By Richie Murray
Nipomo, California (August 9, 2025)………Dane Culver charged from eighth to first to earn his first career Avanti Windows & Doors USAC Western States Midget victory during Saturday night’s SureCan Showdown at Nipomo, California’s Santa Maria Speedway.
Culver (Riverside, California) made the winning move with five circuits remaining in the 30-lap event as he dove low into turn one and completed a slide job on series point leader Caden Sarale for the top spot.
From there, Culver finished the job to in his Knuckles Up Racing No. 50 to grab the win by 0.691 seconds over Sarale (Stockton, California) with David Gasper (Goleta, California) third, Jake Andreotti (Castro Valley, California) fourth and Jett Yantis (Bakersfield, California) fifth.
Preston Norbury (Chino Valley, Arizona) was the most notable incident of the feature as he flipped over in turn two on lap 19 while running ninth.
Heat race victories were scored by T.J. Smith (Fresno, California), Yantis and Sarale, who led a race-high 25 laps of the feature. Series Rookie Broedy Graham led the opening lap of the feature.
USAC AVANTI WINDOWS & DOORS WESTERN STATES MIDGET RACE RESULTS: August 9, 2025 – Santa Maria Speedway – Nipomo, California
QUALIFYING: 1. David Gasper, 25, Rodela-13.939; 2. Jake Andreotti, 00, Davis-14.055; 3. Caden Sarale, 32, Sarale-14.194; 4. T.J. Smith, 68, Smith-14.395; 5. Preston Norbury, 77AZ, Norbury-14.405; 6. Broedy Graham, 66, BGR-14.490; 7. Drake Cardey, 17A, Dunkel-14.541; 8. Jett Yantis, 4, Carlile-14.559; 9. Dane Culver, 50, Knuckles Up-14.567; 10. C.J. Sarna, 20, Sarna-14.614; 11. Randi Pankratz, 8, Pankratz-14.738; 12. Grant Schaadt, 15LS, Schaadt-14.915; 13. Terry Nichols, 1p, NP-14.934; 14. Connor Speir, 14JR, Streeter/Graunstadt-15.081; 15. Todd Hawse, 18, Hawse-15.214; 16. Ron Hazelton, 15, Hazelton-15.556; 17. Kyle Hawse, 20x, Hawse-15.561; 18. Hailey Lambert, 55, Lambert-15.635; 19. Chris Muraoka, 73x, Ford-15.636.
FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, starting positions in parentheses, all transfer to the feature) 1. T.J. Smith (5), 2. David Gasper (6), 3. C.J. Sarna (3), 4. Drake Cardey (4), 5. Terry Nichols (2), 6. Chris Muraoka (7), 7. Ron Hazelton (1). NT
SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, starting positions in parentheses, all transfer to the feature) 1. Jett Yantis (4), 2. Jake Andreotti (6), 3. Preston Norbury (5), 4. Connor Speir (2), 5. Kyle Hawse (1). NT
THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, starting positions in parentheses, all transfer to the feature) 1. Caden Sarale (6), 2. Dane Culver (4), 3. Broedy Graham (5), 4. Grant Schaadt (3), 5. Hailey Lambert (1), 6. Todd Hawse (2). NT
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Dane Culver (8), 2. Caden Sarale (4), 3. David Gasper (6), 4. Jake Andreotti (5), 5. Jett Yantis (10), 6. T.J. Smith (3), 7. Broedy Graham (1), 8. Connor Speir (14), 9. Drake Cardey (7), 10. Grant Schaadt (12), 11. C.J. Sarna (11), 12. Todd Hawse (15), 13. Hailey Lambert (18), 14. Kyle Hawse (17), 15. Chris Muraoka (19), 16. Terry Nichols (13), 17. Preston Norbury (2). NT
**Preston Norbury flipped on lap 19 of the feature.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Lap 1 Broedy Graham, Laps 2-25 Caden Sarale, Laps 26-30 Dane Culver.
USAC AVANTI WINDOWS & DOORS WESTERN STATES MIDGET POINTS: 1-Caden Sarale-467, 2-T.J. Smith-418, 3-Dane Culver-394, 4-Todd Hawse-292, 5-Jett Yantis-248, 6-Kyle Hawse-240, 7-Connor Speir-239, 8-Hailey Lambert-207, 9-Randi Pankratz-205, 10-Preston Norbury-195.
NEXT USAC AVANTI WINDOWS & DOORS WESTERN STATES MIDGET RACE: September 6, 2025 – Ventura Raceway – Ventura, California