By Richie Murray
Williamsburg, Ohio (May 29, 2026)………Tyler Nelson led all 25 laps to nail down a dominating USAC Midwest Thunder SpeeD2 Midget feature victory on Friday night at Ohio’s Moler Raceway Park.
Starting on the outside of the front row, Nelson (Olathe, Kansas) ran the high line to perfection, taking the checkered flag by a whopping margin of 6.054 seconds.
The victory was Nelson’s first of the season and the second of his career with the series. The defending series champion was also the night’s fastest qualifier with a lap of 13.432 seconds.
Behind Nelson, a tremendous battle was waged for second through sixth, all of whom were separated by less than two seconds at the line with Ian Creager taking the runner-up spot.
Trisdon Brown initially crossed the finish line in third place, but his car came up light at the scales after suffering a fuel leak which went through more than 10 gallons of fuel during the feature. Thus, Brown was repositioned to the tail of the field and a 22nd place result.
Brown’s misfortune moved Matt Lux up to third place, while Gunnar Lucius and Dylan Trost rounded out the top five.
Bryce Massingill received the Wilwood Disc Brakes Tough Brake award for drawing the number nine feature redraw pill after winning his heat race. Massingill climbed up to the top three until a blown radiator hose ended his night.
Chris Hartman received both the Performance Powder Coating Hard Charger award for advancing from 19th to 10th as well as the LynK Chassis bonus for finishing 10th. Taten Long also went +9, moving from 21st to 12th.
Ian Creager received the Rosewood Machine & Tool Company Precision Move of the Race for his drive from seventh to second in the feature after picking up a heat race win. Dylan Trost won the Velocita by Borsos Racing Glove/Shoe gift certificate for finishing fifth.
Creager won the Jeff Hill Trailer Sales first heat race. Lux captured victory in Stiefel’s Home & Auto heat race two. Massingill was the recipient of the Hoosier Auto Racing Fans third heat race with a last lap pass over Landen Francis to win by 0.016 gap at the stripe.
USAC MIDWEST THUNDER SPEED2 MIDGET RACE RESULTS: May 29, 2026 – Moler Raceway Park – Williamsburg, Ohio
JEFF HILL TRAILER SALES FIRST QUALIFYING GROUP: 1. Kole Kirkman, 5m, Magic-13.607; 2. Chase Hodge, 7c, Hodge-14.258; 3. Buddy Hollmeyer, 11, Taylor-14.261; 4. Ian Creager, 36, Creager-14.277; 5. Cole Morgan, 7m, Morgan-14.329; 6. Cody Dye, 4T, Dye-14.699; 7. Chris Hartman, 35s, Hartman-15.267; 8. Tyler Watkins, 7T, Watkins-15.367.
STIEFEL’S HOME & AUTO SECOND QUALIFYING GROUP: 1. Tyler Nelson, 91N, Nelson-13.432; 2. Matt Lux, 5, Wells-13.855; 3. Trisdon Brown, 2, Briggs-14.301; 4. Ashley Schloss, 11s, Schloss-15.648; 5. Stratton Briggs, 71, Briggs-16.943; 6. Dylan Trost, 21, Trost-NT; 7. Taylor Nibert, 11N, Nibert-NT.
HOOSIER AUTO RACING FANS THIRD QUALIFYING GROUP: 1. Bryce Massingill, 35, Massingill-13.630; 2. Gunnar Lucius, 22, Lucius-13.874; 3. Brayden Schwartz, 55s, Schwartz-14.218; 4. Parker Perry, 27G, Gresham-14.229; 5. Landen Francis, 85L, Francis-14.985; 6. Troy Borsos, 21T, Borsos-15.068; 7. Taten Long, 99L, Long-NT.
JEFF HILL TRAILER SALES FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Ian Creager, 2. Chase Hodge, 3. Buddy Hollmeyer, 4. Cole Morgan, 5. Tyler Watkins, 6. Cody Dye, 7. Chris Hartman, 8. Kole Kirkman. NT
STIEFEL’S HOME & AUTO SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Matt Lux, 2. Tyler Nelson, 3. Trisdon Brown, 4. Dylan Trost, 5. Taylor Nibert, 6. Ashley Schloss, 7. Stratton Briggs. NT
HOOSIER AUTO RACING FANS THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Bryce Massingill, 2. Landen Francis, 3. Gunnar Lucius, 4. Parker Perry, 5. Brayden Schwartz, 6. Troy Borsos, 7. Taten Long. NT
JEFF HILL TRAILER SALES FEATURE: (25 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Tyler Nelson (2), 2. Ian Creager (7), 3. Matt Lux (3), 4. Gunnar Lucius (6), 5. Dylan Trost (11), 6. Landen Francis (5), 7. Buddy Hollmeyer (8), 8. Cole Morgan (10), 9. Brayden Schwartz (15), 10. Chris Hartman (19), 11. Tyler Watkins (13), 12. Taten Long (21), 13. Ashley Schloss (17), 14. Bryce Massingill (9), 15. Chase Hodge (4), 16. Troy Borsos (18), 17. Cody Dye (16), 18. Taylor Nibert (14), 19. Parker Perry (12), 20. Kole Kirkman (22), 21. Stratton Briggs (20), 22. Trisdon Brown (1) (Originally finished 3rd, but was repositioned to 22nd place due to his car being underweight at post-race tech inspection). NT
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-25 Tyler Nelson.
USAC MIDWEST THUNDER SPEED2 MIDGET POINTS: 1-Matt Lux-154, 2-Tyler Nelson-140, 3-Gunnar Lucius-140, 4-Bryce Massingill-117, 5-Ian Creager-112, 6-Dylan Trost-109, 7-Kole Kirkman-106, 8-Landen Francis-92, 9-Buddy Hollmeyer-91, 10-Parker Perry-85.
NEXT USAC MIDWEST THUNDER SPEED2 MIDGET RACE: June 6, 2026 – Atomic Speedway – Chillicothe, Ohio
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
Fast Qualifier: Tyler Nelson
Jeff Hill Trailer Sales First Heat Winner: Ian Creager
Stiefel’s Home & Auto Second Heat Winner: Matt Lux
Hoosier Auto Racing Fans Third Heat Winner: Bryce Massingill
Performance Powder Coating Hard Charger: Chris Hartman (19th to 10th)
Velocita 5th Place Finisher: Dylan Trost
LynK Chassis 10th Place Finisher: Chris Hartman
Rosewood Machine & Tool Precision Move of the Race: Ian Creager
Wilwood Tough Brake: Bryce Massingill