Where It All Started: USAC Indiana Midget Week Returns To Lawrenceburg
Where It All Started: USAC Indiana Midget Week Returns To Lawrenceburg
The exciting agenda for USAC Indiana Midget Week will bring the sport's best to Lawrenceburg Speedway, continuing a tradition that began in 2005.
As a USAC Indiana Midget Week championship representative in last year's starting lineup at Lawrenceburg (Indiana) Speedway, Logan Seavey knew full well what it took to compete and win during the most intense and busy week(s) of the USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship season.
The 2019 IMW titlist from Sutter, California, showed the way at the 3/8-mile oval to survive and withstand a late-race cascade of cautions and challenges levied by eventual 2021 IMW champ Buddy Kofoid.
This Saturday night, Seavey, Kofoid and a whole bunch more take the show to the high-banked dirt track for the first time since that point, for Round 2 of the mini-series at Lawrenceburg, the track in which the first Indiana Midget Week race was held in 2005.
In addition to Seavey's 2021 victory, he roared to victory during Indiana Sprint Week at Lawrenceburg a little less than two months later. In Indiana Midget Week competition at the Burg, Seavey also has finished third in 2019 and ninth in 2018.
Kofoid shares the same team and car number (Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports No. 67) as Lawrenceburg's first Indiana Midget Week winner, Jay Drake, in 2005, who currently serves with the team as its manager and driver coach.
Kofoid, of Penngrove, California, who is the reigning USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget and Indiana Midget Week titlist, led the first five laps of the 2020 IMW appearance at Lawrenceburg en route to a second-place finish, then finished second once more in 2021.
Zach Daum (Pocahontas, Illinois) has been a consistent frontrunner during IMW at Lawrenceburg and scored a victory in the event during the 2013 season. He finished sixth in 2019, seventh in 2010, ninth in 2011 and 2014, and 10th in 2012.
Thomas Meseraull (San Jose, California) nearly scored a victory in the 2020 IMW round at Lawrenceburg, finishing third after leading a race-high 21 laps. Meseraull was the fastest qualifier in 2020 and also earned a USAC National Sprint Car win at the track in 2015.
Steve Buckwalter (Royersford, Pennsylvania) notched a third-place finish at Lawrenceburg in 2009 for his best IMW result at the track and finished ninth in 2010. His 12-lap track record from 2009 has stood the test of time. He clocked in at 2:59.60.
Justin Grant (Ione, California) possesses a record of four USAC National Sprint Car victories at Lawrenceburg in his career. A fourth-place finish during IMW in 2021 at Lawrenceburg has been the best thus far, along with seventh in 2017, though he does own a fast qualifying time there during IMW in 2019.
Cannon McIntosh (Bixby, Oklahoma) has made a trio of successful Lawrenceburg IMW appearances, finishing inside the top 10 in each instance, earning fifth place in 2019, followed by a hard-charging 22nd-to-sixth run in 2020 and a ninth-place effort in 2021.
Brenham Crouch's debut on the Lawrenceburg high banks brought him his best career USAC National Midget finish when the Lubbock, Texas, driver garnered a fifth-place result during Indiana Midget Week in 2021 after starting in the 13th position.
Kaylee Bryson of Muskogee, Oklahoma, burst onto the scene with a sterling seventh-place performance during Lawrenceburg's IMW feature in 2020. She followed it up with an eighth-place finish in 2021 after starting 19th.
Jason McDougal of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, recently tabbed to take over as the pilot of the Reinbold-Underwood Motorsports No. 19, finished ninth at Lawrenceburg's IMW round in 2020. His teammate, Hayden Reinbold (Gilbert, Arizona) qualified an impressive sixth at the event in 2021 but endured a flip during the heat race, which prevented him from participating in the feature.
Back in the Burg lineup are Mooresville, North Carolina's Ethan Mitchell (15th in 2021), St. Peters, Missouri's Sam Johnson (17th in 2018), Snohomish, Washington's Chance Crum (18th in 2021), Macdoel, California's Maria Cofer (18th in 2020), Princeton, Indiana's Kyle Cummins (20th in 2021) and Colby, Kansas' Bryant Wiedeman (12th in 2021), while Blake Brannon will be looking to qualify for his first Burg feature after falling shy of the last transfer spot by two positions in the 2021 meet.
Seeking their first Lawrenceburg on-track experiences on Saturday night are third-place points driver Mitchel Moles (Raisin City, California), plus multi-time series fast qualifier Taylor Reimer (Bixby), third-place Ocala finisher Jade Avedisian (Clovis, California), Badger Midget champion Chase McDermand (Springfield, Illinois) and two-time USAC Midwest Thunder SpeeD2 Midget titlist Jacob Denney (Galloway, Ohio), plus Kiwi Travis Buckley (Auckland, New Zealand), CB Industries Rookies Dominic Gorden (Clovis) and Jace Park (Overland Park, Kansas) as well as Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports newcomers Mariah Ede (Fresno, California) and Cade Lewis (Bakersfield, California)
Don't miss USAC Indiana Midget Week, featuring the USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship, Kelsey Chevrolet Sprint Cars and KOI Auto Parts Modifieds.
Pits open at 3 p.m. Eastern and the grandstands will open at 5 p.m. The drivers' meeting will be at 5:15pm, and hot laps will begin at 6 p.m.
Tickets and pit passes will be sold at the gate.
Every Indiana Midget Week event will be streamed LIVE on FloRacing. Watch here.