By Dick Jordan
Participants in USAC’s Midwest, Eastern and Western HPD Midget series will compete this week, with five races on tap in four states.
Patrick Bruns leads the Midwest contingent to Friday’s race at Gas City (Ind.) I-69 Speedway, while Scott Hunter is the “hunted” point leader going into races at Anderson (S.C.) Motor Speedway Friday and Southern National Motorsports in Kenly, N.C. Saturday. Cory Elliott leads the Western Dirt series into Friday’s race at Plaza Park Raceway in Visalia, Calif. and Shawn Buckley is the lead in the Western Pavement series going into Saturday’s “Gerhardt Classic” race at Madera (Calif.) Speedway.
Ross Rankine of Avon, Ind. recorded the first USAC HPD Midget feature victory for the new Honda engine Wednesday night at Toledo Speedway. He took the lead from Tate Martz on the fourth lap and led the last 37 laps to win the 40-lapper over fast qualifier Austin Nemire, Martz, Anthony McCune and Adam Thomason.
USAC HPD Washington Midget point leader Chase Goetz of Snohomish, Wash. scored his fifth feature victory of the season Saturday night at Grays Harbor Raceway. He led all 25 laps to beat Dougie James, Garrett Thomas, Chance Crum and Jeremy Miller. Award winners included Crum (High Performance Award), Goetz (JOES Racing Move of the Night), Johanson (K & N Sportsman Award), Thomas (Elma Auto Racing Hall of Fame Fast Time and SpeedMart Hard Charger) and Hartman, (Elma Lanes Pill Pick).
2014 HPD USAC Washington Midget Standings: 1-Chase Goetz-506, 2-Chance Crum-426, 3-Garrett Thomas-419, 4-Dougie James-412, 5-Michael Vollbrecht-376, 6-Hannah Lindquist-354, 7-Todd Hartman-296, 8-Tristin Thomas-276, 9-Jeremy Miller-249, 10-Ariel Biggs-239.
2014 HPD USAC Midwest Pavement Midget Standings: 1-Austin Nemire-498, 2-Adam Thomason-352, 3-Calvin Carroll-300, 4-Nikki Carroll-273, 5-Steve Myers-236, 6-Jacob Stickle-220, 7-Jack Cross-208, 8-Blaine Leydig-131, 9-Tate Martz-128, 10-Scott Hunter-69.
2014 HPD USAC Midwest Dirt Midget Standings: 1-Patrick Bruns-207, 2-Austin Nemire-183, 3-Aaron Schuck-129, 4-Bill Kriegbaum-110, 5-John Heydenreich-69, 6-Alex Watson-63.
2014 HPD USAC Western Pavement Midget Standings: 1-Shawn Buckley-616, 2-Toni Breidinger-430, 3-Christine Breckenridge-383, 4-Joel Rayborne-354, 5-Annie Breidinger-331, 6-Dylan Nobile-286, 7-Jeff Kelley-259, 8-Cody Jessop-258, 9-Tom Patterson-218, 10-Ashley Hazelton-197.
2014 HPD USAC Western Midget Standings: 1-Shawn Buckley-616, 2-Toni Breidinger-430, 3-Christine Breckenridge-383, 4-Joel Rayborne-354, 5-Annie Breidinger-331, 6-Ashley Hazelton-322, 7-Cody Jessop-315, 8-Dylan Nobile-286, 9-Jeff Kelley-259, 10-Tom Patterson-218.
2014 HPD USAC Western Dirt Midget Standings: 1-Cory Elliott-147, 2-Ashley Hazelton-125, 3-Marvin Mitchell-124, 4-Randi Pankratz-69, 5-Wally Pankratz-64, 6-Cody Jessop-57, 7-Jesse James Burks-54, 8-Dahne Lynn McKay-1.
2014 HPD USAC Eastern Midget Standings: 1-Scott Hunter-489, 2-Calvin Carrol-436, 3-Chris Lamb-416, 4-Tyler Corriher-364, 5-Nikki Carroll-356, 6-Blaine Leydig-295, 7-Jessica Bean-241, 8-Fletcher Wulff-277, 9-Matt Lundstrom-173, 10-Eric Lewis-112.