By Richie Murray
Merced, California (November 23, 2024)………Saturday night’s scheduled Midget Madness opener featuring the USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship at California’s Merced Speedway has been postponed.
The event will now be run as part of a doubleheader program on Sunday, November 24, which will present two complete, full events for the series consisting of a pair of 30-lap features at the 1/4-mile dirt oval.
Heavy and steady overnight on Friday and Saturday rain doused the track with moisture. Despite yeoman’s work by the track crew all day, the surface was unable to smoothed out into a safe and raceable condition. Thirty-three drivers and cars were signed in for the event.
Sunday’s event at Merced will now see the front gates opening at Noon Pacific time with the drivers meeting also set for noon and hot laps at 12:30pm.
The racing program on Sunday will run a full program for the USAC National Midgets, consisting of two-lap qualifying, heat races, a semi-feature and a 30-lap feature event.
Following the conclusion of the first program, a second event will occur with a bit of a twist on the format. No qualifying will be held, but instead, heat race lineups will be based on the finishing order of the first feature. The first feature winner will receive the one seed with the second-place finisher getting the second seed, and so on, which will, in essence, act as the official qualifying time.
The number one seed will line up in the 6th position of Saturday night’s heat race one and the number two seed will line up in the 6th position of heat race two, and so forth. From there on, the “traditional” USAC format for heat races will take over with the top-six transferring/getting their qualifying time back from each of the heat races, etc.
USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: November 23, 2024 – Merced Speedway – Merced, California – 1/4-Mile Dirt Oval –Midget Madness
DRIVERS & CARS IN ATTENDANCE: (33) Jake Andreotti (#00 Davis), Kyle Larson (#1K Silva), Terry Nichols (#1p Nichols-Peckfelder), Justin Grant (#2 RMS), Drake Edwards (#3p Petty), Corey Day (#4 Kahne), Chase McDermand (#8w Ford), Santino Ferrucci (#16 Abacus), Alex Karpowicz (#19 Mounce-Stout), Hayden Reinbold (#19AZ Reinbold-Underwood), Kyle Hawse (#20x Hawse), Tyler Courtney (#23c Silva), Barrie Valentino (#Q23 El Toro), Jacob Denney (#25 Malloy), Tanner Thorson (#25m Malloy), Karter Sarff (#31 Beilman), Zach Daum (#31B Beilman), Caden Sarale (#32 Sarale), Peter Paulson (#Q32 El Toro), Travis DeGaton (#39T DeGaton), Dane Culver (#50 Knuckles Up), Logan Seavey (#57 Abacus), Ryan Timms (#67 Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), Emerson Axsom (#67K Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), Ronnie Gardner (#68 Six8), Buddy Kofoid (#71 Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), Cannon McIntosh (#71K Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), Daison Pursley (#86 CBI), Austin Torgerson (#88A Mounce-Stout), Zach Wigal (#89 CBI), Gavin Miller (#97 Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), Kale Drake (#97K Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), Carson Macedo (#99AU Dyson).
EVENT CANCELED DUE TO WET TRACK CONDITIONS
USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Daison Pursley-1290, 2-Cannon McIntosh-1229, 3-Ryan Timms-1116, 4-Logan Seavey-1116, 5-Zach Daum-1083, 6-Jacob Denney-1042, 7-Justin Grant-1019, 8-Gavin Miller-984, 9-Zach Wigal-905, 10-Kale Drake-887.
USAC NATIONAL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Daison Pursley-199, 2-Logan Seavey-195, 3-Robert Ballou-149, 4-Justin Grant-145, 5-Kyle Cummins-131, 6-C.J. Leary-131, 7-Chase Stockon-126, 8-Matt Westfall-121, 9-Brady Bacon-120, 10-Kevin Thomas Jr.-107.
NEXT USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACES: November 24, 2024 – Merced Speedway – Merced, California – 1/4-Mile Dirt Oval – Midget Madness