BRIDGEPORT, N.J. — It had been 32 years since USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midgets last turned a wheel in the state of New Jersey.
At the conclusion of Thursday’s Eastern Midget Week round three at Bridgeport Motorsports Park, Tanner Thorson found himself ahead of the field by 32 light years, or so it seemed, as he scored the most dominant victory of the season in the series’ first visit to the four-tenths-mile high banked dirt oval.
Thorson flexed his way into the lead on the fifth lap past polesitter Emerson Axsom, then steadily increased the gap between he and the rest of the field throughout the 30-lap duration to win by a staggering 8.429 seconds, lapping all but the top eight finishers aboard his Reinbold-Underwood Motorsports/AME Electrical – The Healing Tree/Spike/Stanton SR-11x.
It marked the series-leading fifth USAC National Midget feature triumph of the season for the Minden, Nevada native, and the eighth overall combined between the USAC National Midgets and sprint cars.
The bottom wasn’t only the shortest way around, but also the fastest way around for Thorson on the lap-five restart.
“As soon as I rolled out there, I saw there was a bunch of grip and I figured the modifieds had made the bottom hooked up for us,” Thorson recalled. “As soon as I fired off, I went down there and was able to feel it out and knew that was going to be the place to be.”
Thomas Meseraull found the same path to his liking as he raced past Axsom on lap eight for the second position. However, by then, Thorson was in the midst of a tear, up by a straightaway on lap 10 and by a half lap on at the midway point on lap 15.
As Buddy Kofoid muscled his way into the third spot with nine laps remaining, Thorson remained ahead by 7.5 seconds and ever-growing as he split between and breezed by everybody in his path.
“We’ve struggled the last couple nights, I feel like,” Thorson said. “Just the fact that our team has worked so hard together, it has definitely paid off and shows.”
Thorson’s midget victory comes after a 12th-place finish in a USAC National Sprint Car feature in his only previous Bridgeport experience during Eastern Storm in June.
“Midgets and sprint cars are obviously a little different,” Thorson stated. “With the sprint car, it was kind of hard to run the bottom here. I think the midget has so much side load that you can load it off on the bottom and be stuck way, way better than a sprint car.”
Meseraull scored his best result since winning the Indiana Midget Week opener at Paragon Speedway more than two months earlier, earning a runner-up finish in his RMS Racing/EnviroFab – Response Management Services – Engler Machine/Spike/Speedway Toyota.
“When it got slick, it went slick, slick,” Meseraull explained of the track conditions on his path to the front. “Modifieds weren’t running the bottom, but the midgets, they’ll run the bottom pretty good compared to a lot of bigger cars with a lot of weight. I saw Tanner (Thorson) down there starting to roll the bottom. We really weren’t set up to run down there. I might’ve had something if we had geared for the bottom, but Tanner drove away. I feel like the team deserves this. We’ve been on the road for the last 40 days, I feel like. It’s been a grind, but it’s nice to be up on the podium with this car.”
Kofoid casted up with a broken right wrist and broken left foot, toughed it out to earn a second consecutive podium finish in his Keith Kunz-Curb-Agajanian Motorsports/Mobil 1 – TRD – IWX/Bullet By Spike/Speedway Toyota, finishing third at Bridgeport and extending his series point lead to 19 markers over fourth-place feature finisher Chris Windom.
“Toward the bottom was the fastest line, but my car was pretty good all over and I don’t think we were quite set up to run the bottom with us not expecting the track to do that,” Kofoid said. “I could make up a lot of ground early on by sliding myself and splitting guys. The bottom came in and it got dirty where I couldn’t really run my line through the middle or run the fence. It was another pretty good points night and I’m glad to be on the podium again. I just need to be two spots better.”
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