A WINNER AT IMS! T-MEZ BREAKS THROUGH AT INDY IN BC39 OPENER

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media

Speedway, Indiana (September 28, 2023)………There’s no denying that 2023 has been a challenging one for Thomas Meseraull and RMS Racing on the USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship trail.

To have their season breakthrough finally arrive on Thursday during the opening night of the Driven2SaveLives BC39 at The Dirt Track at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, that’s about as sweet as it gets.

Indy is the place of dreams and heartache, and Meseraull has certainly had his share.  He led the most laps on the final night feature of the BC39 in both 2019 and 2021, just narrowly missing victory with accidents prematurely putting an end to his night each time.

This time around, albeit occurring on the opening night, it was the kind that Meseraull had always dreamt of having on the dirt at IMS.  No heartache, no headache, just pure jubilation from start to finish.  Just pure T-Mez.

“I just picked up a win at IMS; how awesome is that?” Meseraull exclaimed.

The San Jose, Calif. native started from the outside of the front row and raced into the lead on the opening lap of the feature, leading the entire 30-lap distance while enduring intermittent spurts of heavy lapped traffic and a late surge from Taylor Reimer to earn his first feature victory of the 2023 campaign in his RMS Racing/EnviroFab – Response Management Services – Engler Machine/Spike/Engler Ford.

Meseraull’s 10th career USAC National Midget victory pushed him into 73rd all-time alongside Allen Heath, Doug Kalitta, Brad Kuhn, Steve Lotshaw, Jerry McClung and Chuck Weyant.

But with nary a top-three finish with the series in more than four months and just seven top-ten results in 18 outings this year, Meseraull even admitted that things came to a head a bit after last weekend’s events.  But in the competitive spirit and the desire to win remaining so strong despite the setbacks, the performance they’d striven after for so long finally struck the right chord.

The high majority of the year’s storyline surrounding the team has been the continuous development of the EA Stealth Engler Ford engine, a one-of-one type of engine that has been used by them, and only them, throughout the year.  With the program making strides, and now with the recent re-addition of Donnie Gentry to the crew, Meseraull is back in USAC National Midget victory lane for the first time in 26 starts, dating back to November of 2022 at California’s Bakersfield Speedway.

“We’ve put in a lot of time and effort on this thing,” Meseraull said of his engine package.  “It’s kind of been a year of throwing out the books because we’re getting better, and I think we’ve got this thing figured out.”

Meseraull grabbed the initial lead on the opening lap from pole sitter Chase McDermand while Reimer also swept around the outside of McDermand to slot into second.  The first stoppage of the main event came on lap six when 16th running Bryant Wiedeman tipped over on his side in turn one.  Thirteen-time Rocky Mountain Midget Racing Association champion Keith Rauch also stopped in the incident without contact.  Both drivers restarted with Wiedeman racing back to 12th and Rauch to 19th.

A turn two melee also occurred on the lap six restart when fifth-running Jade Avedisian got a tad sideways in turn two, setting off a chain reaction of events behind her that resulted in Kyle Jones (10th), Kevin Thomas Jr. (11th), Jerry Coons Jr. (13th) and Matt Westfall (14th) all stopping.  Thomas and Westfall did not return.  However, Coons and Jones did, finishing 14th and 17th, respectively.

When action resumed, Meseraull throttled a path away from the rest of the field and found himself in lapped traffic on the 1/4-mile dirt oval by the midway point, forcing him to split between the triumvirate of Taylor Courtney, Rauch and Weston Gorham to escape with a healthy lead and a one-plus second advantage.

Thereafter, Meseraull discovered the proverbial daylight in the nighttime as he came out the other side of traffic to find a clear view ahead while Reimer and McDermand in second and third received their turn to maneuver through the traffic.  In the meantime, Meseraull extended his lead to 1.7 sec.

On lap 23, Meseraull found himself in a conundrum as he and Kyle Jones made bumper-to-bumper contact while Meseraull was attempting to put Jones a lap down.  Jones wound up in a spin into the infield in turn two.  The resulting caution saw Meseraull’s 1.545 second lead disappear.  Nonetheless, it gave him a chance to race his way to the finish line without the challenge of traffic.

Meseraull was seemingly cruising with a near full second advantage over Reimer and just four laps to go when the turn four cushion nearly jumped right up and bit him on the ankles.  Meseraull biked on the high side before coming back down on all fours, motoring down the front straight with a waft of smoke momentarily emanating from the headers.

Just like that, Meseraull’s lead was snipped nearly in half.  Entering the third turn on the final circuit, Reimer made one last ditch effort to challenge Meseraull, and was able to pull even for a split second.  However, Meseraull’s high side momentum propelled him past Reimer and across the finish line one final time 0.529 sec. ahead of the pack.

Meseraull was followed to the stripe by Taylor Reimer in second and Chase McDermand in third, all three of whom are locked into Saturday night’s $20,039-to-win BC39 final night feature by virtue of their finishing positions on Thursday night.  Jacob Denney and Buddy Kofoid rounded out the top-five.

For Taylor Reimer (Bixby, Okla.) it was her best career finish in USAC National Midget competition aboard her Keith Kunz-Curb-Agajanian Motorsports/Yahoo – TRD - BuzzBallz/Lynk/Speedway Toyota.  Her second-place result topped her previous best USAC feature finish of fourth this past May in Sweet Springs, Mo.

“I honestly felt we were a little better than T-Mez,” Reimer said.  “We just weren’t able to capitalize on his mistakes there.  In the middle, there was a rut there, and I got a little sideways a couple of times, so we started going above it and began following T-Mez.  I tried to do a Hail Mary at the end, but I wasn’t close enough to him.”

It was a superb night for the Chase McDermand (Springfield, Ill.) as he equaled his best career USAC National Midget feature finish with a third-place result on Thursday night at IMS in his Mounce-Stout Motorsports/McDermand Plumbing – Rockwell Security/Spike/Stanton SR-11x.

“I was struggling off the center of one and two, and that’s where everybody would pull me down the backstretch,” McDermand explained.  “We definitely have a good package; we’ve just got to fine tune it a little bit, but we’re really close.”

Daniel Whitley (Ferndale, Calif.) made his first run on The Dirt Track at IMS a successful one in his Abacus Racing/Indy Custom Stone – CG CPAs – Forecheck Marketing/Spike/Stanton SR-11x.  He charged from 21st to 13th to earn the Max Papis Innovations Up on the Wheel Award.  Whitley received a trophy as well as a pair of MPI racing gloves and a $250 MPI gift card for his efforts.

===============

USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: September 28, 2023 – The Dirt Track at Indianapolis Motor Speedway – Speedway, Indiana – 1/4-Mile Dirt Track – Driven2SaveLives BC39

SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, passing points) 1. Hayden Reinbold (#19AZ Reinbold/Underwood), 2. Blake Brannon (#40B Brannon), 3. Taylor Reimer (#25K Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), 4. Taylor Courtney (#22p RAMCO), 5. Chris Baue (#136 Baue), 6. Tommy Colburn (#10A MWR), 7. John Heydenreich (#22 Heydenreich), 8. Weston Gorham (#18N Gorham), 9. Adam Andretti (#44 Johnson). NT

ROD END SUPPLY SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, passing points) 1. Buddy Kofoid (#67K Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), 2. Gary Taylor (#32 Dunlap), 3. Jade Avedisian (#71 Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), 4. Keith Rauch (#27 Bourke), 5. Mitchel Moles (#19T Reinbold-Underwood), 6. Randi Pankratz (#8 Pankratz), 7. Josh Bilicki (#7c RAMCO), 8. Justin Dickerson (#21D Dickerson), 9. Josh Hodge (#5J Hodge). 1:42.10

T.J. FORGED THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, passing points) 1. Kameron Key (#21J THK), 2. Kaylee Bryson (#89 CBI), 3. Matt Westfall (#54 Bordner), 4. Chelby Hinton (#4 Klatt), 5. Kevin Thomas Jr. (#1 Crouch), 6. Kyle Jones (#7m RAMCO), 7. Nick Drake (#55D Cline), 8. Robert Carson (#99K LOK/Carson-Segur), 9. Kevin Cook (#9p Cook). NT

CAR IQ FOURTH HEAT: (8 laps, passing points) 1. Thomas Meseraull (#7x RMS), 2. Bryant Wiedeman (#81 CBI), 3. Chase McDermand (#40 Mounce-Stout), 4. Jacob Denney (#25 Malloy), 5. Jerry Coons Jr. (#85 Central), 6. Daniel Whitley (#58 Abacus), 7. Mariah Ede (#71E Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), 8. C.J. Leary (#14 Legacy), 9. Preston Lattomus (#23 Mounce-Stout). 1:42.14

SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST QUALIFIER: (10 laps, passing points) 1. Jade Avedisian, 2. Jacob Denney, 3. Kameron Key, 4. Buddy Kofoid, 5. Chelby Hinton, 6. Daniel Whitley, 7. Tommy Colburn, 8. Weston Gorham, 9. Adam Andretti. 2:09.58

ROD END SUPPLY SECOND QUALIFIER: (10 laps, passing points) 1. Kevin Thomas Jr., 2. Matt Westfall, 3. Jerry Coons Jr., 4. Taylor Reimer, 5. Nick Drake, 6. Randi Pankratz, 7. Justin Dickerson, 8. Robert Carson, 9. Blake Brannon. 2:08.42

T.J. FORGED THIRD QUALIFIER: (10 laps, passing points) 1. Kyle Jones, 2. Gary Taylor, 3. Thomas Meseraull, 4. Mitchel Moles, 5. Hayden Reinbold, 6. Josh Bilicki, 7. Preton Lattomus, 8. John Heydenreich, 9. C.J. Leary. 2:10.82

CAR IQ FOURTH QUALIFIER: (10 laps, passing points) 1. Chase McDermand, 2. Mariah Ede, 3. Kaylee Bryson, 4. Bryant Wiedeman, 5. Taylor Courtney, 6. Josh Hodge, 7. Keith Rauch, 8. Kevin Cook, 9. Chris Baue. NT

ELLIOTTS’ CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (12 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature) 1. Mitchel Moles, 2. Chelby Hinton, 3. Taylor Courtney, 4. Keith Rauch, 5. Daniel Whitley, 6. Weston Gorham, 7. Chris Baue, 8. Nick Drake, 9. Josh Bilicki, 10. Tommy Colburn, 11. John Heydenreich, 12. Kevin Cook, 13. Randi Pankratz, 14. Blake Brannon, 15. Preston Lattomus, 16. C.J. Leary, 17. Robert Carson, 18. Justin Dickerson, 19. Josh Hodge. NT

FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Thomas Meseraull (2), 2. Taylor Reimer (4), 3. Chase McDermand (1), 4. Jacob Denney (7), 5. Buddy Kofoid (3), 6. Kameron Key (5), 7. Jade Avedisian (6), 8. Gary Taylor (8), 9. Kaylee Bryson (10), 10. Hayden Reinbold (14), 11. Mitchel Moles (17), 12. Bryant Wiedeman (15), 13. Daniel Whitley (21), 14. Jerry Coons Jr. (13), 15. Mariah Ede (16), 16. Chelby Hinton (18), 17. Kyle Jones (12), 18. Weston Gorham (22), 19. Keith Rauch (20), 20. Taylor Courtney (19), 21. Kevin Thomas Jr. (11), 22. Matt Westfall (9). NT

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-30 Thomas Meseraull.

**Keith Rauch flipped during the fourth qualifying race. Blake Brannon flipped during the semi. Bryant Wiedeman flipped on lap 6 of the feature.

USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Logan Seavey-1297, 2-Bryant Wiedeman-1138, 3-Jade Avedisian-1081, 4-Justin Grant-1066, 5-Ryan Timms-1041, 6-Daison Pursley-1037, 7-Jacob Denney-1015, 8-Gavin Miller-945, 9-Cannon McIntosh-868, 10-Taylor Reimer-868.

OVERALL USAC NATIONAL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Daison Pursley-179, 2-Logan Seavey-130, 3-Emerson Axsom-112, 4-Justin Grant-106, 5-Shane Cottle-106, 6-Matt Westfall-105, 7-Robert Ballou-100, 8-Brady Bacon-92, 9-Chase Stockon-90, 10-Mitchel Moles-79.

NEXT USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACES: September 29-30, 2023 – The Dirt Track at Indianapolis Motor Speedway – Speedway, Indiana – 1/4-Mile Dirt Track – Driven2SaveLives BC39

CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS

Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Driver: Chase McDermand (12.186)

Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner: Hayden Reinbold

Rod End Supply Second Heat Winner: Buddy Kofoid

T.J. Forged Third Heat Winner: Kameron Key

Car IQ Fourth Heat Winner: Thomas Meseraull

Simpson Race Products First Qualifier Winner: Jade Avedisian

Rod End Supply Second Qualifier Winner: Kevin Thomas Jr.

T.J. Forged Third Qualifier Winner: Kyle Jones

Car IQ Fourth Qualifier Winner: Chase McDermand

Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Semi Winner: Mitchel Moles

Green APU Green Flag Challenge First Lap Leader: Thomas Meseraull

MPI Up on the Wheel Hard Charger: Daniel Whitley (21st to 13th)