#08)
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2021 USAC MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP ROOKIE DRIVER POINT STANDINGS (TOP-10)
POS. PTS. DRIVER, HOMETOWN
1 1010 Chase Randall, Waco, Texas
2 743 Bryant Wiedeman, Colby, Kan.
3 720 Brenham Crouch, Lubbock, Texas
4 598 Hayden Williams, Auckland, N.Z.
5 520 Hayden Reinbold, Gilbert, Ariz.
6 481 Trey Gropp, Lincoln, Neb.
7 469 Corey Day, Clovis, Calif.
8 321 Ryan Timms, Oklahoma City, Okla.
9 313 Brian Carber, Pipersville, Pa.
10 219 Taylor Reimer, Bixby, Okla.
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2021 USAC MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP STATISTICS
FEATURE WINS
7-Tanner Thorson (Apr 11 at Port City Raceway, Jun 10 at Lincoln Park Speedway, Jul 15 at Solomon Valley Raceway, Jul 16 at Jefferson County Speedway, Aug 5 at Bridgeport Motorsports Park, Aug 6 at Bloomsburg Fair Raceway & Sep 5 at Angell Park Speedway)
4-Buddy Kofoid (Feb 6 at Bubba Raceway Park, Apr 10 at Port City Raceway, Jun 4 at Bloomington Speedway & Jun 11 at Gas City I-69 Speedway)
3-Chris Windom (May 1 at Kokomo Speedway, Jun 12 at Kokomo Speedway & Aug 3 at Grandview Speedway)
2-Emerson Axsom (Apr 30 at Kokomo Speedway & Jul 17 at Jefferson County Speedway)
2-Thomas Meseraull (Feb 8 at Bubba Raceway Park & Jun 3 at Paragon Speedway)
2-Daison Pursley (Jul 13 at Red Dirt Raceway & Aug 4 at Action Track USA)
1-Kyle Cummins (Jun 6 at Tri-State Speedway)
1-Corey Day (Jun 9 at Circle City Raceway)
1-Justin Grant (Aug 7 at Lanco’s Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway)
1-Kyle Larson (Aug 19 at The Dirt Track at Indianapolis Motor Speedway)
1-Logan Seavey (Jun 5 at Lawrenceburg Speedway)
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ALL-TIME USAC MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP FEATURE WINS
1. [111 wins] Mel Kenyon
2. [95 wins] Rich Vogler
3. [78 wins] Bob Wente
4. [63 wins] Bob Tattersall
5. [59 wins] Sleepy Tripp
6. [48 wins] Jimmy Davies
7. [38 wins] Bryan Clauson
8. [35 wins] Tracy Hines
9. [31 wins] Gene Hartley & Chuck Rodee
11. [30 wins] Dave Darland, Mike McGreevy & Johnny Parsons
14. [27 wins] Gary Bettenhausen, Tony Stewart & Tanner Thorson
17. [25 wins] Darren Hagen, Parnelli Jones & Dave Strickland
20. [24 wins] Billy Engelhart & Kyle Larson
NO PRESSURE ON ZMARZLIK AFTER LATVIAN GP WIN