GRAIN VALLEY, Mo. – Ace McCarthy inherited Sunday’s POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget League victory at Valley Speedway after apparent winner Logan Seavey came up light at the scales.
The victory gave McCarthy two-straight victories with the series and three overall for his career.
At the beginning of the feature, polesitter Emerson Axsom took the early lead over second place starter Trey Gropp as the field jockeyed for position behind them. With several yellows as the drivers worked various lines on the high-banked Valley Speedway, a blanket could be thrown over positions two through four as McCarthy, Zach Daum and Gropp all fought for the runner-up position.
Shortly before halfway, McCarthy slid past Axsom for the top position. In what was nearly an identical display from Saturday, McCarthy ran the bottom in one and two, but took to the top side in three and four. As McCarthy led, Buddy Kofoid moved past Axsom for the second and set his sights on McCarthy.
All Kofoid needed was a caution and he got it shortly thereafter when Kade Morton stalled in turn two. On the restart, Kofoid charged past McCarthy for the lead and looked to have the field covered. Meanwhile, Seavey had entered the top three from 17th and was knocking on the door for second. Just a few laps later Seavey moved past McCarthy for second.
As a caution bunched the field back up, Kofoid led the field back to action, only to clip the frontstretch wall one lap later as he approached the white flag, taking a tumble down the frontstretch, bringing out the open red. Inheriting the lead due to Kofoid’s misfortune, Seavey crossed the line ahead of McCarthy at the checkered flag.
However, Seavey didn’t make it past the scales as his midget was disqualified for being light. That gave McCarthy the victory, followed by Jake Neuman, Axsom, Daison Pursley and Andrew Felker.
“It’s awesome,” said McCarthy. “Two in a row, that’s a first for us to have to have two wins in the same year. I hate for it to come like that, for Logan not to weigh enough. That’s tough, but we’ll take it. We’re going to build off this and hopefully this is just a small glimpse into what we’re going to have the rest of the year.”
The finish:
Ace McCarthy, Jake Neuman, Emerson Axsom, Daison Pursley, Andrew Felker, Zach Daum, Emilio Hoover, Chance Morton, Sam Johnson, Tristian Thomas, Kade Morton, Kaylee Bryson, Kyle Jones, Brenham Crouch, Jesse Love, Cannon McIntosh, Buddy Kofoid, Noah Gass, Joe B. Miller, Trey Gropp, Hayden Reinbold, Ethan Mitchell, Shelby Bosie, Logan Seavey.