News Director 
Column By: NICHOLAS FILLMAN / RPW – NEWMANSTOWN, PA – For the third consecutive night in a row, the stars and cars of the USAC National Midget tour made a stop during their annual Pennsylvania Midget Week.
With the first two shows at Susquehanna and Path Valley being absolute barn-burners, and last years feature event at the Clyde Martin Memorial / Lanco Speedway being a race of a life time, excitement was high as fans and drivers made their way into the tight, banked bullring complex.
A stout field of 22 midgets entered the pit area, vying for the opportunity to grace victory lane under the USAC banner. The track featured an extremely heavy surface that allowed for very exciting heat races which were won by Justin Grant, Tim Buckwalter and Alex Bright.
When feature time would roll around, cooling air temperatures coupled with heavy overnight rains would leave an extremely heavy, and sticky track with most drivers fighting for the bottom of the speedway.
The opening lap would see a scary crash for USAC sprint car points leader Justin Grant, as he hopped the wheel of Clauson-Marshall teammate Tyler Courtney sending the car into a violent series of flips.
The ensuing restart would see last year’s feature winner Tanner Thorson move to the front row alongside Courtney.
After a few early cautions, Thorson would establish himself as the car to beat, dominating the feature event and cutting through lapped traffic like a hot knife to butter. Thorson cruised to the victory for his second career win at the track and his first on the 2017 USAC national tour.
The 2016 USAC National Midget Champion had only collected a trio of victories in POWRI midget competition and had been all over the front of the fields in both the features at Susquehanna and Path Valley.
Second place would belong to Broken Arrow, OK driver Brady Bacon, who has had a rough PA Midget swing so far. Bacon lead the majority of the feature Sunday at Susquehanna before suffering a mechanical failure which ended his shot at the win.
On Monday at Path Valley, Bacon was running up front before having an issue and going to the rear of the field. He finished sixth in his heat race, but would start the feature at the front due to being second quick in time trials.
Bacon would challenge Thorson on restarts and a handful of times in the feature but was unable to grab the victory.
“Sunshine” Tyler Courtney would round out the podium in third after starting on the front row of the feature event. Courtney is coming off of a strong second place effort on Monday at Path Valley, and after setting quick time, winning his heat and finishing in the top ten on Sunday at Susquehanna.
Courtney, who is one of three drivers for the Clauson-Marshall Racing stable, has been strong this year on both the National Midget and Sprint Car tours, challenging for wins and being in the top ten in both points standings.
Fourth place belonged too current USAC National Midget point leader Spencer Bayston. Bayston, who was involved in a tremendous three-car battle for the win Sunday at Susquehanna would suffer a severe flip on Monday at Path Valley. That forced him to run a back-up car Tuesday at Lanco.
Bayston would be among a number of drivers who had set “quick time” at one point during time trials and finished third in his heat race. Most recently, the young driver is coming off of a successful trip to the Knoxville Nationals where he drove for owner Kevin Swindell and ultimately made it to the B-Main during Saturday night’s finals.
Tuesday was an important day for California driver Shane Golobic as he was trying to collect a victory on his birthday. Golobic, who is the third driver for the Clauson-Marshall Racing team, has been consistent during the 2017 USAC National midget tour, regularly finishing in the top ten. Ultimately, Golobic would have to settle for the fifth place position in Tuesday’s feature event…yet another solid run for the Fremont, CA driver.
Monday’s winner, Chad Boat, was able to garner a solid sixth place finish and was one of the only drivers to utilize the higher side of the speedway. Boat is fresh off of yet another victory during the Belleville Midget Nationals, which he swept in 2016, and won the preliminary night this year. So far, with one race remaining, Boat has a pair of 6th place finishes and a victory during the Pennsylvania midget swing.
The hard charger of the night went to Ohio driver Landon Simon. Simon this week is piloting the Clover Motorsports, Mt. Baker Vapors car that is owned and usually driven by Pennsylvania driver Ryan Wilson.
Simon has had some issues on Sunday at Susquehanna resulting in a 20th place finish to go along with a pair of 10ths at Path Valley and Lanco. He started the feature event off in the 17th position and would work his way up into the top 10 by the conclusion of the feature.
With the exception of the past two USAC National events, the only driver to have won a midget feature at Lanco was Alex Bright. Bright was in the top five in time trials and would storm to a convincing heat race win. Unfortunately he had a mechanical issue that ended his night early, resulting in a 18th place finish.
Current ARDC points leader Ryan Greth was able to collect a third place finish on Monday at Path Valley leading up to the event at Lanco. Greth was leading his heat race when the right rear would dig into the track sending the car into a violent snap roll. Luckily for him, the Wayne Lesher team would be able to fix the Hyper chassis, SR-11 entry for the feature and Greth would collect a 12th place finish.
Pennsylvania driver Tony DiMattia has run with ARDC for a number of years before he started attending school in Indiana. DiMattia is a regular in Indiana driving for other teams as well as his own in the sprint car and midget ranks.
DiMattia returned home for the Tuesday show at Lanco, finishing his Spike Chassis, Esslinger powered entry in the early morning hours on Tuesday and was rewarded with a solid 9th place finish.
The midget teams had Wednesday off and will roar back into action Thursday for the final night of their Eastern swing with their first ever appearance at the Linda’s Speedway.
Feature Finish: 67 Tanner Thorson, 76 Brady Bacon, 7bc Tyler Courtney, 97 Spencer Bayston, 17w Shane Golobic, 84 Chad Boat, 29s Tim Buckwalter, 71k Tanner Carrick, 50 Tony DiMattia, 29 Landon Simon, 23m Kenny Miller III, 4r Ryan Greth, 77L Andrew Layser, 11 Eric Heydenreich, 67k Holly Shelton, 76e Adam Pierson, 1k Brayton Lynch, 77 Alex Bright, 21k Tommy Kunsman, 7J Shawn Jackson, 46 Kenney Johnson, 39bc Justin Grant.
