BECHTELSVILLE, Pa. — Past USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget champions Chris Windom, Tanner Thorson and Logan Seavey as well as June Eastern Storm Grandview winner Justin Grant and the current leader in the series title race, Buddy Kofoid, are among the heavyweights opening Eastern Midget Week on Ken Brenn Midget Masters night at Grandview Speedway tonight (Tuesday).
The third-mile Grandview dirt oval has hosted just three previous USAC National Midget events, which were won by Rich Vogler in 1988, Russ Gamester in 1989 and Chris Windom in 2019, all USAC National Midget champions in their own right.
Windom has started every USAC National Sprint Car feature held at Grandview since 2007 and owns one USAC National Midget start there. The USAC Triple Crown champion’s winning performance in 2019 came in a race in which he lost the lead on the final lap in turn one, then regained it back on the back straightaway to win by a single car length in an instant thriller.
Grant has won in both the USAC National Sprint Car and USAC Silver Crown divisions this year but would love to check a first USAC National Midget win for 2021 off the list at Grandview where he was victorious in a 40-lap USAC Sprint Car race in June of 2021 during Eastern Storm.
Thorson hasn’t finished outside the top-four in any of his three previous Grandview USAC starts. He finished 4th in his lone Grandview USAC Midget appearance in 2019, earning hard charger honors after starting all the way back in 15th.Â
Kevin Thomas Jr. enters Eastern Midget Week fresh off an Indiana Sprint Week championship. He finished 6th in his lone Grandview USAC Midget run in 2019. Grandview’s one-lap USAC National Sprint Car track record holder owns six-straight top-five finishes with the sprints at the track.Â
Seavey finished 10th in his only USAC National Midget appearance at Grandview in 2019 and finished 13th aboard a USAC National Sprint Car there in June.
Jason McDougal possesses the 12-lap USAC National Sprint Car track record at Grandview and was 9th here in the sprint car in 2019. That same year, in the midget, he won his heat race then went on to a 13th place feature finish at Grandview.
Thomas Meseraull took a personal best 4th with the USAC National Sprint Cars at Grandview in 2016. His first USAC National Midget experience at Grandview will come this Tuesday.
Same for Alex Bright, the USAC East Coast Sprint Car point leader, who finished 3rd with the series in May. In two USAC National Sprint Car starts at Grandview this year, the 2018 USAC Eastern Midget champ finished the A-Main 7th and 8th. Bright will pilot a team car to Logan Seavey for owner Tom Malloy.
Point leader Buddy Kofoid will make his first USAC National Midget appearance at Grandview on Tuesday. He does have previous experience there in a winged sprint car, finishing 21st during the Hodnett Cup in June of 2021 during Pennsylvania Sprint Speed Week.
For most of the field, Tuesday will present their first Grandview experience, including 2021 first-time USAC National Midget winners Emerson Axsom and Daison Pursley, along with a handful of previous winners looking for a breakthrough win in 2021 such as Cannon McIntosh, Zach Daum and 2010 ARDC Midget champ Steve Buckwalter.
Kiwis Hayden Williams and Travis Buckley are on the way to Grandview for their debuts as are series veterans Ethan Mitchell and Kevin Woody Jr., plus series Rookies Chase Randall, Hayden Reinbold, Jonathan Shafer and Taylor Reimer, who’ll be making her debut with Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports.
The Ken Brenn Midget Masters is dedicated to Ken Brenn Sr., a winning open wheel and dirt-track modified stock car owner for three decades (1954-1983). Brenn’s midget racing involvement included a long association (1954-1972) with the American Racing Drivers Club (ARDC) where he was president from 1969-1970. Plus, he was also a five-time ARDC champion car owner (1963-1964, 1968-1969 and 1971) and listed on the ARDC’s honor roll as a lifetime member.