SUN PRAIRIE, Wis. — When one thinks of midget racing, it’s not long before Angell Park Speedway comes to mind.
But the legendary third-mile track hasn’t hosted a USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship event in six years.
For the 47th time, Angell Park Speedway is back as the host of USAC National Midget racing, and for the first time since 2015, with its marquee event, the Firemen’s Nationals. The 37th running of the event will pay $5,000 to win on Sunday night.
USAC has sanctioned or co-sanctioned the Firemen’s Nationals off and on throughout the history of the event, first between 1986-’91, then again from 2009-’11 and, finally, from 2014-’15. National Midget Hall of Famer Billy Engelhart won the inaugural Firemen’s Nationals in 1982.
Logan Seavey was victorious in the most recent Firemen’s Nationals held in 2019, sanctioned by POWRi.
Zach Daum has won the Firemen’s National on two occasions, in 2013 and ’17.
Thomas Meseraull won quite recently in Badger Midget competition on July 4 at Angell Park. He was also a victor of Badger’s Open Wheel Showdown at the track in 2019.
Tanner Thorson has been a frequent frontrunner at Angell Park, notching a Badger win on Memorial Day Weekend in May of 2014. At the Firemen’s Nationals, he was 3rdand 2nd on consecutive nights in July 2014 and took 2nd again in the 2015 edition. During the second place run in the 2015 Firemen’s Nationals, Thorson led 29 and three-quarters of the 30-lap distance before being nipped at the line by a matter of inches at the hands of his then teammate Rico Abreu.
Kevin Thomas Jr. was triumphant during a POWRi Midget feature at Angell Park in 2015. He also owns the one-lap track record for USAC National Sprint Cars at the track, which he set back in 2015.
Chris Windom has bagged numerous frontrunning performances at Angell Park dating back to his first appearance in 2007. He took fifth with the USAC National Midgets there in 2012 and was fourth on both nights of the Firemen’s Nationals in 2014.
Three-time USAC National Midget feature winner Cannon McIntosh earned a fine second-place finish in the 2019 Firemen’s Nationals. In that same event, two-time 2021 USAC feature winner Daison Pursley tallied a 10th place.
Justin Grant, fourth in USAC National Midget points going into Sunday’s program, was 6th in a 2015 USAC Sprint Car run at Angell Park.
Meanwhile, the 41-point separation from first to third-place entering the month of September in the current USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship standings among Buddy Kofoid, Emerson Axsom and reigning series champ Windom is the slimmest it’s been at this juncture of the season in a decade since 2011 when 24 points separated Darren Hagen, Bryan Clauson and Kyle Larson.
Sun Prairie’s own, Brandon Waelti, has won numerous midget races at Angell Park over the years and was the 2016 Badger Midget champion. He’s joined by top USAC National Midget Rookie Chase Randall and veteran Ethan Mitchell as well as series rookies Bryant Wiedeman, Brenham Crouch, Hayden Reinbold and Taylor Reimer, all of whom are first-time Angell Park visitors.
It’s been six years since the series last made a visit to Angell Park, a thriller won by Rico Abreu on the final corner on the last lap.
The track has hosted 46 previous USAC National Midget events since Larry Rice’s victory in 1970.