INDIANAPOLIS — USAC national driving champions Kody Swanson, Logan Seavey and Daison Pursley shared the spotlight along with other 2024 USAC champions and special award recipients at Friday night’s 69th USAC Night of Champions celebration at the Indiana Roof Ballroom.
Kody Swanson is accustomed to winning USAC Silver Crown championships. But 2024 may very well have been both his most challenging and most rewarding. An offseason accident resulted in a broken left foot and left his season in doubt. But the Kingsburg, Calif., native defied the odds to make his way back into the cockpit in time for the season opener.
Despite a slight limp in his gait, Swanson showed all the signs of the same ol’ Kody as he won five times in all at Toledo, Winchester, the Hoosier Hundred at IRP, the series debut at Jennerstown and he capped off the year with a victory and a championship in one fell swoop at IRP.
Swanson also set a new single season series mark with seven pole position en route to becoming an eight-time USAC Silver Crown titlist, the most championships earned by any one driver in a USAC national series ever while also providing Doran Binks Racing the entrant title.
In a span of two seasons, Logan Seavey and Abacus Racing went from being among the newest driver/team combinations in the sport to become USAC Triple Crown champions.
After Seavey and Abacus teamed to capture the 2023 USAC Silver Crown and USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship titles, they added a sprint car to the arsenal and showed no signs of letting up in a historic USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car season from start to finish in 2024.
Seavey led the series standings for an all-time record eight months and 13 days between February and October, amassing 14 victories along the way to tie Tom Bigelow’s single season win record of 14 in 1977.
In February at Volusia, Seavey became the first driver since Bud Kaeding at Terre Haute in 2001 to win two USAC National Sprint Car features in one night, and in July, he became the first driver since Rick Hood in 1985 to record four consecutive USAC National Sprint Car victories while also grabbing the Indiana Sprint Week crown and Lawrenceburg’s Fall Nationals.
A team of Disney writers couldn’t have produced a better script than the reality of Daison Pursley’s storybook USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship season in 2024. After suffering a major spinal cord injury in a 2021 racing accident, the 20-year-old Pursley endured a journey that so few could even comprehend.
Pursley and his CB Industries team compiled a series high seven USAC National Midget victories at Belleville, plus wins at Bloomington and Kokomo, which helped him notch an Indiana Midget Week title. He even ran his winning streak to three during the summer months at Red Dirt and Beloit, Kansas. In September, Pursley swept his way to back-to-back scores at Eldora.
All told, he led all drivers by leading 87 laps, capturing 11 heat race wins and producing 17 top-five finishes in 23 starts. In the process, Pursley provided CB Industries its first USAC National Midget entrant title and the second for team principal Chad Boat who scored a series championship as part of Tucker-Boat Motorsports in 2020.
It’s the comeback of all comeback seasons, and Daison Pursley is now a USAC national champion.
After finishing second in each of the past two seasons, he finally shot to the top of the charts in 2024. He was one of three drivers to win in all three of USAC’s national divisions this season alongside Justin Grant and Daison Pursley, and he was the one and only driver to finish inside the top-3 of all three USAC national series’ point standings. The newest member of USAC’s Career Triple Crown club captured a $10,000 bonus by amassing the most total points across the three USAC national divisions in 2024. For the first time in his career, the Mike Curb USAC National Driver Champion for 2024 is Logan Seavey.
Not only does his driver, Logan Seavey, get all the accolades. So too does the team manager for Abacus Racing who has successfully overseen and wrenched on three USAC national championship winning teams over the past two seasons. In 2023, the team captured both the USAC Silver Crown and USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget titles. This year, they completed the USAC career Triple Crown as AMSOIL National Sprint Car champs. The Johnny Capels “Golden Greek” award is reserved for a special individual in the trenches. At the forefront of this unprecedented success is USAC’s 2024 Chief Mechanic of the Year, Kirk Simpson.
In 2024, Brady Bacon added another highlight to his impressive reel during the special 10-race miniseries known as the Bubby Jones Master of Going Faster series Presented By Spire Sports & Entertainment. Throughout it, he never had an “off night” by any measure, recording a victory at Port Royal, plus eight top-fives and a perfect 10 for 10 on top-tens. His performance netted him $10,000 and a custom trophy provided by Potter Metal Art for himself and $2,500 for his crew chief, Matt Hummel. He’s now the first two-time Master of Going Faster champ.
Early this season, car owners Chad Boat and Michael Burkhart told this this driver that they predicted he would not repeat as USAC ProSource Passing Master in 2024. Not because they doubted him, but because he was making huge strides in becoming a better qualifier, thus earning better starting spots. Nonetheless, he was able to accomplish both! For the second straight season, no driver passed more cars throughout the USAC national season than this man right here, advancing a total of 209 positions in 72 feature starts. He’s back here again to take Buck’s money. For the second year in a row, your USAC ProSource Passing Master is Daison Pursley.
The Jason Leffler award goes to recognize an individual who exhibits the same standards upheld by the late Jason Leffler throughout his career, one who has a true appreciation, dedicational and passion for competing with USAC.
For as long as we can remember, the “Bateman” name has been a stalwart of the USAC Silver Crown series. For more than 40 years, the Batemans fielded an entry with the series whether it was dirt or pavement, a half-mile or one mile, the No. 55 was always there to support the series through thick and thin, truly for the pure love of the sport. When driver Randy Bateman passed away from ALS in 2017, instead of folding the team, this strong woman carried on, racing in memory of her late husband and accruing much success, most recently with Jerry Coons Jr. before announcing the team’s retirement following the end of this past season.
Continuing the trend of Ohio’s finest, this racer is USAC Silver Crown racing’s first top Rookie to hail from the Buckeye State since Matt Westfall in 2002. Despite missing a pair of events and suffering fractures to his vertebra in a crash early in the season, he still finished an impressive sixth in the standings, highlighted by a fourth on the pavement of Madison and a third on the dirt in Hutchinson.
Whether it’s on two wheels or four, he’s apt to give it a whirl! For more than a decade, this driver’s racing exploits consisted of the dirt bike variety, specializing in Hare Scramble off-road events which vary in distance and time, and wind through wooded or other rugged natural terrain. In recent years, he turned his focus toward sprint car racing, and in 2024, he made 25 feature starts, finishing 18th in the overall standings, tops among all Rookies aboard his self-owned car. From Bedford, Indiana, your Max Papis Innovations USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car Rookie of the Year is Hunter Maddox.
It’s been 20 years since a Buckeye earned top Rookie honors with the USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship. This driver is proud to wear that badge in 2024, following Teddy and Todd Beach as the latest Ohioan to earn the award. He checked off a pair of fast qualifying times at Lawrenceburg and Mitchell County while also gaining his initial feature victory with the series at Angell Park. Last year, he stood on the stage as USAC’s Midwest Thunder SpeeD2 Midget champ, and he’s back again as the Max Papis Innovations Bob Stroud USAC National Midget Rookie of the Year. From Belpre, Ohio, this is Zach Wigal.
In recent years, he introduced himself to the USAC scene as a back-to-back USAC East Coast Sprint Car champion in 2022 and 2023. He competed more regularly on the USAC national scene in 2024 and was phenomenal, winning his first three career USAC National Sprint Car features at Grandview, Bloomington and Lawrenceburg while becoming the first Keystone State native to win a series event in a quarter century.
Jerry Gappens served in several facets of the sport, as a sprint car driver, then as an Advertising Specialist and Operations Manager at National Speed Sport News and even an ABC pit reporter at the Indianapolis 500, before heading south as Senior VP of Events and Marketing at Charlotte Motor Speedway, then to the northeast as the General Manager of New Hampshire International Speedway.
In recent years, he became re-integrated with his dirt track racing roots as the General Manager of Gas City I-69 Speedway, and most recently, as the GM at Eldora Speedway since 2022.
Though he is no longer with us, his legacy in the sport lives on. Our 2024 USAC Race Organizer of the Year is the one and only Jerry Gappens.
Racing and racing people have forever been an integral part of Jack Calabrase’s life. As a longtime driver in the USAC National Midget ranks between 1967-1994, he experienced the joy of winning a pair of feature events with the series in 1988, including the prestigious Night Before the 500 at Indianapolis Raceway Park.
Later on, he was the head honcho of both NAMARS and the Auto Value Super Sprints. He’s put his heart and soul into the sport and has given back so much to it too.
In recent years, he’s been the most steady and consistent contributor to USAC RaceAid events, which aids members of the racing community who are injured and/or in need of financial assistance. He understands the importance of family, and we’re incredibly grateful for his benefaction to the sport.
Tommy Hunt is a racing lifer. His father, Joe Hunt, was a magneto magnate and a longtime champ car team owner, employing many of the greatest drivers of their era. Tommy was there in those days, serving on the crew for his dad’s team. In time, Hunt became a driver himself, most notably scoring three CRA Sprint Car wins, plus 1974 Most Improved Driver honors. Those experiences prepared him for his role of 28 years at USAC in which he served as Vice President and the head of the series’ west coast operations.
Fittingly, Hunt was among Dick Jordan’s closest friends, and both were in complete synchronization when it came to serving the sport with integrity, professionalism and doing things the right way. Furthermore, it was also announced that Hunt will be among the newest class of inductees into the USAC Hall of Fame in 2025.
Off track, he’s a high school Engineering & Technology instructor. On track, he has a resume of success in TQ Midgets, full-size midgets, thunder roadsters, sprints and modifieds throughout his 3-decade career. Among the contingency awards introduced to the USAC Silver Crown series over the past two seasons is one which rewards the driver who is first in the running order a lap down. This man grabbed 5 of those throughout the year, getting himself back on to the lead lap while earning a $5,000 prize – $2,500 to himself as the driver and $2,500 to his Williams-Cory Racing team. He’s your Engler Machine & Tool Fast Pass award winner. He’s Gregg Cory.
The Dirt Draft Most Popular Driver award winners this year were chosen based on who was selected most often by Dirt Draft contest participants in each USAC national division throughout the season. Drivers who were picked most often earned a bit of bonus money. Those winners are Kyle Steffens for the Silver Crown series, Matt Westfall for the Sprint Cars and Kale Drake in the Midgets.
USAC’s regional sprint car and midget divisions span from coast-to-coast with a 12 different states hosting a total of 79 events in 2024. The theme this season witnessed a handful of drivers break through after several previous close calls in the championship race, while elsewhere, series dominators once again flexed their muscles.
His mantle is chockfull of USAC championship trophies, and between 2013-2017, he collected five-straight USAC Southwest Sprint Car crowns. But after 21 years of Avanti Windows & Doors USAC CRA Sprint Car racing, he finally broke through to the top on the strength of a duo of victories at Kern Raceway and Santa Maria. He’s the first Arizonian USAC CRA champion and is also the first former series Rookie of the Year to later claim the title. Overall, he’s now a six-time USAC driving titlist, but a first-time USAC CRA champ. Your driving champion is Laveen, Arizona’s R.J. Johnson, and the entrant champs are Ricky and Michele Johnson.
Six years ago, this racer became the first ever USAC East Coast Sprint Car champion. Since that time, he’s gone on to become the first two-time champ, the first three-time titlist, and now the first four-time king. In 2024, he prevailed once with a victory at New Jersey’s Bridgeport Motorsports Park, and throughout the course of the 12-race series, never once did he finish worse than fifth. Now, for the fourth time in his career, he stands tall as the 2024 USAC Rapid Tire East Coast Sprint Cars Presented By Capitol Custom Trailers champion. It’s Reading, Pennsylvania’s Steven Drevicki.
In 2020, 2022, 2023 and now 2024, this driver was the best of the bunch when it came to USAC Wholesale Batteries Midwest Wingless Racing Association competition in his native Kansas and neighboring Missouri. While his 2024 campaign resulted in only a single victory at Missouri’s Electric City Speedway, consistency was the key as he led all drivers with 10 top-fives, 11 top-tens and 5 heat race wins en route to the title. For those keeping score, that’s three-in-a-row for the plumber by trade, and he’s now a four-time USAC MWRA champ. From Topeka, Kansas, it’s Wyatt Burks.
One year ago, he felt a major letdown after coming just 41 points shy of the title. This year, he made the climb to the next step from second to first. His father was a longtime Major League Baseball starting pitcher, and this teenage sensation also knows how to make a “quality start,” winning at Ventura and at Placerville while leading the standings from start to finish. At 17 years of age, he’s the youngest ever Avanti Windows & Doors USAC Western States Midget champion. The entrant champ is Dean Alexander, and the driver champ is! From Bakersfield, California, he’s Cade Lewis.
After coming just three points shy of the title a year ago, all this driver needed was some good fortune. After getting an opportunity of a lifetime to race in the BC39 on the same weekend as the USAC Midwest Thunder Midgets’ final two races, he resigned himself to the fact that his championship quest was over. But Mother Nature intervened and washed out the final two shows! That said, he more than earned his keep on the track by scoring top-10s in all 12 starts and winning two points races. He’s the new USAC Midwest Thunder SpeeD2 Midget champ for 2024. From Troy, Ohio, it’s Bryce Massingill.
