By Pete Walton
Atlanta, GA – November 29, 2019 – Two-time USCS Outlaw Thunder Tour presented by K&N Filters National Champion, Morgan Turpen from Cordova, Tennessee claimed her 2nd USCS Mid-South Thunder Tour regional series and 8th United Sprint Car Series title during the series’ 23rd and 2019 racing season. The veteran sprint car driver, who was the series “Rookie of the Year” during the 2010 season, collected the title as the Champion of the tough USCS Mid-South region while also finishing in fifth place in the USCS Outlaw Thunder Tour National point standings, although competing on a somewhat limited basis not allowing her to compete for the National title. In a year that saw a record 21 drivers win United Sprint Car Series main events,
Turpen made three visits to the www.rockauto.com USCS victory lane as the series FireAde 2000 feature winner. She added 17 top-5 and a total of 27 top-ten finishes to her scorecard for the 2019 season. All three of her wins came in events that awarded USCS Mid-South regional series points as she attended each of the 24 USCS Mid-South regional several events.
Turpen clinched the USCS Mid-South Thunder title on the final 2019 season weekend during the two-day USCS Fall Brawl on November 9th and 10th at Talladega Short Track in Eastaboga, Alabama. She additionally finished in the top ten of both the USCS Southern Thunder (7th place) and the USCS Deep South (8th place) regional series although not competing in all events.
Morgan Turpen’s team-mate, car-owner and 12-time USCS National sprint car Champion, Terry Gray from Bartlett, Tennessee finished 69 points behind Turpen in the 2019 USCS Mid-South point standings to secure the runner-up position. Gray clinched the National title during the final weekend at Talladega as well.
Johnny Bridges from Cherryville, North Carolina finished in the third position in the USCS Mid-South Thunder regional point standings behind the two veteran road warriors (Turpen and Gray) in the final USCS National standings. In addition to a runner-up standing in the USCS National point standings, Johnny Bridges garnered a second-place finish in both the USCS Southern Thunder and USCS Deep South regional series standings. It was Bridges first conquest of the entire USCS National Championship schedule since his 1998 Rookie season when he garnered the USCS Rookie of the Year honors. Bridges, who had one of only a handful of Ford powered sprint cars to ever race in the series, like Terry Gray, had perfect attendance during the series 46 National events and had two victories on the season.
The 2012 USCS Rookie of the Year, Jeff Willingham from Ripley, Mississippi finished in fourth position in the Mid-South region final standings. Willingham also garnered a fourth-place finish in the final USCS Outlaw Thunder Tour presented by K&N Filters National, USCS Deep South Thunder regional series and USCS Southern Thunder regional series standings.
Florida sprint car racer Tony Agin from Fort Myers, Florida finished in the fifth position in the final USCS Mid-South Thunder Tour regional series point standings. Agin also finished in third place in the two other USCS regional sprint car series, the USCS Southern Thunder Tour and USCS Deep South Thunder regional series. He also garnered a third-place finish in the USCS Outlaw Thunder Tour National standings.
The 2017 USCS Mid-South Thunder regional series “Rookie of the Year” and third-generation sprint car racer, sixteen-year-old Chase Howard from Nesbit, Mississippi improved his standings during the 2019 season to finish in the sixth position in the 2019 USCS Mid-South regional series final standings. Howard also garnered a 10th place finish in the 2019 USCS Outlaw Thunder Tour presented by K&N Filters National point standings.
Chase Howard’s team-mate, car-owner, Father and second-generation sprint car racer, Ronny Howard, also from Nesbit, Mississippi improved his standings during the 2019 season to finish in the seventh position in the 2019 USCS Mid-South regional series final standings. Ronny Howard finished just shy of the USCS National top-ten in 11th place out of 176 drivers that competed during the 2019 USCS Outlaw Thunder Tour presented by K&N Filters National schedule
Byhalia, Mississippi’s, Dale Howard earned the eighth position in the final USCS Mid-South regional series standings. Howard, who had several mechanical failures while lined up on the front row of main events, could have finished higher in the standings had his luck been a little better. Dale Howard also finished in ninth place in the USCS National standings, but primarily competed in the USCS Mid-South Thunder Tour regional series. The talented multi-time Mid-South area track Champion had a third-place finish in the season finale and looks forward to adding to his career-win total in the series in 2020.
National Sprint Car Hall of Fame 2015 inductee Danny Smith from Chillicothe, Ohio finished in the ninth position in the USCS Mid-South regional series point standings. Smith who did not compete in every event still entered enough events to garner the top ten regional series finish. He fared much better in the National standings where he finished in sixth place and made two trips to the www.rockauto.com USCS Victory lane. Smith had 12 top-five and 24 top-ten finishes along the way in all USCS competition.
Shelby Brown from Marks, Mississippi finished tenth in the competitive USCS Mid-South regional series standings. She also finished in the eighth position in the final USCS National point standings. Those two efforts were good enough for her to garner the 2019 USCS National Rookie of the Year Award as the highest finishing Rookie driver in the USCS National point standings. It was only Brown’s second year to compete in any kind of racing vehicle. Her only other experience was to compete in the 305-winged sprint car division at Riverside International Speedway in West Memphis, Arkansas during the 2018 season, where she was that divisions Rookie of the Year as well
Derek Hagar from Marion, Arkansas and Tony Stewart from Columbus, Indiana both had four USCS Mid-South Thunder Tour regional series trips to the www.RockAuto.com USCS Victory Lane as the FireAde 2000 feature winners to lead all others in that regions wins column. Morgan Turpen won three times in Mid-South region competition as did Mark Smith from Sunbury, Pennsylvania. Young-gun Carson Short from Marion, Illinois won twice in 2019 to follow as the only multi-time winners. Matt Covington from Glenpool, Oklahoma, Greg Wilson from Benton Ridge, Ohio, Johnny Bridges, Brad Bowden from Hernando, Mississippi, Jeff Swindell from Bartlett, Tennessee, Howard Moore from Memphis, Tennessee, Jared Horstman from Ohio and Randy Hannagan from Ohio each won once during 2019. One hundred and twenty-nine different drivers competed in the 24 USCS Mid-South Thunder Tour presented by K&N Filters regional series events during the series 23rd and 2019 racing season.
USCS Founder and President, Pete Walton said ‘We are very proud to announce that Morgan Turpen is once again our United Sprint Car Series presented by K&N Filters Mid-South Thunder Tour Champion. She continues to be one of the top 360 winged sprint car drivers in North America. Her work ethic and competitive spirit make her a huge success and fan favorite. Congratulations on her accomplishments this season.” concluded Walton.
The complete season schedule and all winners for the 2019 USCS Outlaw Thunder Tour presented by K&N Filters with winners can be found at www.uscsracing.com For rules and other info please visit www.uscsracing.com or call the series office 770-865-6097. We invite you to please follow Uscs Racing on Facebook and Twitter as well.
Photo/Caption car #10m: 2-time USCS National Champion, Morgan Turpen claimed her 2nd USCS Mid-South regional series and 8th USCS title during 2019. (USCS file photo)
USCS Mid-South Thunder Regional series 2019 Final Point Standing after 24 events:
Pos. Car# Driver Point
1 10m Morgan Turpen 3534
2 10 Terry Gray 3465
3 07 Johnny Bridges 3179
4 28 Jeff Willingham 2921
5 38 Tony Agin 2809
6 13 Chase Howard 2614
7 44 Ronny Howard 2567
8 47 Dale Howard 2501
9 4 Danny Smith 2418
10 17b Shelby Brown 2253
11 39 Brad Bowden 1941
12 m1 Mark Smith 1810
13 9jr Derek Hagar 1555
14 26 Marshall Skinner 1508
15 10k Dewayne White 1368
16 14 Tony Stewart 1220
17 17 Alex Lyles 1124
18 07 T Brandon Taylor 1104
19 1s Joey Schmidt 902
20 29 Kyle Amerson 874
21 10 Landon Britt 849
22 33 Joe Larkin 806
Tie 11b Tyler Horn 806
24 40 Howard Moore 798
25 3 Sammy Swindell 703
26 21 Carson Short 688
27 49 Mallie Shuster 681
28 4m Michael Miller 680
29 18j RJ Jacobs 658
30 93 Jake Knight 657
31 17cb Corey Bailey 633
32 7E Eric Gunderson 627
33 11 Jim Shuster 616
34 67 Hayden Martin 597
35 0 Dustin Adams 592
36 1x Tim Crawley 580
37 94 Jeff Swindell 573
38 5 Justin Barger 571
39 3b Chris Banja 530
Tie 72k Rick Kahler 530
41 36 Tim Perry 483
42 43 Terry Witherspoon 476
43 8z Zach Pringle 468
44 27 Curt Terrell 466
45 99 Tanner Witherspoon 462
46 77 Michael Santangelo 454
47 10k2 Jamie Manley 444
48 3g Paxton Gregory 440
49 01 Shane Morgan 438
50 6 Dustin Gates 433
51 21 Spencer Meredith 432
52 29 Jeff Oliver 415
53 91A Ernie Ainsworth 413
54 95 Matt Covington 412
55 21b Brandon Hinkle 372
56 d6 Cody Gardner 368
57 22 Connor Leoffler 362
58 1A Lee Moore 354
59 9 Edward Guidry 344
Tie 15jr Geoff Styner 344
61 83 Blake Carrier 342
62 14 Bo Barber 338
63 5m Shawn Mott 324
64 w20 Greg Wilson 308
65 28f Davie Franek 306
66 4 Tommy Snellgrove 300
67 17H Jared Horstman 298
68 22H Randy Hannagan 294
69 17 Channin Tankersley 290
70 28H Hud Horton 282
71 66 Chase Dunham 278
72 34 Luke Hall 276
73 3 Chad Jones 274
Tie 1st Steve Surniak 274
75 51 Bobby Tersillo 273
76 16 Cody Adams 272
77 23 Devon Dobie 266
78 197 Ryan Harrison 264
79 24D Danny Sams III 262
80 8a Alan Myers 260
Tie 11 Tim Allison 260
82 83 Bob Auld 258
83 23 Lance Moss 256
84 52 Cody Karl 244
Tie 47 Eric Riggins Jr 244
86 21m Adam Cruea 238
87 2x Mike Grigsby 230
Tie 49 Shawn Dancer 230
89 88 Brandon Blenden 228
90 15j Jeremy Middleton 224
91 21 Jason Shavers 222
92 7 J Gregg Jones 220
93 99 Blake Jenkins 216
Tie 2H Tommy Hall 216
95 46 Jan Howard 214
Tie 21k Kevin Hinkle 214
97 B 52 Bill Mason 208
98 71 Aryton Olsen 149
99 2c Wayne Johnson 148
100 1x Eddie Gallagher 146
101 55 McKenna Haase 132
102 21 Butch David 130
Tie 51b Joe B Miller 130
Tie 18t Tyler Vaughn 130
105 7D Don Goodwin 128
106 24 Kobe Allison 126
107 16 Cody Tankersley 124
108 67 Jake McLain 122
109 57 Cody Howard 120
Tie 24 Jeffrey West 120
Tie 5 Richard Reynolds 120
112 5d Zach Daum 116
113 88 Trent Moss 114
114 5 Mark Lott 112
Tie 25 Ray Bugg 112
116 7D Dillon DeJournett 108
Tie 27t Todd Bradford 108
118 92 Cody Hays 106
119 83 Curt Schumacher 100
Tie 29d Danny Oliver 100
Tie 23p Hunter Poe 100
Tie 5k Jake Karklin 100
Tie 69 Jamey Mooney 100
Tie 17 Jeff Leach 100
Tie 12t Joe Young 100
Tie 0 Mike Vaculik 100
Tie 32x Robert Richardson 100
Tie 23 Seth Bergman 100
Tie 121 Todd Bliss 100