Tanner Thorson (middle) is joined by car owner Tom Malloy (right) and Bakersfield Speedway promoter Scott Schweitzer (left) after Thorson won Wednesday night's USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship feature at California's Bakersfield Speedway. (Rich Forman Photo) (Video Highlights from FloRacing.com)
By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Bakersfield, California (November 27, 2024)………Over the past 69 years of USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget racing, only 14 drivers have amassed 30 or more victories during their career.
Tanner Thorson is now one of those elite few following his wire-to-wire winning performance during Wednesday night’s 8th annual November Classic at California’s Bakersfield Speedway.
Starting from the pole in his Tom Malloy/Trench Shoring – Rodela Specialty Fabrication – Race for Chase/LynK/Ed Pink Toyota, Thorson (Minden, Nev.) was never headed from start to finish, leading the entire 30-lap distance to earn his 30th career USAC National Midget feature victory – his first at Bakersfield.
The 2016 USAC National Midget driving champion joins the 30+ win club, which only 13 previous drivers have achieved: Mel Kenyon (111), Rich Vogler (95), Bob Wente (78), Bob Tattersall (63), Sleepy Tripp (59), Jimmy Davies (48), Bryan Clauson (38), Tracy Hines (35), Gene Hartley (31), Chuck Rodee (31), Dave Darland (30), Mike McGreevy (30) and Johnny Parsons (30).
“(The track) was tricky; it was definitely a race where you wanted to start on the front row,” Thorson said of the juiced up 1/3-mile clay oval which had been doused by rain the previous two days. “Hats off to my guys for not giving up. I was pretty terrible in that heat race, so we just threw a bunch of stuff at it and it stuck. This was as comfortable as it could get and it could go anywhere I wanted. I think it helped in that situation because it’s easy to lose races when you’re out there by yourself.”
The victory was also Thorson’s first since his two-month-old daughter, Blakelee, was born. Furthermore, Thorson’s latest USAC National Midget victory was his second in the state of California, and his first in the Golden State since 2020 at Merced Speedway just after he was hired for a late-season run in Malloy’s same No. 25m nearly four years to the day earlier.
“It’s cool to get back here in victory lane with (Tom Malloy),” Thorson stated. “He and (crew chief) Jerome (Rodela) gave me a shot back in 2020 when I didn’t have a ride. I told him we were going to park it at least one time this week.”
Thorson established the top spot early over fellow front row starter Cannon McIntosh, who slipped back to fourth as fellow Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports teammates Ryan Timms and Buddy Kofoid scurried into second and third, respectively.
By lap nine, Thorson had already reached the tail end of the field, building a 1.7 second lead in the process over Timms and Kofoid who found themselves mired behind a wall of lapped traffic.
However, the front running order was shaken up on lap 13 when the lapped car of Alex Karpowicz checked up behind Timms on the bottom of turn two. At that same moment, Kofoid was skating the low groove and clipped the left rear tire of Karpowicz, which sent Kofoid spiraling upside down to bring out the red flag, finishing Kofoid’s night in the process.
On the ensuing lap 13 restart, fifth running Carson Macedo biked on his entry into turn one, sending him flipping over three times into the outside wall and billboards, ending his race in abrupt fashion. Earlier in the evening, Macedo had set fast time during Honest Abe Roofing Qualifying for the for third time in his USAC National Midget career, and for the first time since 2021.
During the red flag, 17th running Kyle Larson, the 2019 November Classic victor, peeled off to the pits and did not return and was scored 23rd.
From the second attempt at a lap 13 restart through the balance of the 30-lap main, Thorson was the dominant force as he quickly muscled his way to an eight car length lead by the midway point and increasingly built his advantage over the field as the race wore on, even as he was forced to maneuver around from top to bottom in order to work his way through traffic.
“I don’t really think I had a doubt,” Thorson confidently noted. “My car was just so good. It sounds cocky, but I was letting it drive itself and it where it went.”
Thorson ultimately powered across the finish line 3.082 seconds ahead of the competition in front of the KKM triumvirate of Ryan Timms, Cannon McIntosh and Gavin Miller while Beilman Motorsports’ Zach Daum rounded out the top-five.
Finally, it was no more tens for Timms (Oklahoma City, Okla.) on his California swing during the month of November. In his first three outings of the trip over the past week, Timms had finished 10th at Thunderbowl Raceway followed by a pair of 10th place performances at Merced Speedway. On this night at Bakersfield, he finished a solid second in his Keith Kunz-Curb-Agajanian Motorsports/JBL Audio – TRD – Toyota – Mobil 1/LynK/Speedway Toyota, his best performance to date with the USAC National Midgets at Bakersfield.
McIntosh (Bixby, Okla.), meanwhile, scored a third place result in his Keith Kunz-Curb-Agajanian Motorsports/GearWrench – Mobil 1 – TRD/LynK/Speedway Toyota for his ninth podium finish in his last 11 starts. His latest top-three run at Bakersfield shaved off 24 more points from 12th place finisher Daison Pursley’s USAC National Midget point lead. McIntosh now heads to California’s Ventura Raceway on Saturday just 30 points behind Pursley in the race for the title.
Jacob Denney (Galloway, Ohio) has put together a solid California swing with top-seven finishes in all four of his starts. Despite starting 14th at Bakersfield, the Buckeye advanced his way up to a seventh place finish to earn hard charger honors for the night.
It's been a rough and tumble Cali swing for Zach Daum. After placing 12th, 12th and 16th this past week, he got back into the groove at Bakersfield with a lap pass to win his heat race, then went on to grab fifth in the main event. For those two drives, he certainly made tonight's Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night.
Two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch made his USAC National Midget debut at Bakersfield. A promising night in which he qualified 18th out of 36 cars before leading the first two laps of his heat race came to an abrupt halt with a battery connection issue, forcing him to drop out. Starting 10th in the semi-feature, Busch worked his way up to fifth, but fell one spot short of the final transfer spot.
USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: November 27, 2024 – Bakersfield Speedway – Bakersfield, California – 1/3-Mile Dirt Oval – 8th November Classic
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Carson Macedo, 99AU, Dyson-12.380; 2. Gavin Miller, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.436; 3. Buddy Kofoid, 71, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.472; 4. Ryan Timms, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.579; 5. Ronnie Gardner, 68, Six8-12.596; 6. Drake Edwards, 3p, Petty-12.633; 7. Chase McDermand, 8w, Ford-12.635; 8. Cannon McIntosh, 71K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.704; 9. Tanner Thorson, 25m, Malloy-12.774; 10. Zach Daum, 31B, Beilman-12.777; 11. Corey Day, 4, Kahne-12.779; 12. Kale Drake, 97K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.783; 13. Jacob Denney, 25, Malloy-12.785; 14. Daison Pursley, 86, CBI-12.803; 15. Emerson Axsom, 67K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.828; 16. Kyle Larson, 1K, Silva-12.862; 17. Karter Sarff, 31, Beilman-12.869; 18. Kyle Busch, 51B, Busch-12.921; 19. Zach Wigal, 89, CBI-12.967; 20. Brandt Twitty, 4B, Twitty-12.996; 21. Justin Grant, 2, RMS-13.001; 22. Austin Torgerson, 88A, Mounce/Stout-13.006; 23. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-13.041; 24. Cade Lewis, 101, Alexander-13.088; 25. Brody Fuson, 51, Carlile-13.115; 26. Broedy Graham, 66, Graham-13.181; 27. Alex Karpowicz, 19, Mounce/Stout-13.260; 28. Abby Hohlbein, 55, Lambert-13.456; 29. Troy DeGaton, 39T, DeGaton-13.460; 30. Todd Hawse, 18, Hawse-13.460; 31. Kaylee Bryson, 58, Abacus-13.558; 32. T.J. Smith, 32, Sarale-14.021; 33. Kyle Hawse, 20x, Hawse-14.499; 34. Terry Nichols, 1p, Nichols/Peckfelder-15.562; 35. Tyler Courtney, 23c, Silva-NT; 36. Cale Coons, 63, Dooling-NT.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Justin Grant, 2. Jacob Denney, 3. Tanner Thorson, 4. Brody Fuson, 5. Carson Macedo, 6. Kyle Hawse, 7. Troy DeGaton, 8. Ronnie Gardner, 9. Karter Sarff. NT
ROD END SUPPLY SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Zach Daum, 2. Daison Pursley, 3. Gavin Miller, 4. Austin Torgerson, 5. Broedy Graham, 6. Todd Hawse, 7. Terry Nichols, 8. Kyle Busch, 9. Drake Edwards. NT
T.J. FORGED THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Logan Seavey, 2. Corey Day, 3. Zach Wigal, 4. Emerson Axsom, 5. Buddy Kofoid, 6. Alex Karpowicz, 7. Kaylee Bryson, 8. Chase McDermand. 2:11.097
CAR IQ FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Cade Lewis, 2. Ryan
Timms, 3. Cannon McIntosh, 4. Kale Drake, 5. Kyle Larson, 6. Brandt Twitty, 7. T.J. Smith, 8. Abby Hohlbein. 2:09.421
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (12 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Chase McDermand, 2. Drake Edwards, 3. Brandt Twitty, 4. Alex Karpowicz, 5. Kyle Busch, 6. Kaylee Bryson, 7. T.J. Smith, 8. Abby Hohlbein, 9. Todd Hawse, 10. Kyle Hawse, 11. Terry Nichols, 12. Cale Coons. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Tanner Thorson (1), 2. Ryan Timms (3), 3. Cannon McIntosh (2), 4. Gavin Miller (5), 5. Zach Daum (7), 6. Justin Grant (8), 7. Jacob Denney (14), 8. Cade Lewis (10), 9. Logan Seavey (9), 10. Kale Drake (13), 11. Zach Wigal (18), 12. Daison Pursley (15), 13. Emerson Axsom (16), 14. Chase McDermand (12), 15. Brody Fuson (21), 16. Drake Edwards (11), 17. Austin Torgerson (20), 18. Alex Karpowicz (23), 19. Broedy Graham (24), 20. Brandt Twitty (19), 21. Buddy Kofoid (4), 22. Carson Macedo (6), 23. Kyle Larson (17), 24. Corey Day (24). NT
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-30 Tanner Thorson.
**Cale Coons flipped during practice. Ronnie Gardner flipped during the first heat. Troy DeGaton flipped during the first heat. Buddy Kofoid flipped on lap 13 of the feature. Carson Macedo flipped on lap 13 of the feature.
USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Daison Pursley-1436, 2-Cannon McIntosh-1406, 3-Logan Seavey-1297, 4-Ryan Timms-1288, 5-Zach Daum-1223, 6-Jacob Denney-1216, 7-Justin Grant-1158, 8-Gavin Miller-1121, 9-Zach Wigal-1044, 10-Kale Drake-1014.
USAC NATIONAL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Daison Pursley-209, 2-Logan Seavey-196, 3-Justin Grant-156, 4-Robert Ballou-149, 5-Kyle Cummins-131, 6-C.J. Leary-131, 7-Chase Stockon-126, 8-Matt Westfall-121, 9-Brady Bacon-120, 10-Kevin Thomas Jr.-107.
NEXT USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: November 30, 2024 – Ventura Raceway – Ventura, California – 1/5-Mile Dirt Oval – 83rd ARP Turkey Night Grand Prix Presented By The West Coast Stock Car/Motorsports Hall of Fame
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Driver: Carson Macedo (12.669)
Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier: Carson Macedo (12.380)
Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner: Justin Grant
Rod End Supply Second Heat Winner: Zach Daum
T.J. Forged Third Heat Winner: Logan Seavey
Car IQ Fourth Heat Winner: Cade Lewis
Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Semi Winner: Chase McDermand
Hard Charger: Jacob Denney (14th to 7th)
Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night: Zach Daum