PERRIS, Calif. – Tanner Thorson recorded the fastest lap in Wednesday night’s practice session at southern California’s Perris Auto Speedway, the final tune-up prior to the start of the 25th running of the Heimark Anheuser Busch Budweiser Oval Nationals presented by All Coast Construction.
The Minden, Nev. driver circled the half-mile dirt oval with a time of 16.264 seconds in his Reinbold-Underwood Motorsports/AME Electrical – Mesilla Valley Transportation/Spike/Stanton Chevy, the same team that won the most recent Oval Nationals with driver C.J. Leary in 2019.
Thorson is in the midst of his first full USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car season and, likewise, is making his first Oval Nationals appearance this weekend.
Jake Swanson, a 2019 USAC-CRA victor at Perris, was second overall in practice at 16.269 seconds. Three-time series champ and current point leader Brady Bacon was third at 16.329 seconds. Two-time Oval Nationals prelim feature winner Justin Grant was fourth at 16.358 seconds. Brody Roa, a two-time Perris AMSOIL USAC CRA Sprint Car winner this year, rounded out the top-five at 16.469 seconds.
Thirty-nine cars are expected for this week’s running of the Oval Nationals, which kicks off Thursday night, Nov. 4 with three-straight full nights of racing, with each evening offering qualifying, heats, semi-feature and feature events. The program resumes the following night on Friday, Nov. 5, with the grand finale taking place on Saturday night, Nov. 6.
The drivers meeting takes place at 4:30 p.m. PT during each night of racing with cars slated to be on track at 5:30 p.m.