PARAGON, Ind. – From the start of the race until his drop to the ground in his post-race celebration, Thomas Meseraull captivated the audience with a wildly entertaining Indiana Midget Week opener Thursday night at Paragon Speedway.
Meseraull charged from his 12th starting position to track down Cannon McIntosh in the final corner of the final lap, and with one swift move coming off turn four, the San Jose, California native delivered a dramatic last push to earn his first Indiana Midget Week victory in his 28th start.
Following the drama of the final lap, Meseraull delivered an encore performance of unintentional physical comedy when he lost his balance and fell from the top of his roll cage in victory lane. Dusting himself off, and without hesitation, Meseraull joyously jumped to his feet ran full sprint toward the jubilant crowd with both arms raised in triumph.
All that came following an abundance of rainfall that moisturized the three-eighths-mile dirt oval and pit area, making it a cowboy up surface with a skyscraper tall curb, which, at first, gave Meseraull a tad bit of trepidation. However, Meseraull was singing a triumphant tune at the conclusion of the evening despite having to dig his way through from deep in the field.
“This thing came out of the B-Main. We started 12th and drove by everybody,” Meseraull reiterated. “These types of tracks, where I really just wanted to go home when I got here, they seem to be the types of tracks that I run really good at. Hats off to everybody that helped get this thing in tonight.”
Meseraull became the second driver during the USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget season to win a feature after starting his race from the back half of the field. Buddy Kofoid began the April 10 race at Port City Raceway in Tulsa, Okla., from 16th and drove to the win.
After going winless in his first 88 USAC National Midget starts, since last Fall, Meseraull has now won four of his last 13 series appearances in his RMS Racing/EnviroFab – Response Management Services – Engler Machine/Spike/Speedway Toyota.
“(Crew chief) Donnie (Gentry) and I just click, (team owners) Dave Estep and Matt Estep, these guys give me the best of the best,” Meseraull praised. “We got Danny Drinan here and we’ve got the Dri-Bar on it. It seems to be really good in the rough, but I’m good too.”
Meseraull’s RMS teammate Justin Grant secured the lead for the first two laps of the 30-lap feature from the pole. When Grant stumbled in turn two on the third lap, McIntosh was on the scene to capitalize, ducking under Grant for the top spot.
Grant stalked McIntosh relentlessly throughout the first half but, seemingly, each time he got nearer to McIntosh’s rear bumper, Grant would snag a fork in the road, halting his march dead in his tracks, forcing him to regroup and reload for another shot.
Nearing halfway, McIntosh’s brakes were throwing a shower of sparks from the left rear of the car as he navigated his way through the back end of the field. A lap 18 caution for a turn one spin by 13th running Brenham Crouch, however, brought about the feature’s lone caution period and, thus, removed the traffic factor of traffic.
McIntosh’s strong restart with 13 laps remaining allowed the Oklahoman to build a steady foundation in which to distance himself from the RMS duo of Grant and the suddenly emerging Meseraull. Within a couple of laps, the distance between the trio had shrunk to virtually nothing.
On the 22nd lap, Grant slid up the racetrack in turn four, opening the door for Meseraull to get a foothold underneath, then beat Grant to the bottom in turn one to gain the second position.
Meseraull’s only target now was chasing down McIntosh, which didn’t take long after McIntosh’s recovery from a bike in turn one with seven laps remaining. On lap 26, 28 and 29, Meseraull was able to pull even with McIntosh between turns one two but fell back in line behind McIntosh down the back straightaway while contemplating his next move on the chess board.
On the final lap, the same scene played out in turns one and two with Meseraull unable to find enough oomph to budge ahead of McIntosh. After settling in behind McIntosh exiting turn two, Meseraull played his hand slightly differently, taking his line a bit higher on entry into turn three while McIntosh sort of slid himself from bottom to top. With a slight diamond off the corner of turns three and four, Meseraull sped under and past McIntosh for the triumph just two car lengths in front at the line, .171 seconds ahead.
McIntosh equaled his best series finish of the season with a runner-up result. Although frustrated by the heartbreaking result, the Bixby, Okla., driver remained pleased with a finish they’ve sorely needed amid a somewhat inconsistent season.
“That one was really hard to watch slip away there off of four,” McIntosh admitted. “I felt like we had one of the best cars here tonight. I don’t know if T-Mez was just a little better there at the end, but I think we definitely had enough to hold him off. It’s so close down there with the grease, to the grip, and I saw him off of two; he was really close. I tried to block, but it just got a little tight on me, and I let it slip away. I had a really good starting spot in the feature, and we walked away there in the beginning, but just one little mistake in the end got us.”
Grant’s contrarily consistent campaign continued Thursday at Paragon with a third-place finish. For the reigning USAC Silver Crown champion, it was his seventh consecutive top-seven USAC National Midget finish of the season.
For complete results, advance to the next page.