THORSON TOPS WESTERN MIDGET FOES ON NIGHT ONE OF VERMIEL CLASSIC AT CALISTOGA
Calistoga, California………Minden, Nevada’s Tanner Thorson took over the lead from teammate Carson Macedo on the tenth lap, then pulled away from the rest of the field to win the USAC Western States Midget portion of Saturday’s opening night at Calistoga Speedway’s 9th annual “Louie Vermiel Classic.”
Thorson drove his Keith Kunz - Curb-Agajanian Motorsports/TRD - JBL Audio/Bullet/Speedway Toyota to a team sweep of the top-three spots as he was joined by teammates Spencer Bayston (2nd) and Macedo (3rd) on the podium. Series point leader Ronnie Gardner, who led the opening lap before giving way to Macedo, was fourth, followed by Shane Golobic who rounded out the top-5.
Gardner now holds a 52-point lead over Michael Faccinto in the race for the USAC Western States Midget title as the series stays for one more night at Calistoga for night two of the “Vermiel Classic.” The race is round four of seven in the Jonathan Byrd’s Indy Challenge. Rico Abreu won round one at Kokomo (Ind.) Speedway in June while Chad Boat won twice at the Belleville (Kans.) High Banks in August.
USAC WESTERN STATES MIDGET SERIES RACE RESULTS: September 3, 2016 – Calistoga, California – Calistoga Speedway - 9th Annual “Louie Vermeil Classic”
WOODLAND AUTO DISPLAY QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Spencer Bayston, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-19.774 (New Track Record); 2. Jake Swanson, 68w, Six8-20.007; 3. Carson Macedo, 71K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-20.029; 4. Tanner Thorson, 67x, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-20.054; 5. Ronnie Gardner, 68, Six8-20.114; 6. Chad Boat, 84, Tucker/Boat-20.125; 7. Shane Golobic, 26, Bock-20.173; 8. Ryan Bernal, 73, Ford-20.182; 9. Holly Shelton, 67K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-20.233; 10. Ryan Robinson, 71, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-20.249; 11. Darren Hagen, 73x, Ford-20.420; 12. Robert Dalby, 4D, Dalby-20.432; 13. Cory Elliott, 11E, Elliott-20.567; 14, Cody Swanson, 71s, Swanson-20.742; 15. Michael Faccinto, 35F, MF-20.769; 16. Frankie Guerrini, 63, Guerrini-20.807; 17. Taylor Simas, 62, Bock-20.830; 18. Courtney Crone, 25, Rodela-20.963; 19. Randi Pankratz, 8, Pankratz-21.055; 20. Maria Cofer, 57, Cofer-21.097; 21. Britton Bock, 67, Bock-21.350; 22. Ashley Hazelton, 15, Hazelton-24.612.
EXTREME MUFFLERS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Thorson, 2. Bayston, 3. Golobic, 4. Guerrini, 5. Elliott, 6. Pankratz, 7. Hazelton, 8. Robinson. NT
DJ SAFETY SECOND HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Gardner, 2. Hagen, 3. J.Swanson, 4. C.Swanson, 5. Bernal, 6. Simas. NT
BROWN & MILLER RACING SOLUTIONS THIRD HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Macedo, 2. Faccinto, 3. Shelton, 4. Dalby, 5. Crone, 6. Boat, 7. Bock. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Tanner Thorson, 2. Spencer Bayston, 3. Carson Macedo, 4. Ronnie Gardner, 5. Shane Golobic, 6. Holly Shelton, 7. Michael Faccinto, 8. Jake Swanson, 9. Cody Swanson, 10. Cory Elliott, 11. Courtney Crone, 12. Robert Dalby, 13. Frankie Guerrini, 14. Britton Bock, 15. Maria Cofer, 16. Ashley Hazelton, 17. Taylor Simas, 18. Randi Pankratz, 19. Darren Hagen, 20. Ryan Bernal, 21. Ryan Robinson. NT
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FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Lap 1 Gardner, Laps 2-9 Macedo, Laps 10-30 Thorson.
KEIZER ALUMINUM WHEELS / ROD END SUPPLY HARD CHARGER: Britton Bock (21st to 14th)
NEW USAC WESTERN MIDGET POINTS: 1-Gardner-557, 2-Faccinto-505, 3-Guerrini-397, 4-Elliott-373, 5-C. Swanson-341, 6-Crone-324, 7-Pankratz-317, 8-Cofer-282, 9-Tyler Dolacki-279, 10-Dalby-275.
NEXT USAC WESTERN MIDGET RACE: September 4 – Calistoga (CA) Speedway – 9th Annual “Louie Vermeil Classic”
