BAKERSFIELD — Over the past 69 years of USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget racing, only 14 drivers have amassed 30 or more victories during their career.
Tanner Thorson is now one of those elite few following his wire-to-wire winning performance during Wednesday night’s eighth annual November Classic at California’s Bakersfield Speedway.
The 2016 USAC National Midget driving champion joins the 30+ win club, which only 13 previous drivers have achieved: Mel Kenyon (111), Rich Vogler (95), Bob Wente (78), Bob Tattersall (63), Sleepy Tripp (59), Jimmy Davies (48), Bryan Clauson (38), Tracy Hines (35), Gene Hartley (31), Chuck Rodee (31), Dave Darland (30), Mike McGreevy (30) and Johnny Parsons (30).
• Two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch made his USAC National Midget debut at Bakersfield. A promising night in which he qualified 18th out of 36 cars before leading the first two laps of his heat race came to an abrupt halt with a battery connection issue, forcing him to drop out.
Starting 10th in the semi-feature, Busch worked his way up to fifth, but fell one spot short of the final transfer spot.
• It was no more 10s for Ryan Timms on his California swing during the month of November. In his first three outings of the trip over the past week, Timms had finished 10th at Thunderbowl Raceway followed by a pair of 10th place performances at Merced Speedway.
On this night at Bakersfield, he finished a solid second in his Keith Kunz-Curb-Agajanian Motorsports/JBL Audio – TRD – Toyota – Mobil 1/LynK/Speedway Toyota, his best performance to date with the USAC National Midgets at Bakersfield.
• Cannon McIntosh scored a third-place result in his Keith Kunz-Curb-Agajanian Motorsports/GearWrench – Mobil 1 – TRD/LynK/Speedway Toyota for his ninth podium finish in his last 11 starts. His latest top-three run at Bakersfield shaved off 24 more points from 12th place finisher Daison Pursley’s USAC National Midget point lead. McIntosh now heads to California’s Ventura Raceway on Saturday just 30 points behind Pursley in the race for the title.
• Jacob Denney has put together a solid California swing with top-seven finishes in all four of his starts. Despite starting 14th at Bakersfield, the Buckeye advanced his way up to a seventh place finish to earn hard charger honors for the night.
• It’s been a rough and tumble Cali swing for Zach Daum. After placing 12th, 12th and 16th this past week, he got back into the groove at Bakersfield with a late pass to win his heat race, then went on to grab fifth in the main event.
• Carson Macedo had set fast time during Honest Abe Roofing Qualifying for the for third time in his USAC National Midget career, and for the first time since 2021.
• Kyle Larson dropped out during the lap-13 red flag while running 17th. He was scored 23rd.
