T-MEZ CELEBRATES BIRTHDAY WITH 16TH TO 1ST REGIONAL MIDGET CHARGE AT GAS CITY
By: Linda Mansfield
GAS CITY, Ind., May 8 – Thomas Meseraull of San Jose, Calif., celebrated his 40th birthday in victory lane following victories in both the 25-lap sprint car feature and the 20-lap USAC Midwest Regional Midget feature Friday night as Indiana’s Gas City I-69 Speedway opened its 2021 season.
The USAC Midwest Regional Midget feature, which was for open midgets, SpeeD2 midgets and 1,000cc mini-sprints, had a flip before one lap was in the books. This time, it was Greg Mitchell of Washington, W.Va., who caught a tractor tire on the inside of Turn 4 near the front stretch and flipped but emerged under his own power.
Young Emerson Axsom of Franklin, Ind., led from lap one through lap 14, when Adam Taylor of Dwight, Ill. flipped in turn two while running tenth. Meseraull, who had started 16th after qualifying by winning the B-main, passed Axsom for the lead on the outside of Turn 4 on lap 15 after the restart and never looked back. His margin of victory over Axsom was 1.633 seconds with the RMS Racing/EnviroFab/Guess Performance Parts Spike/Speedway Toyota No. 7x.
Cottle, who like Meseraull was driving in both the sprint and midget divisions, finished third. Jarett Andretti of Indianapolis finished fourth and Chett Gehrke of Bardstown, Ky. rounded out the top five.
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USAC MIDWEST REGIONAL MIDGET RACE RESULTS: May 7, 2021 – Gas City I-69 Speedway – Gas City, Indiana
FIRST QUALIFYING GROUP: 1. Ronnie Gardner, 43, Arnold-12.523; 2. Bryan Stanfill, 75AU, Griffith-12.597; 3. Shane Cottle, 86, Stamper-12.905; 4. Tyler Nelson, 88, Nelson-13.005; 5. Abby Hohlbein, 11H, Hohlbein-13.171; 6. Adam Taylor, 7T, Taylor-13.259; 7. Jordan Calendine, 38, Calendine-13.385; 8. Kyle Dager, 2, Dager-13.576; 9. Glenn Waterland, 11c, Waterland-13.614; 10. Bryce Dues, 23D, Dues-14.020.
SECOND QUALIFYING GROUP: 1. Jeff Beasley, 83, Beasley-12.678; 2. Gray Leadbetter, 2MD, Leadbetter-12.784; 3. Chett Gehrke, 10, Moore-12.819; 4. Jacob Denney, 11T, Taylor-12.930; 5. Stratton Briggs, 71, Briggs-12.979; 6. Kayla Roell, 4K, Roell-13.152; 7. Bryce Massingill, 1, Massingill-13.279; 8. Ian Creager, 36, Creager-13.386; 9. Kyle Kriegbaum, 12, Kriegbaum-14.314.
THIRD QUALIFYING GROUP: 1. Emerson Axsom, 15, Petry-12.166; 2. Thomas Meseraull, 7x, RMS-12.220; 3. Chance Crum, 26, Rudeen-12.324; 4. Jarett Andretti, 51, RMS-12.453; 5. Billy Lawless, 17L, Lawless-13.068; 6. Greg Mitchell, 001, Mitchell-13.192; 7. Carl Peterson, 49p, Peterson-13.860; 8. Austin Wickman, 65, Wickman-16.530.
DID NOT QUALIFY: Scott Orr (#88 Orr), Zack Gingerich (#8z Gingerich) & Tyler Watkins (#5 Watkins).
FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Shane Cottle, 2. Tyler Nelson, 3. Ronnie Gardner, 4. Bryan Stanfill, 5. Adam Taylor, 6. Abby Hohlbein, 7. Glenn Waterland, 8. Kyle Dager, 9. Jordan Calendine, 10. Bryce Dues. NT
SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Chett Gehrke, 2. Jacob Denney, 3. Gray Leadbetter, 4. Jeff Beasley, 5. Stratton Briggs, 6. Bryce Massingill, 7. Zack Gingerich, 8. Ian Creager, 9. Kyle Kriegbaum. 10. Kayla Roell. NT
THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Emerson Axsom, 2. Jarett Andretti, 3. Chance Crum, 4. Billy Lawless, 5. Greg Mitchell, 6. Austin Wickman, 7. Thomas Meseraull, 8. Carl Peterson (#49p Peterson). NT
SEMI: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Thomas Meseraull, 2. Abby Hohlbein, 3. Bryce Massingill, 4. Glenn Waterland, 5. Kyle Dager, 6. Ian Creager, 7. Kayla Roell, 8. Jordan Calendine, 9. Bryce Dues, 10. Zack Gingerich. 11. Austin Wickman, 12. Kyle Kriegbaum. NT
FEATURE: (20 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Thomas Meseraull (16), 2. Emerson Axsom (2), 3. Shane Cottle (4), 4. Jarett Andretti (6), 5. Chett Gehrke (5), 6. Tyler Nelson (1), 7. Chance Crum (9), 8. Ronnie Gardner (7), 9. Stratton Briggs (14), 10. Gray Leadbetter (8), 11. Jacob Denney (3), 12. Bryce Massingill (18), 13. Jeff Beasley (11), 14. Adam Taylor (13), 15. Abby Hohlbein (17), 16. Billy Lawless (12), 17. Kyle Dager (20), 18. Glenn Waterland (19), 19. Bryan Stanfill (10), 20. Greg Mitchell (15). NT
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-14 Emerson Axsom, Laps 15-20 Thomas Meseraull.
USAC MIDWEST REGIONAL MIDGET POINTS: 1-Shane Cottle-150, 2-Tyler Nelson-131, 3-Chett Gehrke-125, 4-Bryan Stanfill-101, 5-Jeff Beasley-100, 6-Abby Hohlbein-99, 7-Emerson Axsom-75, 8-Thomas Meseraull-74, 9-Kayla Roell-60, 10-Justin Davis-51.
NEXT USAC MIDWEST REGIONAL MIDGET RACE: June 25, 2021 – Bloomington Speedway – Bloomington, Indiana