By Lonnie Wheatley (Meeker, OK) -- In a NOS Energy Drink USAC National Midget feature event that offered up more twists and turns than the country highways and byways leading to Red Dirt Raceway, Sutter, California’s Logan Seavey emerged to take “Tuesday Night Thunder” honors atop the ¼-mile red clay oval.
With three and four-wide battles the norm throughout the 30-lapper, the reigning series champion railed the topside of the track to take the lead away from Jerry Coons, Jr., on the 24th round and led the final seven circuits to pocket the $3,000 winner’s share aboard the Keith Kunz Motorsports Mobil 1 No. 67.
PHOTO CREDIT: Lonnie Wheatley
Posting his second series win of the year, Seavey was chased to the stripe by Clauson-Marshall Racing rep Zeb Wise with fellow CMR shoe Chris Windom edging Coons, Jr., for the final podium position.
“Once the race came to me, I was patient and when a couple of them crashed out it cleaned up the field and I was able to make the moves I really wanted to make,” Seavey explained in victory lane. “I was trying to not get crashed, everyone was running so hard. That’s what makes these races so exciting.”
While Seavey gridded the feature field ninth after clinging to the final transfer from “B” Main action after a late run-in with teammate Tucker Klaasmeyer, current series points leader Tyler Courtney and Broken Arrow native Jason McDougal led the way to the green flag.
After the initial start was waved off for a turn four fracas, McDougal gunned into the early lead aboard the FMR No. 76m and paced the initial eight circuits before Courtney pounced on the lead on a lap nine restart with the red flag flying moments later when Holley Hollan exited the venue with a flyer over the turn three wall. Hollan escaped injury.
McDougal battled back in front for a lap on the restart, only to have Courtney recapture the lead with chaos soon ensuing in his wake when Tanner Carrick slid McDougal for second getting into turn one on the 16th lap. With the aspiring flamingo breeder slowed from the contact, top-five contender Kevin Thomas, Jr., made contact and flipped with fellow front runner Tanner Thorson also involved as Tyler Thomas got upside down as well in the melee. McDougal and Thomas, Jr., were done for the night while the others were able to rejoin.
Courtney took off on the restart ahead of Carrick, Windom and Wise with Seavey up to sixth, but “Sunshine” surrendered the lead soon after when his NOS Energy Drink No. 7bc slowed on the backstretch with mechanical woes on the 18th round.
Windom assumed the point and traded the lead with Carrick before Coons, Jr., catfished the low line and surged in front in a three-wide battle for the lead. A final caution flew with seven laps remaining when Carrick slowed with a flattened left rear after contact from a Windom slider.
Up to second by avoiding all the chaos, Seavey made the top of the track work to his advantage and raced past Coons, Jr., on the restart and led the rest of the way to the checkered flag with Angola, Indiana’s Wise racing into second place.
“It’s a dream come true to be racing right now, I just can’t thank Keith (Kunz) and Pete (Willoughby) enough for believing in me,” Seavey summed up. “We’re just having a dream year.”
After starting seventh, runner-up Wise commented that, “I knew starting seventh that I had to do what I do to get to the front and we were able to edge them out for second.”
Rounding out the podium in third, Windom said that, “There was a lot going on there. We got to the lead and the 71k was short sliding guys all night, so I finally took care of that. I didn’t mean to actually hit him, but if he’s not gonna lift then I’m not gonna let him have the position and it bumped us back to about sixth. There was a lot of haymaker slidejobs, this has got to be awesome to watch for the fans.”
Racing from the 15th starting position, Coons, Jr., crossed the stripe fourth with Broken Arrow’s Jonathan Beason earning Hard Charger honors by racing from 17th to round out the top five aboard the Hard Eight Racing No. 8J.
Owasso’s Matt Sherrell raced from 16th to sixth with 13th-starter Chard Boat in seventh as none of the top seven finishers started better than seventh.
Tanner Thorson salvaged an eighth-place finish after being collected in a mid-race incident with Tucker Klaasmeyer and Tyler Thomas completing the top ten.
After Zeb Wise established a new track record of 13.207 seconds in qualifying, Beason, Hollan, Chad Boat and Thomas topped heat race action for the 36-car field with Wise winning the “B” Main.
While Hollan sailed out of the park in “A” Main action, Karsyn Elledge beat her to the punch by doing the same in the mid stages of the “B” Main while holding down the sixth and final transfer positions. Elledge walked away as well.
Sponsors that made “Tuesday Night Thunder” at Red Dirt Raceway possible include Patriot Dodge of Chandler, Hepfner Racing Products, Rod End Supply, Keizer Wheels, EMi, Mud-X, Speedway Motors, and Outlaw Wings.
NOS Energy Drinks USAC National Midgets “Tuesday Night Thunder” at Red Dirt Raceway – July 9, 2019 Results:
FATHEADZ EYEWEAR QUALIFYING: 1. Zeb Wise, 39BC, Clauson/Marshall-13.207 (New Track Record); 2. Zane Hendricks, 27z, Hendricks-13.318; 3. Logan Seavey, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.330; 4. Tanner Carrick, 71K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.351; 5. Tucker Klaasmeyer, 27, Kunz-Curb-Agajanian-13.362; 6. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 5, Petry-13.366; 7. Cannon McIntosh, 08, Dave Mac-13.400; 8. Tanner Thorson, 98, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.428; 9. Jason McDougal, 76m, FMR-13.431; 10. Steven Shebester, 22x, Williams-13.444; 11. Tyler Courtney, 7BC, Clauson/Marshall-13.451; 12. Karsyn Elledge, 1, Tucker/Boat-13.484; 13. Chris Windom, 17BC, Clauson/Marshall-13.496; 14. Holley Hollan, 67K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.521; 15. Chad Boat, 84, Tucker/Boat-13.606; 16. Jesse Colwell, 71, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.609; 17. Jerry Coons, Jr., 25, Petry-13.626; 18. Matt Sherrell, 10, Hunt-13.642; 19. Robert Dalby, 4D, Dalby-13.670; 20. Ethan Mitchell, 19m, Bundy Built-13.671; 21. Jonathan Beason, 8J, Hard Eight-13.674; 22. Shannon McQueen, 7, McQueen-13.700; 23. Sam Johnson, 72, Johnson-13.720; 24. Tyler Thomas, 91T, Thomas-13.721; 25. Andrew Layser, 47BC, Clauson/Marshall-13.730; 26. Brady Bacon, 85, Central-13.754; 27. Andrew Deal, 15D, Deal-13.809; 28. Andrew Felker, 44, Shields-13.830; 29. Grady Chandler, 19s, Mounce-13.866; 30. Hank Davis, 42, Franklin-13.914; 31. Frank Flud, 25s, Springer-13.996; 32. Tyler Seavey, 117, Washburn-14.064; 33. Emilio Hoover, 9H, Hoover-14.555; 34. Curtis Jones, 77s, Simmons-14.709; 35. Curtis Spicer, 4, Spicer-14.815; 36. Shaun Shapel, 84s, Shapel-15.291.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Jonathan Beason, 2. Chris Windom, 3. Jerry Coons, Jr., 4. Jason McDougal, 5. Tucker Klaasmeyer, 6. Zeb Wise, 7. Grady Chandler, 8. Andrew Layser, 9. Emilio Hoover. 1:50.17 (New Track Record)
COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Holley Hollan, 2. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 3. Shannon McQueen, 4. Matt Sherrell, 5. Brady Bacon, 6. Steven Shebester, 7. Hank Davis, 8. Zane Hendricks, 9. Curtis Jones. NT
AUTOMETER THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Chad Boat, 2. Tyler Courtney, 3. Cannon McIntosh, 4. Robert Dalby, 5. Logan Seavey, 6. Andrew Deal, 7. Frank Flud, 8. Sam Johnson, 9. Curtis Spicer. 1:50.72
INDY RACE PARTS FOURTH HEAT: (8 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Tyler Thomas, 2. Tanner Thorson, 3. Jesse Colwell, 4. Tanner Carrick, 5. Andrew Felker, 6. Ethan Mitchell, 7. Tyler Seavey, 8. Karsyn Elledge, 9. Shaun Shapel. NT
SEMI: (12 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature) 1. Zeb Wise, 2. Tucker Klaasmeyer, 3. Zane Hendricks, 4. Andrew Deal, 5. Hank Davis, 6. Logan Seavey, 7. Andrew Layser, 8. Steven Shebester, 9. Brady Bacon, 10. Andrew Felker, 11. Frank Flud, 12. Sam Johnson, 13. Emilio Hoover, 14. Shaun Shapel, 15. Ethan Mitchell, 16. Curtis Spicer, 17. Karsyn Elledge, 18. Grady Chandler, 19. Tyler Seavey. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting position in parentheses) 1. Logan Seavey (9), 2. Zeb Wise (7), 3. Chris Windom (11), 4. Jerry Coons, Jr. (15), 5. Jonathan Beason (17), 6. Matt Sherrell (16), 7. Chad Boat (13), 8. Tanner Thorson (3), 9. Tucker Klaasmeyer (10), 10. Tyler Thomas (19), 11. Jesse Colwell (14), 12. Tanner Carrick (6), 13. Shannon McQueen (18), 14. Hank Davis (22), 15. Robert Dalby (21), 16. Tyler Courtney (1), 17. Jason McDougal (2), 18. Kevin Thomas, Jr. (5), 19. Andrew Deal (20), 20. Holley Hollan (12), 21. Cannon McIntosh (4), 22. Zane Hendricks (8). NT
**Karsyn Elledge flipped over the turn three wall during the semi. Holley Hollan flipped over the turn three wall on lap 9 of the feature. Jason McDougal, Kevin Thomas, Jr. and Tyler Thomas flipped in turn 2 on lap 16 of the feature.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-8 Jason McDougal, Lap 9 Tyler Courtney, Lap 10 Jason McDougal, Laps 11-17 Tyler Courtney, Lap 18 Chris Windom, Lap 19 Tanner Carrick, Laps 20-23 Jerry Coons, Jr., Laps 24-30 Logan Seavey.
KSE RACING PRODUCTS HARD CHARGER: Jonathan Beason (17th to 5th)
WILWOOD BRAKES 13TH PLACE FINISHER: Shannon McQueen
SALDANA RACING PRODUCTS FIRST NON-TRANSFER: Andrew Layser
PROSOURCE HARD WORK AWARD: Hank Davis