MECHANICSBURG, Pa. — Emerson Axsom triumphed for the second consecutive night in USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship action during the third event of the 16th edition of USAC Eastern Storm at Williams Grove Speedway.
After finding victory lane for the first time this season Thursday at Big Diamond Speedway, it took just 24 hours for the Franklin, Ind. native to score again in his Clauson Marshall Racing/Driven2SaveLives – ZMax Race Lubricants/Spike/Kistler Chevy.
“It’s pretty cool to win here,” Axsom exclaimed. “It’s a pretty historic place and it’s pretty gnarly. I’m just glad to get it done tonight.”
Starting outside the front row, in the early going, Axsom was chasing pole sitter and versatile veteran racer Timmy Buckwalter. Axsom took a peek to the inside of Buckwalter for the top spot twice on laps four and five, narrowly missing the lead by a car length each time at the start/finish line before slotting back into line and continuing his quest.
Axsom found himself surrounded by USAC East Coast Sprint Car talent nearing the midway point, running second with a slew of Pennsylvanians, with Buckwalter running first, Briggs Danner third and Alex Bright fourth as the trio looked to become the first Keystone State native to capture a USAC National Sprint Car feature victory since Frankie Kerr in 1999.
However, one key piece in the triumvirate, fourth-running Bright, soon found trouble in a spectacular incident that lit up the nighttime sky. Bright spun in turn two, doing a complete 360-degree spin with his front wheels pointed to the clouds as he stood on the throttle to save it.
However, just as Bright got pointed in the right direction, sixth place Robert Ballou nailed the tail tank of Bright’s, punching a sizable hole in it, which created a waterfall of methanol pouring from the rear of the car and igniting flames that enveloped the back end of the car. Knowing where the fire and rescue teams were located, Bright drove to turn one and stopped right in front of them, helping extinguish the flames as Bright jumped out and escaped.
The incident necessitated a red flag, and knocked a trio of contenders out of contention, ending Bright and Ballou’s evenings while stifling Brady Bacon’s race as he spun to a stop to avoid the initial catastrophe.
Sitting second following the lap-13 restart, Axsom made a commitment that would ultimately take him to the front.
“This place isn’t really my style,” Axsom admitted. “We were really good on the bottom, but tonight, we were a little bit free. When I was running the bottom, I felt myself hanging a little bit. I told myself I had to get up and bang the curb or use something to lean on; there wasn’t a whole lot. I watched Mitchel (Moles) run the top down in turns three and four, then pull it back down in one and two, so I figured it was going to be like that for a while. I just waited until someone showed me that in one and two when it smoothed out, because earlier, it was really rough. Once it cleaned off, and got a bit smoother, I was able to carry my momentum.”
Indeed, it worked out for Axsom. On lap 17, he rode the high line and eked out the move by squeezing between Buckwalter and the outside turn four guardrail to take over the race lead. In the ensuing laps, Axsom broke out to a 1.7-second lead and seemed well in command with only 10 circuits remaining in the 30-lapper.
Enter Daison Pursley. In his first Williams Grove appearance, 14th-starting Pursley had hustled his way to the front, swiping second with an outside maneuver in turn four on the 23rd lap to grab second. Pursley was hauling but had nearly two full seconds of ground to make up with the sands in the hourglass nearing emptiness.
However, Pursley gave it all it’s worth, cutting three tenths off on lap 25 and another six tenths off on lap 26 to get himself within a second. Another two tenths were shaved on lap 27, and by lap 28, Pursley was right on Axsom’s rear bumper and contesting for a win, and immediately getting Axsom’s full attention.
“Honestly, I was riding and looking a bit over my left shoulder,” Axsom explained. “I didn’t know if it was 25 laps or 30, but once I saw it was 30, I figured I better get back up on the wheel just in case somebody got a run. Luckily, I did because I saw Daison make an attempt into three there.”
On the final lap, four car lengths separated the two recent high school graduates of Axsom and Pursley as they hustled down the back straightaway. Axsom successfully staved off the pressure and smoothly contoured turns three and four to defeat Pursley by two car lengths and a margin of .238 seconds.
Buckwalter grabbed third, Justin Grant fourth and Thomas Meseraull fifth.
The Boxscore
USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship, Williams Grove Speedway, Mechanicsburg, Pa., June 16, 2023
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Thomas Meseraull, 20, Dyson-19.016 (New Track Record); 2. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-19.252; 3. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-19.281; 4. Alex Bright, 27, Heffner-19.284; 5. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-19.299; 6. Matt Mitchell, 37, Mitchell-19.305; 7. Emerson Axsom, 47BC, Clauson Marshall-19.316; 8. Chase Stockon, 5s, KO-19.385; 9. Timmy Buckwalter, 20T, Lotier/Hummer-19.397; 10. Daison Pursley, 5p, KO-19.412; 11. Kevin Thomas Jr., 2x, 2B Racing-19.420; 12. Logan Seavey, 2B, 2B Racing-19.443; 13. Carson Garrett, 15, BGE Dougherty-19.483; 14. Max Adams, 17GP, Dutcher-19.489; 15. Jake Swanson, 21AZ, Team AZ-19.558; 16. Kyle Cummins, 3R, Rock Steady-19.578; 17. Tom Harris, 84, Harris-19.584; 18. Charles Davis Jr., 47, Davis-19.656; 19. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-19.735; 20. Mario Clouser, 6, Clouser-19.736; 21. C.J. Leary, 15x, BGE Dougherty-19.754; 22. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-19.769; 23. Shane Cottle, 74x, Hodges-19.795; 24. Preston Lattomus, 23B, Lattomus-19.907; 25. Steven Drevicki, 19, DeGre-19.957; 26. Matt Westfall, 33m, Marshall-19.975; 27. Anton Hernandez, 5, Baldwin/Fox-20.053; 28. Kyle Moody, 5x, Baldwin/Fox-20.154; 29. Joey Amantea, 88J, Amantea-20.172; 30. Jason Cherry, 67c, Cherry-21.324; 31. Dave Axton, 2, Axton-NT.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. C.J. Leary, 2. Timmy Buckwalter, 3. Thomas Meseraull, 4. Briggs Danner, 5. Joey Amantea, 6. Steven Drevicki, 7. Carson Garrett, 8. Tom Harris. NT
ROD END SUPPLY SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Brady Bacon, 2. Charles Davis Jr., 3. Justin Grant, 4. Max Adams, 5. Matt Mitchell, 6. Matt Westfall, 7. Daison Pursley, 8. Jason Cherry. 2:39.14 (New Track Record)
T.J. FORGED THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Robert Ballou, 2. Jake Swanson, 3. Shane Cottle, 4. Emerson Axsom, 5. Mitchel Moles, 6. Kevin Thomas Jr., 7. Anton Hernandez. 2:41.70
CAR IQ FOURTH HEAT: (8 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Mario Clouser, 2. Alex Bright, 3. Kyle Cummins, 4. Logan Seavey, 5. Chase Stockon, 6. Preston Lattomus, 7. Kyle Moody. 2:43.13
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (12 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature) 1. Mitchel Moles, 2. Chase Stockon, 3. Daison Pursley, 4. Matt Mitchell, 5. Kevin Thomas Jr., 6. Joey Amantea, 7. Tom Harris, 8. Carson Garrett, 9. Steven Drevicki, 10. Preston Lattomus, 11. Matt Westfall, 12. Kyle Moody, 13. Jason Cherry. 4:14.26
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Emerson Axsom (2), 2. Daison Pursley (14), 3. Timmy Buckwalter (1), 4. Justin Grant (5), 5. Thomas Meseraull (6), 6. Briggs Danner (3), 7. Mitchel Moles (11), 8. C.J. Leary (9), 9. Jake Swanson (18), 10. Chase Stockon (13), 11. Matt Mitchell (12), 12. Mario Clouser (8), 13. Brady Bacon (10), 14. Joey Amantea (22),15. Max Adams (17), 16. Kyle Cummins (19), 17. Logan Seavey (16), 18. Matt Westfall (23-P), 19. Charles Davis Jr. (20), 20. Kevin Thomas Jr. (15), 21. Alex Bright (4), 22. Robert Ballou (7), 23. Shane Cottle (21). NT