FAIRBURY, Neb. — Tanner Thorson made it two USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget Series feature wins in as many nights by wiring the field in Friday night’s 30-lap fourth annual Riverside Chevrolet Midwest Midget Championship at Jefferson County Speedway.
Leading the field to the green flag from the pole position, Thorson gunned into the lead at the outset and kept Kevin Thomas Jr., and Chris Windom at bay the entire distance to snare his fourth series win of the season aboard the Stanton SRX-11 powered Reinbold-Underwood Motorsports No. 19t AME Electrical/The Healing Tree Spike-chassis.
“I think what they say it’s better to be lucky than good any day, it was a good night to start on the front row,” Thorson said in victory lane. “The track was really fast. Cody Brewer and his track crew are second to none in this business.”
Following a pair of early incidents, the final 29 circuits ran off in non-stop fashion with Thorson leading the way ahead of Thomas and Chris Windom.
Thomas and Windom kept the pressure on as traffic came into play, but Thorson made a nifty maneuver past a pair of lapped cars with 10 laps to go to amass enough breathing room to secure the victory and put himself in strong position for Saturday night’s Midwest Midget Championship $10,000 winner’s share.
Thorson knew that Thomas was in striking position much of the way though. “He’s really good at running the bottom, I was just trying to hit my marks the best that I could and get by lapped cars the best that I could.”
Thomas settled for runner-up honors abord the Petry Motorsports Toyota-powered Gray Auto No. 5, summing up that, “We had a good car, Tanner got us on the start and that was all she wrote.”
Defending series champion brought the CB Industries NOS Energy Drink across the stripe in the show position with an eye on Saturday night, “We’ll come and try to win the big show tomorrow.
Emerson Axsom was fourth with Justin Grant rounding out the top five.
To see full results, turn to the next page.