By Richie Murray
Ventura, California (March 8, 2025)………When Jake Andreotti saw daylight, he didn’t waste any time saving his winning move for later during Saturday night’s USAC Avanti Windows & Doors Western States Midget season opener at southern California’s Ventura Raceway.
Instead, the fourth place starting Andreotti (Castro Valley, California) sprung forward with a lap six slider on Dane Culver in turns three and four, then led the final 25 laps en route to victory aboard his Six8 Motorsports machine.
For Andreotti, it was his fifth career USAC Western States Midget feature victory, tying him with Tommy Astone, Bob Davison, Ronnie Day, Robert Dolacki, Davey Hamilton, Tony Hunt, Robby Josett, Brad Kuhn and J.J. Yeley for 45th place all-time.
Saturday’s score was Andreotti’s first with the series at Ventura since his initial career series victory in October 2021. Furthermore, it’s his second career season opening win with the series after previously achieving the feat at California’s Placerville Speedway in March 2022.
It was a doubly good night for Andreotti as he followed up his 30-lap midget main event triumph with another win in the accompanying USCS Sprint Car feature about an hour later at the 1/5-mile dirt oval.
Andreotti was followed to the line in the midget feature by Caden Sarale (Stockton, California) and Six8 Motorsports teammate T.J. Smith (Fresno, California). Dane Culver (Riverside, California) led the first five laps before finishing fourth while Dalten Gabbard (Peoria, Arizona) overcame early mechanical issues to round out the top-five after starting 15th.
Series Rookie Broedy Graham (Bakersfield, California) took fast qualifying honors for the first time in his career with a lap of 12.438 seconds. Randi Pankratz (Atascadero, California) and Culver captured heat race victories.
USAC AVANTI WINDOWS & DOORS WESTERN STATES MIDGET RACE RESULTS: March 8, 2025 – Ventura Raceway – Ventura, California
QUALIFYING: 1. Broedy Graham, 66, Graham-12.438; 2. T.J. Smith, 68, Six8-12.516; 3. Brandt Twitty, 4B, Twitty-12.589; 4. Jake Andreotti, 68w, Six8-12.630; 5. Caden Sarale, 32, Sarale-12.702; 6. Dane Culver, 50, Knuckles Up-12.855; 7. Robby Josett, 20, Sarna-12.957; 8. Bryan Drollinger, 71D, Drollinger-13.107; 9. Connor Speir, 14JR, Streeter/Graunstadt-13.236; 10. Todd Hawse, 18, Hawse-13.287; 11. Randi Pankratz, 8, Pankratz-13.458; 12. Kyle Hawse, 20x, Hawse-13.559; 13. Hailey Lambert, 55, Lambert-13.712; 14. Joey Bishop, 45, Bishop-13.766; 15. Dalten Gabbard, 77, Gabbard-NT.
FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Randi Pankratz, 2. Caden Sarale, 3. Brandt Twitty, 4. Robby Josett, 5. Connor Speir, 6. Hailey Lambert, 7. Broedy Graham, 8. Dalten Gabbard. NT
SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Dane Culver, 2. T.J. Smith, 3. Jake Andreotti, 4. Bryan Drollinger, 5. Kyle Hawse, 6. Joey Bishop, 7. Todd Hawse. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Jake Andreotti (4), 2. Caden Sarale (3), 3. T.J. Smith (6), 4. Dane Culver (2), 5. Dalten Gabbard (15), 6. Robby Josett (1), 7. Connor Speir (10), 8. Randi Pankratz (7), 9. Todd Hawse (11), 10. Bryan Drollinger (9), 11. Hailey Lambert (13), 12. Kyle Hawse (12), 13. Joey Bishop (14), 14. Broedy Graham (8), 15. Brandt Twitty (5). NT
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-5 Dane Culver, Laps 6-30 Jake Andreotti.
USAC AVANTI WINDOWS & DOORS WESTERN STATES MIDGET POINTS: 1-Jake Andreotti-79, 2-Caden Sarale-76, 3-T.J. Smith-76, 4-Dane Culver-70, 5-Robby Josett-60, 6-Dalten Gabbard-59, 7-Randi Pankratz-57, 8-Connor Speir-56, 9-Todd Hawse-48, 10-Bryan Drollinger-48.
NEXT USAC AVANTI WINDOWS & DOORS WESTERN STATES MIDGET RACE: April 5, 2025 – Placerville Speedway – Placerville, California