A thousand dollars is on offer to any driver who beats Kyle Larson in the reaming USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget Car Indiana Midget Week events. The reason for the bounty apparent yet proving futile as the Elk Grove, Californian Father of two claimed his 2nd consecutive series race win and 7th ever midget week win.
In qualifying Max McLaughlin flipped one of six Keith Kunz Motor Sports cars, returning Mr Kunz’s car dangling, broken on the tow truck hook. Logan Seavey was quickest of the 48 cars entered with Jake Neuman, Cannon McIntosh, Ricky Stenhouse, Rico Abreu the fastest five.
The low banked quarter mile track offering plenty of traction. Thomas Meseraull found that traction and flipped short but hard on lap 2 of his qualifying run. When asked of his crash by the live broadcast crew he exclaimed in third person trope “Typical ‘T-Mez’ fashion, F**king up early in the week!”
The heat racing put on some close multi car action. The four 10-Lap race winners were Gio Scelzi, Tanner Thorson, Kevin Thomas Jnr. and Carson Macedo.
Ryan Hall and Jake Swanson flipped on separate occasions in the C-Main won by Jason McDougal who was joined by Andrew Layser, Robert Dalby and Veteran Russ Gamester in transferring to the back of the Semi-Feature.
Abreu dominated the 12-Lap Semi-Feature followed by Neuman, Larson, Meseraull, McIntosh and Bacon who all secured a spot in the Feature event.
Tyler Courtney and Michael ‘Buddy’ Kofoid would pace the front row with Kaylee Bryson, Tanner Carrick, Ricky Stenhouse and Logan Seavey starting upfront. Prusley and Dalby took provisional starting spots and occupying the twelfth and final row. Larson back in 14th.
Courtney won the start and established a lead over Kofoid as Scelzi. After five laps Larson was already 7th behind Carrick and Bryson contesting 5th place. Both were passed with Scelzi next to fall into the clutches of his Tucker-Boat Motorsports team mate Larson who slid by and into third.
On lap 12 McIntosh stopped on the high side of turn 4. Simultaneously Meseraull tipped over for the 2nd occasion of the evening after biking up on the cushion. Disappointingly this time leaving the scene without comment.
Reminiscent of the previous night’s Feature Larson looked to be fastest and caught Kofoid as the pair fought for 2nd for several laps trading places until interrupted by a caution period with Larson ahead at the time and now nose to tail with leader Courtney for the restart.
With 12 laps remaining Larson passed leader Courtney. Kofoid followed Larson through but Larson reached lap traffic and banked a lapped car between himself and Kofoid who closed the distance but ran out of time. Larson’s 21st USAC National Midget victory enjoyed much like the night before with son Owen now accustom to cage stands and podium celebrations.
Kofoid, Courtney, Thorson and Scelzi top five. Neuman, Seavey, Macedo, Carrick and Bryson in the top 10.
“I knew I could get runs on people down the back stretch. They weren’t sliding all the way to the edge so I could get a bit of grip and slide them into [turn] 3.” Said Larson after the race.
“That was kind of the move that worked for me in the second half of the race.”
The bounty not going to a fellow driver as Larson won the Midget feature, the money will be donated to the Indiana Donor Network in Larson’s name and a new Bounty for each of the remaining four rounds. Regardless, several dozen drivers are straining at the leash to break Larson’s recent dominant form. All attention turns to round 3 at Lincoln Park Speedway June 18th (June 19th NZ Time).
Current Indiana Midget Week Top 10 In Points after round 2 of 6:
Kyle Larson 155
Tanner Thorson 144
Buddy Kofoid 129
Tyler Courtney 129
Tanner Carrick 117
Ricky Stenhouse Jnr. 116
Logan Seavey 114
Justin Grant 111
Chris Windom 105
Jake Neuman 97
In non-wing Sprint Car action Aucklander Max Guilford qualified 7th which put him on grid 8 for his heat race where he finished 6th .Guilford then started 8th in the 12-Lap Semi-Main but finished 6th with only the top 3 making the Feature.
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