Kyle Cummins claimed his first USAC National Midget Series win at Tri-State Speedway in round 4 of Indiana Midget Week. The New Zealanders failing to finish.
The 27-Car field time trialled with Chris Windom lowering the Midget track record by quarter of a second in a time of 13.377. Last night’s winner Logan Seavey second fastest with Cannon McIntosh, Cummins and night 2 winner Buddy Kofoid among the top five. New Zealand Midget Champion Hayden Williams 18th and Travis Buckley 23rd on the egg-shaped track they call “The Class Track”.
The Haubstadt, Indiana track has a unique link to New Zealand with the legendary Barry Butterworth winning here in 1979, becoming the first non-American in history to ever win a USAC National Midget Feature.
The 10-Lap heat races were won by night 1 winner Thomas Meseraull, Kevin Thomas Jr. and Tanner Thorson with Williams and Buckley both missing out on transfer spots, forced to race their way into the Feature though a 12-Lap Semi-feature.
Williams started the Semi from grid two and managed a convincing win on the still heavy racing surface. Buckley finishing 8th, one position away from transferring to the 30-Lap Feature.
Prior to the Midget Feature the local Sprintcars raced and much like the previous night with Seavey winning in both the Midget and Sprinter, Cummins was able to take out the Sprint Car Feature in convincing fashion. Cummins known as a dominant Sprint Car driver at this track with more USAC wins than anyone and several local championships.
The Midget Feature line up had Daison Pursley and Kofoid on the front with Cummins and McIntosh behind. Seavey and Windom were in the 3rd row and Williams was 16th.
At the drop of the green flag Pursley stayed high and Cummins slipped past Kofoid and ran low. Cummins and Pursley exchanging the lead until Cummins edged ahead with Pursley on his bumper.
The red flags came out when North Carolina’s Ethan Mitchell clipped a half buried infield tyre and flipped but was uninjured. As the race got back underway Cummins in the Glenn Styres Spike-MOPAR SR-11 lead with Pursley being passed by Windom then by his Keith Kunz Motorsport teammate Kofoid.
Windom was the only car who could hang with Cummins. The pair approached lap traffic only for the caution to come out. As the race resumed the lead pair looked to pull away again until the red lights flashed again, this time for Williams who also tagged an infield tyre, breaking his steering and sending him towards the outside wall and into the path of who Brenham Crouch nudged Williams over gently onto his side. Williams credited with 21st.
In the final 10 laps Pursley made a final effort for 2nd but Windom was able to defend as Pursley found himself in Meseraull’s gun sights. Veteran Meseraull passing the youngster with less than 5 laps remaining and eventually side-by-side with Windom monetarily for 2nd.
Meseraull nearly had Windom at the line though nobody had anything for Cummins who by over half a second. Windom a slender 0.01 ahead of Meseraull in 3rd. Pursley, Thomas Jr., Jason McDougal, McIntosh, Justin Grant from grid 20, Thorson and Kofoid rounding out the top ten.
Cummins the owner of many wins at this track but his 1st in a midget. “I was better on the top then once it got slick, I knew if I could just… because of the last few years I’ve been here, if you get in front of them, it’s really hard to pass someone in a Midget here” Cummins said after his win.
Windom’s 2nd place finish edging him back into the lead ahead of Kofoid and Seavey in Midget Week points with Kofoid leading the National Series points.
Indiana Midget Week Points (After Round 4 of 8)
1-Chris Windom-283
2-Buddy Kofoid-270
3-Logan Seavey-256
4-Justin Grant-247
5-Daison Pursley-243
6-Thomas Meseraull-220
7-Cannon McIntosh-218
8-Kevin Thomas Jr.-202
9-Emerson Axsom-189
10-Jason McDougal-185
The next round is at Circle City Raceway in Indianapolis, 9th June. For live and on demand footage visit https://www.floracing.com/
