By Richie Murray
Visalia, California (May 1, 2026)………The third time proved to be the charm for Jett Yantis on Friday night at Visalia, California’s Plaza Park Raceway.
Yantis (Bakersfield, California) had his first two passes for the lead negated by yellow flags, but his third pass up front stuck without a stoppage, as he raced by T.J. Smith in traffic to capture his second win of the USAC Avanti Windows & Doors Western States Midget season, and the fourth of his career in the Rusty Carlile-owned No. 4.
Smith led the initial eight laps from his outside front row starting spot on the 1/5-mile dirt bullring. Reigning series champion Caden Sarale briefly snuck by Smith on lap nine to lead a single lap. But as the two split high and low through lapped traffic, Smith reemerged with the lead on the following lap on the bottom of turn three.
Yantis, from his sixth starting spot, worked his way in to second when Sarale drifted high in turns three and four on lap 12, then went onward to chase down Smith for the top spot for the first time on lap 13, but a 360 spin back in the pack brought out the caution, thus putting Yantis back in second behind Smith for the restart.
On the ensuing restart, Yantis got Smith again for the lead on the bottom of turns three and four, but an Adam Teves spin and stop at the exit of turn four put the kibosh on Yantis’ lead yet again.
To make matters worse for Yantis, on lap 17, his car got tight on entry into turn three, nearly sending him into the guardrail. After locking it up to avoid wall contact, that allowed Sarale to sneak by for second. Yantis got right back on track and passed Sarale for second on the back straightaway with nine laps remaining.
However, a bevy of traffic was lying in wait for the leaders down the stretch. With seven laps to go, Smith went high in turns three and four to work by a couple of lappers. That proved to be the long way around as Yantis took the short route on the bottom to gain the lead, and that was it. Meanwhile, Sarale pulled in front of Smith to take second in the waning laps.
Yantis escaped from there, threading the needle in, through and around traffic to take the win ahead of runner-up Sarale while Smith took third. New series point leader Broedy Graham was fourth while 2024 series champion Cade Lewis returned to the series for the first time in two years to round out the top-five.
Fast qualifying honors also went to Yantis. Heat race victories went to Graham, Smith and Lewis.
USAC AVANTI WINDOWS & DOORS WESTERN STATES MIDGET RACE RESULTS: May 1, 2026 – Plaza Park Raceway – Visalia, California
QUALIFYING: 1. Jett Yantis, 4, Carlile-11.382; 2. Caden Sarale, 32, Sarale-11.454; 3. Cade Lewis, 101, Alexander-11.480; 4. Dane Culver, 50, Knuckles Up-11.494; 5. T.J. Smith, 68, Six8-11.682; 6. Drake Cardey, 17, Dunkel-11.835; 7. Grant Schaadt, 8x, Schaadt-11.860; 8. Adam Teves, 10, Teves-12.062; 9. Connor Speir, 14JR, Streeter/Graunstadt-12.113; 10. C.J. Sarna, 20, Sarna-12.134; 11. Jake Hagopian, 00, Davis-12.171; 12. Terry Nichols, 1p, Nichols/Peckfelder-12.173; 13. Gary DeWitt, 29A, DeWitt-12.384; 14. Hailey Lambert, 55, Lambert-12.399; 15. Kyle Hawse, 20x, Hawse-12.410; 16. Broedy Graham, 66, BGR-12.423; 17. Myles Tomlinson, 22G, Risner-12.530; 18. Lance Jackson, 1, Jackson-12.682; 19. Kermit Burnam Jr., 10K, Burnam-12.929; 20. Brady Ransom, 21R, Ransom-12.967; 21. Randi Pankratz, 8, Pankratz-13.913; 22. Adam Weisberg, 15, Weisberg-14.339; 23. Marvin Mitchell, 78, Mitchell-NT.
FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, starting positions in parentheses, all transfer to the feature) 1. Broedy Graham, 2. Jett Yantis, 3. Dane Culver, 4. C.J. Sarna, 5. Grant Schaadt, 6. Adam Weisberg, 7. Gary DeWitt, 8. Kermit Burnam Jr. NT
SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, starting positions in parentheses, all transfer to the feature) 1. T.J. Smith (5), 2. Caden Sarale (6), 3. Jake Hagopian (3), 4. Myles Tomlinson (1), 5. Adam Teves (4), 6. Brady Ransom (7), 7. Hailey Lambert (2), 8. Marvin Mitchell (8). NT
THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, starting positions in parentheses, all transfer to the feature) 1. Cade Lewis (5), 2. Kyle Hawse (2), 3. Connor Speir (3), 4. Terry Nichols (7), 5. Lance Jackson (1), 6. Randi Pankratz (6), 7. Drake Cardey (4). NT
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Jett Yantis (6), 2. Caden Sarale (5), 3. T.J. Smith (2), 4. Broedy Graham (7), 5. Cade Lewis (4), 6. Grant Schaadt (9), 7. Jake Hagopian (12), 8. Drake Cardey (8), 9. Myles Tomlinson (17), 10. Gary DeWitt (14), 11. C.J. Sarna (11), 12. Adam Weisberg (21), 13. Hailey Lambert (15), 14. Kyle Hawse (16), 15. Brady Ransom (19), 16. Adam Teves (10), 17. Connor Speir (1), 18. Randi Pankratz (20), 19. Lance Jackson (18), 20. Terry Nichols (13), 21. Dane Culver (3), 22. Marvin Mitchell (22). NT
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-8 T.J. Smith, Lap 9 Caden Sarale, Laps 10-23 T.J. Smith, Laps 24-30 Jett Yantis.
USAC AVANTI WINDOWS & DOORS WESTERN STATES MIDGET POINTS: 1-Broedy Graham-288, 2-Drake Cardey-279, 3-C.J. Sarna-251, 4-Dane Culver-218, 5-Connor Speir-211, 6-Adam Weisberg-205, 7-Jett Yantis-160, 8-Hailey Lambert-149, 9-Connor Lundy-139, 10-R.J. Johnson-128.
NEXT USAC AVANTI WINDOWS & DOORS WESTERN STATES MIDGET RACE: May 2, 2026 – Ventura Raceway – Ventura, California