By Richie Murray
Kutztown, Pennsylvania (August 3, 2021)………Few racetracks have a verb embedded right into its name. Few racetracks are also able to consistently live up to the word “Action” as consistently as Action Track USA in Kutztown, Pennsylvania.
Another new first-time winner will emerge in round number two of Eastern Midget Week this Wednesday night, August 4, at Action Track USA, which marks the third foray for the USAC Midget National Championship to the 1/5-mile dirt oval with previous visits taking place in 2019 and 2020.
There are champions and race winners all across the board who are certainly up to the task to be the one standing above the rest on Wednesday night.
Tanner Thorson (Minden, Nev.) owns the one-lap USAC National Midget record at Action Track USA of 11.146, set in 2020. The 2016 series champion has finished inside the top-four in both of his starts at the track with a 4th in 2019 and a 2nd in 2020.
Chris Windom (Canton, Ill.) was the hardest charger in the field in 2019, blitzing through the tight confines from his 12th starting position to finish 3rd. He was involved in a tangle near the halfway point in 2020 and finished 13th.
Logan Seavey (Sutter, Calif.) led the first seven laps of the inaugural series feature at Action Track USA in 2019 where the 2018 USAC National Midget champion finished 6th.
Justin Grant (Ione, Calif.), a USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car winner this past June in the state of Pennsylvania, finished 4th in his Action Track Midget run in 2020.
Cannon McIntosh (Bixby, Okla.) picked up a total of 13 positions in the feature alone during the 2020 event, finishing 5th after starting 18th, the single biggest mover over the past two seasons of USAC Midget racing at Action Track USA.
Current series point leader and 2021 Indiana Midget Week champion Buddy Kofoid (Penngrove, Calif.) took a 7th place result in his maiden Action Track USA voyage in 2020 while Daison Pursley grabbed a 10th after earlier setting the track’s 10-lap track record of 1:58.01 during a winning semi-feature performance.
Recently-crowned Indiana Sprint Week champion Kevin Thomas Jr. (Cullman, Ala.) finished 9th in the Eastern Midget Week round at Action Track USA in 2019. Thomas’ Petry Motorsports teammate Emerson Axsom (Franklin, Ind.), a two-time series winner in 2021, was 16th at Action Track USA in 2020 after also winning his heat race.
Alex Bright (Collegeville, Pa.) has won at Action Track USA in its weekly micro sprint program. In the midget there, the 2016 ARDC and 2018 USAC Eastern Midget champ took 11th in 2020. Meanwhile, Buckwalter’s teammate, Kevin Woody Jr. (Victor, N.Y.) was 20th in 2020 and Ethan Mitchell (Mooresville, N.C.), a podium finisher earlier this April at the Port City Raceway bullring in Tulsa, Okla., finished 22nd in both 2019 and 2020.
First-time Action Track USA visitors include two-time 2021 USAC National Midget winner Thomas Meseraull (San Jose, Calif.), plus three-time USAC National Midget feature winner Zach Daum (Pocahontas, Ill.) in a Bundy Built Motorsports team car to Ethan Mitchell, plus Southern Hemisphere’s Hayden Williams (Auckland, N.Z.) and Travis Buckley (Auckland, N.Z.), along with series Rookies Chase Randall (Waco, Texas), Hayden Reinbold (Gilbert, Ariz.), Taylor Reimer (Bixby, Okla.) and Jonathan Shafer (Ashland, Ohio).
Wednesday’s Eastern Midget Week at Action Track USA features the USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship and the Hyper Racing/EVO Injection 600cc Mini Sprints.
Pits open at 3pm Eastern, stands 4:30pm, drivers meeting at 5:15pm and cars on track at 6pm followed by qualifying and racing.
Adult general admission tickets are $25, seniors $22, children 6-12 are $10, kids 5 and under are free. Pit passes are $35 apiece.
Every lap of all five Eastern Midget will be aired live on FloRacing at https://bit.ly/2ZpafUr.
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2021 EASTERN MIDGET WEEK SCHEDULE:
Aug 3: Grandview Speedway | Bechtelsville, PA
Aug 4: Action Track USA | Kutztown, PA
Aug 5: Bridgeport Motorsports Park | Swedesboro, NJ
Aug 6: Bloomsburg Fair Raceway | Bloomsburg, PA
Aug 7: Lanco’s Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway | Newmanstown, PA
USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Buddy Kofoid-1191, 2-Chris Windom-1154, 3-Emerson Axsom-1123, 4-Justin Grant-1098, 5-Tanner Thorson-1053, 6-Daison Pursley-1023, 7-Logan Seavey-999, 8-Thomas Meseraull-983, 9-Kevin Thomas Jr.-983, 10-Cannon McIntosh-888.
TRACK RECORDS FOR USAC NATIONAL MIDGETS AT ACTION TRACK USA:
1 Lap – 8/5/2020 – Tanner Thorson – 11.146 – 64.597 mph
10 Laps – 8/5/2020 – Daison Pursley – 1:58.01 – 61.012 mph
PAST USAC NATIONAL MIDGET WINNERS AT ACTION TRACK USA:
2019: Zeb Wise
2020: Tyler Courtney
PAST RESULTS FOR USAC NATIONAL MIDGETS AT ACTION TRACK USA:
2019 FEATURE: (30 laps, starting position in parentheses) 1. Zeb Wise (4), 2. Kyle Larson (5), 3. Chris Windom (12), 4. Tanner Thorson (3), 5. Tyler Courtney (6), 6. Logan Seavey (2), 7. Andrew Layser (14), 8. Jason McDougal (9), 9. Kevin Thomas, Jr. (7), 10. Jerry Coons, Jr. (11), 11. Tanner Carrick (10), 12. Billy Pauch, Jr. (17), 13. Tucker Klaasmeyer (16), 14. Chad Boat (1), 15. Steven Drevicki (15), 16. Karsyn Elledge (18), 17. Alex Yankowski (21), 18. Bobby Butler (20), 19. Brett Conkling (22), 20. Timmy Buckwalter (8), 21. Alex Bright (24), 22. Ethan Mitchell (13), 23. Kameron Morral (19), 24. Shawn Jackson (23). NT
2020 FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Tyler Courtney (2), 2. Tanner Thorson (6), 3. Christopher Bell (7), 4. Justin Grant (3), 5. Cannon McIntosh (18), 6. Chase Johnson (5), 7. Buddy Kofoid (4), 8. Tanner Carrick (14), 9. Robert Dalby (1), 10. Daison Pursley (13), 11. Alex Bright (8), 12. Cole Bodine (10), 13. Chris Windom (12), 14. Alex Yankowski (17), 15. Andrew Layser (11), 16. Emerson Axsom (9), 17. Dillon Welch (15), 18. Eric Heydenreich (21), 19. Jeff Champagne (20), 20. Kevin Woody Jr. (22), 21. Kevin Thomas Jr. (19), 22. Ethan Mitchell (16). NT