WESTERN WORLD OPENS USAC MIDGETS’ WESTERN SWING NOV. 13-14

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media

San Tan Valley, Arizona (November 5, 2020)………The Western World Championships presented by San Tan Ford.  It’s a name that oozes with a rich history dating back to Bob Cleberg’s triumph at Manzanita in 1968, and has seen a handful of differing iterations over the past half-century, wing, no-wing, 410s, 360s, sprint cars and midgets at a variety of racetracks in recent years.

The event has found a home over the past five years at Arizona Speedway in San Tan Valley, which will host the 53^rd running on November 13-14 at the 1/3-mile dirt oval, with a practice night leading off the proceedings on November 12 in conjunction with the USAC Western States Midgets as well as the AMSOIL USAC CRA / USAC Southwest Sprint Cars.

Midgets have only made sporadic appearances at the Western World in the past decade with Bryan Clauson (2013), Darren Hagen (2014) and Brady Bacon (2019) the only individuals who can lay claim to the throne as a Western World Midget champion.

This year’s event will more than likely present a new Western World Midget champ with tradition, and a tight USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget championship battle waiting in the wings with point leader Tyler Courtney and Chris Windom separated by only 15 markers at the top.

Defending series champion Courtney (Indianapolis, Ind.) and Clauson-Marshall Racing have won each of their three most recent appearances in USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car competition during Western World at Arizona Speedway, first in 2018, and twice with a two-night sweep in 2019.

In the Midget at Western World in 2019, Courtney was 8^th and 4^th over the two nights with a fast qualifying time added on the final night.  CMR teammate Cole Bodine (Rossville, Ind.) will be making his Western World debut.

Windom (Canton, Ill.), seeking to complete the coveted USAC National Triple Crown after previously capturing Silver Crown (2016) and Sprint (2017) glory, has won more at the Western World than any other driver in the lineup, with a sweep of the 2016 National Sprint features added to a USAC Southwest Sprint prelim victory that same weekend.  He completed the process with a USAC Southwest win on the final night of Western World in 2017.  In the Midget at Arizona Speedway a year ago, Windom finished 7^th on both nights.

Windom’s TBM teammate Andrew Layser returns for a second Western World appearance after an 11^th place finish on the final night in 2019.  Last year’s series Rookie of the Year, along with Windom, compete for the team co-owned by Arizona native Chad Boat, son of a past USAC National Midget winner in the state of Arizona, Billy Boat, who prevailed in a last lap thrash at Phoenix International Raceway in 1996.

Thomas Meseraull (San Jose, Calif.) won in his last time out in USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget competition on Oct. 10 at Tri-State Speedway in Haubstadt, Ind., his first career series points-paying victory after 22 seasons of trying.  He’ll be joined by Clinton Boyles (Greenwood, Mo.) in the RMS Racing stable for Western World.

Meseraull is both an Arizona Speedway and Western World feature winner in his career, taking the opening night of USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car action in the 2017 event for car owner Reinbold-Underwood Motorsports.

Reinbold-Underwood will bring three cars to Western World, with a pair of past USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget champions as pilots and a Rookie: Logan Seavey and Spencer Bayston, along with first-time Western World entry, Hayden Reinbold (Gilbert, Ariz.).

Seavey (Sutter, Calif.) was last year’s opening night fast qualifier with the Midgets at Western World, then proceeded to finish 4^th in the opener and 2^nd on the final night.  The Seavey/Reinbold-Underwood combo has won at Arizona Speedway before with the USAC Southwest Sprint Cars in 2019.  Spencer Bayston (Lebanon, Ind.), the 2017 series champion, returns to the series for his first career Western World appearance.

Tanner Thorson (Minden, Nev.) is one of four past USAC National Midget driving champions in this year’s Western World field along with Bayston (2017), Seavey (2018) and Courtney (2019).  Thorson will make his Western World debut as a teammate on Tom Malloy’s team alongside fellow first-time event contestant Chase Johnson (Penngrove, Calif.).

Thorson won the Oct. 9 race at Wayne City, Ill., providing Malloy his first series win as an owner.  Thorson, 78 points out of the lead in third, remains in the title hunt with just Courtney and Windom standing in front of him.

Justin Grant (Ione, Calif.), a 2018 USAC National Sprint Car Western World opening night feature winner, has joined Petry Motorsports for the voyage to the west alongside talented newcomers and series Rookies Emerson Axsom (Franklin, Ind.) and Chase Randall (Waco, Tex.), all of whom will be making first-time Western World Midget appearances.

Eight cars in all will be represented by the Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports team.  Tanner Carrick (Lincoln, Calif.), who previously raced for the team full-time between 2017 and 2019, returns to the squad after competing this whole past year with Petry Motorsports.  Carrick finished 3^rd on night one of the Western World in 2019 to go along with a 10^th on night two.

For both Buddy Kofoid (Penngrove, Calif.) and Daison Pursley (Locust Grove, Okla.), Western World 2019 marked each of their first career USAC National Midget feature starts.  Pursley finished a best of 12^th on the second of the two nights while Kofoid, a Sweet Springs, Mo. winner in Sept., took 22^nd.  They represent the top-two in the series’ Rookie standings with Kofoid 4^th and Pursley 6^th.

Sandwiched between Kofoid and Pursley in the standings is teammate Cannon McIntosh (Bixby, Okla.), also a Sweet Springs, Mo. victor in Sept.  He’s one of five drivers on the team making their Western World debuts along with Bryant Wiedeman (Lubbock, Texas), Kaylee Bryson (Muskogee, Okla.), Brenham Crouch (Colby, Kans.) and Jesse Love (Menlo Park, Calif.).

Carson Macedo (Lemoore, Calif.) and Shane Golobic (Fremont, Calif.) have been winners with the NOS Energy Drink World of Outlaws Sprint Cars in their respective careers, but each have found a fountain of success in their USAC National Midget careers as well.

Macedo, the 2016 USAC National Midget Rookie of the Year, finished 5^th during Western World’s night one midget main in 2019, and recently captured the victory in a USAC Western States Midget feature on Oct. 30 in Hanford, Calif. driving for the Tarltons.

Golobic, making his first Western World visit, won a USAC National Midget race in the 2016 opener indoors at the Southern Illinois Center in Du Quoin and also prevailed as the 2017 Indiana Midget Week champion with car owner Matt Wood.

Reigning USAC Western States Midget champion Robert Dalby (Anaheim, Calif.) and Noah Gass (Mounds, Okla.) are among those expected to return for a second-straight Western World while Rocky Mountain Midget regular Ryan Oerter (Ellicott, Colo.) will make the venture out to the Grand Canyon State for his first Western World, along with Casey Schmitz (Chico, Calif.) and more.

Eighty-one previous USAC National Midget events have been held in Arizona.  In fact, the fourth ever race in series history occurred on March 31, 1956 at South Mountain Speedway in Phoenix, Ariz., a 100-lap feature won by National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Famer Johnnie Tolan, a two-time Rocky Mountain Midget Racing Association champion in 1946-47, AAA Midwest Midget champion in 1950 & 1952, and AAA National Midget champion in 1952.

Logan Seavey holds the Arizona Speedway USAC National Midget one-lap track record of 15.426 sec. while Jesse Colwell maintains the 8-lap record at 2:07.777.  Both records were established on November 15, 2019.

The previous year’s Western World Midget winners include Kevin Thomas Jr. and Brady Bacon, who each raced their way to San Tan Ford / Beaver Stripes victory lane in 2019.

Western World activities at Arizona Speedway begin on Thursday night, Nov. 12, with open practice for both sprint cars and midgets.  Pits open at 3pm MT with on-track practice from 6:30-9:30pm.  Adult pit passes are $30 while pit passes are $10 for kids age 7-12 and free for kids ages 6 and under.  Thursday night’s practice will feature an extra treat with the Beaver Stripes Racer Appreciation BBQ dinner.

On both Friday and Saturday night, Nov. 13-14, the pits open at 1pm MT, grandstands at 3pm and racing at 6:30pm.  General admission adult tickets are $30, while kids 11 and under are just $10.  Pit passes are $40 for adults and $15 for ages 7-12 and free for ages 6 and under.

Western World tickets are on sale now at www.arizonaspeedway.net.

Both nights of the 53rd Western World Championships will be streamed live on FloRacing at https://bit.ly/2ZpafUr.

USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Tyler Courtney-1,508, 2-Chris Windom-1,493, 3-Tanner Thorson-1,430, 4-Buddy Kofoid-1,386, 5-Cannon McIntosh-1,290, 6-Daison Pursley-1,084, 7-Tanner Carrick-1,041, 8-Cole Bodine-945, 9-Andrew Layser-924, 10-Justin Grant-904.

USAC NATIONAL MIDGET WINS IN ARIZONA:

7-Mel Kenyon

3-Gary Bettenhausen, Bobby East, Darren Hagen, Tracy Hines, Dave Steele & Tony Stewart

2-Christopher Bell, Merle Bettenhausen, Jimmy Caruthers, Rex Easton, Chuck Gurney, Jason Leffler, Roger McCluskey, Chuck Rodee, Brad Sweet, Johnnie Tolan, Sleepy Tripp & J.J. Yeley

1-Chuck Arnold, Brady Bacon, Tom Bigelow, Billy Boat, Billy Cantrell, Bryan Clauson, Larry Dickson, Dan Drinan, Billy Engelhart, Robby Flock, Stan Fox, A.J. Foyt, Billy Garrett, Rick Goudy, Allen Heath, Parnelli Jones, Cory Kruseman, Kyle Larson, Michael Lewis, Jerry McClung, Bobby Olivero, Aaron Pollock, Larry Rice, Bobby Santos, Les Scott, Tom Sellberg, Bob Tattersall, Kevin Thomas Jr. Rich Vogler, Billy Vukovich, Bruce Walkup & Bob Wente

PAST WESTERN WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS WINNERS:

1968: Bob Cleberg

1969: Bob Huebner

1970: Jerry McClung

1971: Jan Opperman

1972: Jan Opperman

1973: Earl Wagner

1974: Rick Ferkel

1975: Ron Shuman

1976: Bubby Jones

1977: Ron Shuman

1978: Lealand McSpadden

1979: Tim Green

1980: Jeff Swindell

1981: Ron Shuman

1982: Steve Kinser

1983: Steve Kinser

1984: Ron Shuman

1985: Steve Kinser

1986: Bobby Davis Jr.

1987: Steve Kinser

1988: Mark Kinser

1989: Sammy Swindell

1990: Steve Kinser

1991: Danny Lasoski & Wayne Bennet (360 Sprint)

1992: Steve Kinser & Bob Ream Jr. (360 Sprint)

1993: Lealand McSpadden

1994: Ron Shuman

1995: Lealand McSpadden & Ricky Johnson (360 Sprint)

1996: Steve Kinser

1997: Mark Kinser

1998: Tyler Walker

1999: Donny Schatz

2000: Jay Drake

2001: Jeremy Sherman

2002: Bud Kaeding (SCRA Sprint) & Jeremy Sherman (360 Sprint)

2003: Tony Elliott (SCRA Sprint) & Jeremy Sherman (360 Sprint)

2004: Bud Kaeding (USAC Sprint) & Josh Ford (360 Sprint)

2005: Dave Darland (USAC Sprint) & Cory Kruseman (360 Sprint)

2006: Josh Wise (USAC Sprint) & Cory Kruseman (360 Sprint)

2007: Jerry Coons Jr. (USAC Sprint) & Cory Kruseman (360 Sprint)

2008: Kevin Swindell (USAC Sprint) & Jesse Hockett (360 Sprint)

2009: Brady Bacon (360 Sprint) & Sammy Swindell (Winged)

2010: Brady Bacon (410 Sprint), R.J. Johnson (360 Sprint) & Donny Schatz (Winged)

2011: Tracy Hines (USAC Sprint) & Donny Schatz (Winged)

2012: Bryan Clauson & Wayne Johnson (Winged)

2013: Bryan Clauson (Sprint Car & Midget)

2014: Matt Rossi (360 Sprint) & Darren Hagen (Midget)

2015: Bryan Clauson (USAC Sprint) & Brody Roa (360 Sprint)

2016: Chris Windom (USAC Sprint) & Brady Bacon (360 Sprint)

2017: Chase Stockon (USAC Sprint) & Chris Windom (360 Sprint)

2018: Tyler Courtney (USAC Sprint) & Brady Bacon (360 Sprint)

2019: Tyler Courtney (USAC Sprint) & Brady Bacon (USAC Midget)