By Lonnie Wheatley (Fairbury, NE) -- The opening night of Jefferson County Speedway’s Riverside Chevrolet Midwest Midget Championship presented by Westin Packaged Meats and Schmidt’s Sanitation offered up a first-time NOS Energy Drink USAC National Midget series feature winner with Jason McDougal topping Friday night’s 30-lap feature atop the 1/5-mile clay oval.
PHOTO CREDIT: Lonnie Wheatley
McDougal assumed the point when early leader Tanner Thorson ran afoul of lapped traffic on the 19th circuit and then kept the Clauson-Marshall Racing duo of Tyler Courtney and Chris Windom at bay over the final dozen circuits to secure the $3,000 triumph aboard the FMR No. 76m entry.
“This is amazing, it’s such a great feeling to finally get one for this team,” the Broken Arrow, OK native commented in victory lane. “Tanner (Thorson) was gone by a straightaway or so, but Bob (East) always gets this thing pretty tight at the beginning so we’re always fast for the last five laps.”
While McDougal gridded the feature field outside the second row, 2017 Fairbury USAC Midget winner Tanner Thorson led the feature field to the green flag with California’s Robert Dalby alongside.
Thorson gunned into the early lead with McDougal making a move past Dalby soon after a lap five caution for Tyler Thomas’ turn four spin into an infield tire. McDougal tried to chase down Thorson’s Keith Kunz Motorsports No. 98 entry, but the Nevada native held off the young Oklahoma racer until spinning to a stop on the frontstretch on the 19th lap after contact with a lapped car.
McDougal slipped through the skirmish unharmed with third-runner Kevin Thomas, Jr., and fourth-place contender Tucker Klaasmeyer collected in the scrum as well. Thomas, Jr., left on the hook, Thorson returned after a quick trip to the work area and Klaasmeyer returned as well only to flip down the backstretch one lap later.
Set for an 11-lap dash to the checkered flag, McDougal had the NOS Energy Drink CMR duo of Windom and 12th-starting Courtney breathing down his neck the rest of the way. McDougal opened up a slight advantage until Courtney finally battled past Windom for second on the high side.
Courtney and Windom closed in over the final handful of rounds with Courtney falling just two car-lengths short at the stripe as Windom settled for the show position.
“I think one more lap and we would have had him, but it’s only 30 laps,” Courtney said of the close finish.
Windom explained that, “It was a crazy race that first half, then it widened out some at the end. Jason was a little better than us on the bottom, then I saw Tyler come by the outside of me and I moved up and we both ran him down. I wish we would have moved up a little sooner, I think we could have got to Jason. It’s good to be on the podium again, but we’re looking for wins.”
Chad Boat, a 2016 winner at Fairbury, advanced from ninth to fourth with fellow Arizona shoe and tenth-starter Jerry Coons, Jr., rounding out the top five. Tyler Thomas rebounded from the early incident to claim sixth with current series points leader Logan Seavey, Andrew Layser, Zeb Wise and Dalby completing the top ten.
After Seavey set a new track record of 10.685 seconds in qualifying, Tanner Carrick, Klaasmeyer and Boat each scored heat race wins.
The Riverside Chevrolet Midwest Midget Championship presented by Westin Packaged Meats and Schmidt’s Sanitation wraps up with Saturday night’s card that gets under way with qualifying at 6:30 p.m. and racing at 7:00 p.m. The JayHusker Non-Wing Micro Sprints round out Saturday’s tilt.
General admission tickets to the event are just $20 for adults with high school students and younger just $5. All access pit passes are available for $35.
Reserved seats and reserved camping spots are available at www.jeffersoncountyspeedway.com or at https://market.myracepass.com/store/tickets/?store=11981.
Other camping and area information is available at https://www.visitoregontrail.org/ and http://fairburychamber.org/.
Along with title sponsor Riverside Chevrolet and presenting sponsors Westin Packaged Meats and Schmidt’s Sanitation, other sponsors that are making the “Midwest Midget Championship” possible include Napa Auto Parts, Pollman Appliance, Chappell Roofing, Ole' Red 99.5, Side Trek Bar and Grill, Z-4 Trucking, Criner's Corner, Vaughn Contracting, Starr Plumbing, Fairbury Chamber of Commerce, Jefferson County Visitors Committee, Budweiser, Hepfner Racing Products, Rod End Supply, Keizer Wheels, EMI, Mud-X, Speedway Motors, Outlaw Wings.
The 1/5-mile Jefferson County Speedway is located at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds in Fairbury, NE, at 56885 Pwf Rd, Fairbury, Nebraska 68352.
NOS Energy Drink USAC National Midgets “Midwest Midget Championship” at Jefferson County Speedway Night One – July 12, 2019 Results:
FATHEADZ EYEWEAR QUALIFYING: 1. Logan Seavey, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-10.685 (New Track Record); 2. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 5, Petry-10.758; 3. Jason McDougal, 76m, FMR-10.842; 4. Chris Windom, 17BC, Clauson/Marshall-10.898; 5. Andrew Layser, 47BC, Clauson/Marshall-10.910; 6. Robert Dalby, 4D, Dalby-10.939; 7. Tanner Thorson, 98, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-10.947; 8. Tucker Klaasmeyer, 27, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-10.951; 9. Chad Boat, 84, Tucker/Boat-10.962; 10. Jerry Coons, Jr., 25, Petry-10.984; 11. Zeb Wise, 39BC, Clauson/Marshall-10.984; 12. Tyler Courtney, 7BC, Clauson/Marshall-10.985; 13. Tanner Carrick, 71K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.036; 14. Tyler Thomas, 91T, Thomas-11.059; 15. Sam Johnson, 72, Johnson-11.097; 16. Ethan Mitchell, 19m, Bundy Built-11.141; 17. Brady Bacon, 85, Central-11.176; 18. Shannon McQueen, 7, McQueen-11.301; 19. A.J. Valim, 4T, Valim-11.930; 20. Curtis Spicer, 4, Spicer-11.944; 21. Lance Bennett, 10, Bennett-11.976; 22. Olivia Bennett, 77, Bennett-11.993; 23. Tyler Seavey, 117, Washburn-NT; 24. Blaze Bennett, 10B, Bennett-NT.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Tanner Carrick, 2. Tanner Thorson, 3. Jerry Coons, Jr., 4. Logan Seavey, 5. Chris Windom, 6. Ethan Mitchell, 7. A.J. Valim, 8. Olivia Bennett. 1:56.27 (New Track Record)
COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Tucker Klaasmeyer, 2. Tyler Thomas, 3. Zeb Wise, 4. Brady Bacon, 5. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 6. Andrew Layser, 7. Tyler Seavey, 8. Curtis Spicer. 1:56.73
AUTOMETER/INDY RACE PARTS THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Chad Boat, 2. Tyler Courtney, 3. Jason McDougal, 4. Sam Johnson, 5. Robert Dalby, 6. Shannon McQueen, 7. Lance Bennett. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting position in parentheses) 1. Jason McDougal (4), 2. Tyler Courtney (12), 3. Chris Windom (3), 4. Chad Boat (9), 5. Jerry Coons, Jr. (10), 6. Tyler Thomas (14), 7. Logan Seavey (6), 8. Andrew Layser (7), 9. Zeb Wise (11), 10. Robert Dalby (2), 11. Brady Bacon (16), 12. Tanner Carrick (13), 13. Tanner Thorson (1), 14. Ethan Mitchell (18), 15. Sam Johnson (15), 16. Shannon McQueen (17), 17. Lance Bennett (19), 18. Curtis Spicer (22), 19. Olivia Bennett (20), 20. Tucker Klaasmeyer (8), 21. Kevin Thomas, Jr. (5), 22. Tyler Seavey (23), 23. A.J. Valim (21). NT
**Tucker Klaasmeyer flipped in turn 3 on lap 20.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-18 Tanner Thorson, Laps 19-30 Jason McDougal.
KSE RACING PRODUCTS/PROSOURCE HARD CHARGER: Tyler Courtney (12th to 2nd)
WILWOOD BRAKES 13TH PLACE FINISHER: Tanner Thorson