IRWINDALE, California — Jake Blackhurst, a 15-year old from Mapleton, Illinois, made his second racing visit to California pay off Thanksgiving evening with a USAC Ford Focus Midget victory in a scheduled 40-lap race with 33 starters. Two red flag incidents caused officials to shorten the race to 30-laps. His triumph netted $500 and came on the Toyota Speedway at Irwindale four-degree banked third-mile in the first of three USAC features in front of a chilled crowd. Blackhurst competed in the Turkey Night Grand Prix last year and placed sixth. This year he won six features en-route to the USAC Midwest Ford Focus Pavement championship and second place in both USAC Midwest FF dirt points and in overall Midwest FF points. The winner drove Paul Blackhurst's No. 25 Beast, started second and followed pole starter Nick Drake for 18 laps. He made his winning inside pass in the fourth turn and quickly opened his 40-yard, 1.168-second winning margin.
Michael J. Lewis, 19-year old son of Nine Racing USAC Midget championship car owner Steve Lewis, started sixth in one of two Western Speed Racing Gerhardt chassis. He took second place from Drake on the final lap with an inside pass entering the third turn. Third place Drake, the 14-year old son of past USAC open-wheel champion Jay Drake and his mother Denise, a former California Lightning mini-sprint driver, trailed Lewis by 0.069. Drake drove a Beast owned by his step-father, Troy Cline, a former California sprint car driver. Keegan Walmer, a 15-year old from Portland, Ore., finished fourth in the No. 24 Ron Sutton Winners Circle Steve Kent-built chassis, one of five Sutton-owned cars in the field.
FF Midget rookie drivers Eli Schrock (Sutton 11) and Cody Thompson (Sutton 8) followed. Thompson received hard charger honors after racing from 17th to sixth. Dylan Cappello, a 14-year old from Peoria, Ariz., made his FF Midget debut in the Steve Lewis Beast No. 9x and set the fastest qualifying time, only 0.013 off the eight-year old one lap track record. It earned him sixth starting position in USAC's six-car inversion format. However, he was one of five new drivers USAC officials moved to the back rows in the 33-car field for safety reasons. Proving his driving skills, Cappello charged forward and finished seventh, 5.694 seconds in back of the winner. Southern California FF Midget Young Guns champion Austin Fraley (Sutton 42), first-time TS@I visitor Kyle O'Gara (a Sarah Fisher relative by marriage), and 2010 Utah FF Midget champion Michael Daniels, in a Wysong chassis, completed the top ten. Eighteen cars finished, with 13cars on the lead lap.
The race started at 7:46 and concluded at 8:34 pm because of four yellow and two red flags. Three cars spun in the second turn on lap 7. On the restart two cars got together entering turn three and spun to the wall simultaneously with Guy Sainsbury, from Utah, rolling his No. 88x onto its side. A closely following car, driven by Michael Steele, hit the wall and flipped twice against the wall and over the stopped cars. Drivers escaped injury, but safety crews needed 12-minutes to clear wreckage and car fluids.
On lap 9 fourth place Bobby Runyan (Sutton 9) spun in the turn four inside groove. Three following cars veered up the track and contacted the crash-wall together. All three Cody Gerhardt, 2009 TNGP FF Midget race winner Garrett Peterson and 14-year old Taylor Ferns, from Michigan-- were sidelined without personal injury. Tenth place Jessica Clark,16, dropped out on lap 20. Remaining cars ran laps 16-30 trouble-free in four minutes.
Final USAC FF Midget Western Series standings showed 12th place Nick Carlson, from Norwalk, Calif., winning the title with 794 points to 773 for runner-up Gerhardt. Final Western Pavement points had Gerhardt the champion with 1,105 points to 970 for Runyan. Gerhardt beat Thompson by ten points (703-693) in California North FF standings. Final California South FF standings had winner Gerhardt at 654 and Eli Schrock at 600.
