By Richie Murray
Ventura, California (November 7, 2026)………It was a night of firsts at Ventura Raceway.
Connor Speir (Fillmore, California) led all 25 laps en route to his first career USAC Avanti Windows & Doors Western States Midget victory during Saturday night’s season finale at the 1/5-mile southern California dirt oval.
Meanwhile, Broedy Graham (Bakersfield, California) finished fourth in the feature event to collect his first career USAC Western States Midget driving championship, while his BGR Racing Team grabbing the entrant title.
Speir took off from his pole starting position and patrolled the top spot for the entirety of the distance, although he was followed by a swarm of challengers throughout much of the show.
Drake Cardey was running in the second position with two laps to go. Needing only to finish ahead of Graham to win the championship, Cardey was four spots ahead of Graham on lap 24 and in the driver’s seat of the title race.
But heartbreak soon struck. As the field was on its way to the white flag, over in turn two, four of the top five cars ran in formation along the bottom of the racetrack. There, Cardey was able to get his right front wheel alongside the left rear of Speir for the lead.
Just as that happened, Cardey, plus the trailing cars driven by Jake Swanson and Dane Culver, all collided, sending Cardey spinning to a stop in the infield, while Swanson and Culver continued on.
Devastatingly, just like that, two laps from the finish line, Cardey’s title hopes vanished. Cardey wound up 15th in the finishing order when all was said and done but finished as the series Rookie of the Year.
On the green-white-checkered restart, Speir paced along the bottom as Jett Yantis was the lone ranger up front running a higher line. Just after taking the white flag, Culver posed a challenge to the inside of Yantis, and ran up on Speir, giving Speir a shot to the left rear. However, it was no harm, no foul, as Speir sped away.
Speir closed out the night with a 0.495 second victory in his Matt Streeter-Graunstadt Enterprises No. 14. Yantis took second by inches over Culver who finished third. Champion Graham crossed the line in fourth while Swanson rounded out the top five.
In addition to the season long points title, Graham was also crowned the Billy’s Tequila Cup points champion, which calculated the combined points for the three USAC Western States Midget events held at Ventura during the 2026 season. He edged Yantis by one single, solitary point for the miniseries championship.
USAC AVANTI WINDOWS & DOORS WESTERN STATES MIDGET RACE RESULTS: November 7, 2026 – Ventura Raceway – Ventura, California
WOODLAND AUTO DISPLAY QUALIFYING: 1. Drake Cardey, 17, Dunkel-12.492; 2. Zach Daum, 25, Rodela-12.824; 3. Jake Swanson, 68, Six8-12.867; 4. Jett Yantis, 31, Beilman-12.900; 5. Broedy Graham, 66, BGR-12.929; 6. Connor Speir, 14, Streeter/Graunstadt-12.998; 7. Brody Fuson, 51, Carlile-13.042; 8. Randi Pankratz, 8, Pankratz-13.056; 9. C.J. Sarna, 20, Sarna-13.081; 10. Dane Culver, 50, Knuckles Up-13.120; 11. Todd Hawse, 18, Hawse-13.307; 12. Hailey Lambert, 55, Lambert-13.532; 13. Gary DeWitt, 29A, DeWitt-13.719; 14. Kevin Mahoney, 11K, Kruseman-13.860; 15. Kyle Hawse, 20x, Hawse-13.904; 16. Brayton Roberts, 21, Roberts-13.905; 17. Ron Hazelton, 15, Hazelton-14.168; 18. Adam Weisberg, 15x, Weisberg-14.183; 19. Billy Rayburn, 16K, Kruseman-NT.
HONDA POWERSPORTS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, starting positions in parentheses, all transfer to the feature) 1. Dane Culver (2), 2. Drake Cardey (5), 3. Jett Yantis (4), 4. Gary DeWitt (1), 5. Brayton Roberts (7), 6. Billy Rayburn (6), 7. Brody Fuson (3). NT
ROY MILLER FREIGHT LINES SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, starting positions in parentheses, all transfer to the feature) 1. Broedy Graham (5), 2. Zach Daum (6), 3. Todd Hawse (3), 4. Randi Pankratz (4), 5. Kevin Mahoney (2), 6. Ron Hazelton (1). NT
BILLY’S TEQUILA THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, starting positions in parentheses, all transfer to the feature) 1. C.J. Sarna (4), 2. Jake Swanson (6), 3. Connor Speir (5), 4. Adam Weisberg (1), 5. Kyle Hawse (2), 6. Hailey Lambert (3). NT
FEATURE: (25 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Connor Speir (1), 2. Jett Yantis (3), 3. Dane Culver (8), 4. Broedy Graham (2), 5. Jake Swanson (4), 6. C.J. Sarna (7), 7. Zach Daum (5), 8. Kevin Mahoney (14), 9. Gary DeWitt (13), 10. Randi Pankratz (10), 11. Ron Hazelton (16), 12. Kyle Hawse (15), 13. Brody Fuson (9), 14. Todd Hawse (11), 15. Drake Cardey (6), 16. Adam Weisberg (17), 17. Billy Rayburn (18), 18. Hailey Lambert (12), 19. Brayton Roberts (19). NT
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-25 Connor Speir.
FINAL USAC AVANTI WINDOWS & DOORS WESTERN STATES MIDGET POINTS: 1-Broedy Graham-863, 2-Drake Cardey-832, 3-C.J. Sarna-758, 4-Jett Yantis-723, 5-Adam Weisberg-525, 6-Connor Speir-510, 7-Hailey Lambert-477, 8-Randi Pankratz-402, 9-Dane Culver-398, 10-Cade Lewis-288.
FINAL BILLY’S TEQUILA CUP POINTS: 1-Broedy Graham-203, 2-Jett Yantis-202, 3-C.J. Sarna-197, 4-Drake Cardey-195, 5-Dane Culver-180, 6-Connor Speir-175, 7-Randi Pankratz-162, 8-Hailey Lambert-144, 9-Kevin Mahoney-142, 10-Ron Hazelton-129.