MASSINGILL AMASSES GAS CITY USAC MIDWEST THUNDER MIDGET RUN

By: Linda Mansfield

Gas City, Indiana (July 29, 2022)……….Bryce Massingill of Troy, Ohio took the top honors in a very competitive 20-lap USAC SpeeD2 Midwest Thunder midget feature which seemed to have a curse over whoever was running third.

Massingill, who turned 17 on July 12, was the star of this round of the USAC SpeeD2 Midwest Thunder midget series, which is sponsored by Performance Electronics of Cincinnati, despite starting in the middle of the field in tenth place.

Polesitter Zach Wigal of Belpre, Ohio led the first lap, but Jon Watson of St. Louis passed him to lead lap two. Wigal regained the lead on lap three, but then it was like a curse had suddenly been placed on the drivers who ran in third place, as two yellows waved for the drivers who were in that position.

First Chett Gehrke of Bardstown, Ky., stopped between Turns 3 and 4 with three laps down while running third. That gave third to Luke Lemons of Moraine, Ohio, but he spun low in Turn 2 with four laps down.

That moved Massingill into third, but he advanced out of that position quickly by passing Watson for second on lap six to elude any bad luck.

Wigal led through lap nine, but Massingill charged by him with a move to the outside as they went through Turn 4 on lap 10 to take the lead, which he never again relinquished.

Stratton Briggs of Anna, Ohio passed Wigal for second two laps later, but by that point Massingill already had a 1.707-second lead.

Massingill had a 1.432-second lead over Briggs when another caution waved with 15 laps down after Tyler Watkins of Marion, Ind., spun on the backstretch. He was running 15th, however, not third.

Briggs saw his chance on the restart, but Massingill successfully defended his lead. Two laps later the third-place curse struck again when Wigal stopped on the backstretch while in the show position. He ended up 14th.

That put Alex Watson of Columbus, Ohio, who won the D2 midget feature here on June 24, in third place, but once again trouble struck the driver in that position and he dropped out with two laps to go to be scored 13th at the end.

Watson’s misfortunes gave third place to Ian Creager of Covington, Ohio, who somehow eluded any problems for the final two laps to finish third behind Massingill and Briggs.

Michael Magic of Indianapolis came from 11th to finish fourth, while the driver who had been third at the start, Jakeb Boxell of Zanesville, Ohio, finished fifth.

Massingill had a 1.096-second lead over Briggs at the checkered. The winning midget, a Boss chassis with a Mike Wallace-prepped Ecotec engine, is sponsored by CarBrite, Creative Labels, Double Jay Construction and Sroufe’s Painting Services.

The D2 midgets are back at Gas City on Friday, Aug. 12.

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USAC MIDWEST THUNDER SPEED2 MIDGETS PRESENTED BY PERFORMANCE ELECTRONICS RACE RESULTS: July 29, 2022 – Gas City I-69 Speedway – Gas City, Indiana

FIRST QUALIFYING GROUP: 1. Taylor Nibert, 11L, Taylor-13.513; 2. Bryce Dues, 23D, Dues-13.747; 3. Luke Lemons, 33L, Lemons-13.762; 4. Anthony Perrine, 55, Perrine-14.455; 5. Tyler Watkins, 5, Watkins-15.130; 6. Don Bigelow, 4B, Bigelow-15.289.

SECOND QUALIFYING GROUP: 1. Abby Hohlbein, 11H, Hohlbein-13.231; 2. Bryce Massingill, 35, Massingill-13.369; 3. Alex Watson, 11T, Taylor-13.434; 4. Jon Watson, 20x, Watson-13.472; 5. Cody Dye, 4T, Dye-13.939; 6. Jim Jones, 97, Jones-14.149; 7. Gunnar Lucius, 22, Lucius-NT.

THIRD QUALIFYING GROUP: 1. Stratton Briggs, 71, Briggs-12.912; 2. Zach Wigal, 18, Wigal-13.134; 3. Michael Magic, 5m, Magic-13.191; 4. Kayla Roell, 11K, Martin-13.305; 5. Cory Guingrich, 62, Guingrich-13.374; 6. Carl Peterson, 49, Peterson-13.462; 7. Josh Yenser, 5y, Yenser-15.192.

FOURTH QUALIFYING GROUP: 1. Jakeb Boxell, 44JB, Boxell-13.071; 2. Chett Gehrke, 36c,  Creager-13.325; 3. Chris Dickey, 12, Dickey-13.500; 4. Cody Beard, 7, Beard-13.521; 5. Tommy Kouns, 98, Kouns-13.625; 6. Ian Creager, 36, Creager-13.641; 7. Travis Stickels, 87, Sickles-14.262; 8. Thomas Bigelow, 2B, Bigelow-14.384.

PERFORMANCE ELECTRONICS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, top-4 transfer to feature) 1. Luke Lemons, 2. Anthony Perrine, 3. Travis Stickels, 4. Tyler Watkins, 5. Don Bigelow, 6. Taylor Nibert, 7. Bryce Dues. NT

BREWHOUSE DRIVE-THRU SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, top-4 transfer to feature) 1. Alex Watson, 2. Jon Watson, 3. Bryce Massingill, 4. Abby Hohlbein, 5. Jim Jones, 6. Cody Dye. NT

K & M TOOL & DIE THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, top-4 transfer to feature) 1. Stratton Briggs, 2. Zach Wigal, 3. Michael Magic, 4. Kayla Roell, 5. Carl Peterson, 6. Cory Guingrich, 7. Josh Yenser. NT

BREWHOUSE DRIVE THRU FOURTH HEAT: (8 laps, top-4 transfer to feature) 1. Chett Gehrke, 2. Jakeb Boxell, 3. Ian Creager, 4. Cody Beard, 5. Chris Dickey, 6. Tommy Kouns, 7. Thomas Bigelow. NT

SEMI: (12 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Tommy Kouns, 2. Cody Dye, 3. Josh Yenser, 4. Carl Peterson, 5. Jim Jones, 6. Thomas Bigelow, 7. Taylor Nibert, 8. Bryce Dues, 9. Don Bigelow.

FEATURE: (20 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Bryce Massingill (10), 2. Stratton Briggs (8), 3. Ian Creager (12), 4. Michael Magic (11), 5. Jakeb Boxell (3), 6. Josh Yenser (19), 7. Carl Peterson (20), 8. Abby Hohlbein (14), 9. Tommy Kouns (17), 10. Cody Beard (16), 11. Cody Dye (18), 12. Luke Lemons (6), 13. Alex Watson (5), 14. Zach Wigal (1), 15. Tyler Watkins (13), 16. Travis Stickels (9), 17. Jon Watson (2), 18. Anthony Perrine (4), 19. Chett Gehrke (7), 20. Kayla Roell (15). NT

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Lap 1 Zach Wigal, Lap 2 Jon Watson, Laps 3-9 Zach Wigal, Laps 10-20 Bryce Massingill.

PPC PERFORMANCE POWDER COATING HARD CHARGER: Josh Yenser (19th to 6th) & Carl Peterson (20th to 7th)

ROSEWOOD MACHINE PRECISION MOVE OF THE RACE: Jakeb Boxell

USAC MIDWEST THUNDER SPEED2 MIDGET PRESENTED BY PERFORMANCE ELECTRONICS POINTS: 1-Stratton Briggs-774, 2-Michael Magic-649, 3-Bryce Massingill-636, 4-Carl Peterson-600, 5-Ian Creager-600, 6-Josh Yenser-574, 7-Abby Hohlbein-519, 8-Jakeb Boxell-450, 9-Zach Wigal-444, 10-Jim Jones-393.

NEXT USAC MIDWEST THUNDER SPEED2 MIDGETS PRESENTED BY PERFORMANCE ELECTRONICS RACE: July 30, 2022 – Montpelier Motor Speedway – Montpelier, Indiana