Lonnie Wheatley, TULSA, Okla. (April 23, 2022) – Kofoid the Conqueror!
Michael “Buddy” Kofoid flexed his Penngrove, Cal., muscle once again in the Sooner State by taking the $7,001 winner’s share in Saturday night’s Third Annual USAC National Midget “T-Town Showdown” 50-lap finale.
It marked Kofoid’s fourth win in Oklahoma this season to go along with a Chili Bowl prelim score in January as well as a pair of POWRi Turnpike Challenge triumphs last month.
Kofoid muscled his way past Mitchel Moles for the point on the 23rd round and never looked back en route to victory lane aboard the Keith Kunz Motorsports Mobil 1 No. 67 Midget with his winnings boosted to $8,881 including lap money that was donated to the overall purse.
“I was probably playing it a little too safe early on, so I figured I might as well get it cowboy up,” Kofoid explained in victory lane. “I just basically drove it like a winged car, just nice and straight. This just kinda came into my wheelhouse.”
While Kofoid gridded the field outside the second row, Raisin City, California’s Moles pounced on the lead from the pole and set the early pace.
As the laps clicked off, Kaylee Bryson put several sliders on Moles in her charge for the lead until spinning to a stop on the backstretch with 19 laps in the books.
With Moles now directly in his sights, Kofoid turned up the heat and raced by on the low side exiting turn two on the 23rd lap.
After one final red flag flew when Ethan Mitchell got upside down in turn two with Brenham Crouch and Bryson collected as well, Kofoid set sail and cruised to the checkered flag.
In his wake, Moles tried to mount some charges but to no avail and settled for a career-best USAC National Midget finish of second aboard the CBI Pristine Auction No. 89 machine. “I’m a little bummed out, but it’s good for our guys to run second,” Moles expleaind. “I just got beat by Buddy, just his experience through the holes and stuff he was a little smarter.”
Behind the lead duo, Friday night winner Justin Grant raced from tenth to claim the show position in the RMS No. 2J. “We came home third and can’t be disappointed with that, it was a tricky racetrack and a lot of fun.”
Thomas Meseraull crossed the stripe fourth with Chase McDermand rounding out the top five. Bryant Wiedeman was sixth ahead of Kyle Jones and Cannon McIntosh as Bryson rallied back to finish ninth with Maria Cofer completing the top ten.
Grant set the night’s quickest time in qualifying with a lap of 10.039 seconds with Kaidon Brown, Cofer, Kofoid and Zach Daum scoring heat race wins before Grant earned his way into the “A” Main with a “B” Main triumph.
USAC National Midgets
Port City Raceway – Tulsa, OK
Saturday, April 23, 2022 – Third Annual “T-Town Showdown” Finale
USAC National Midgets:
FATHEADZ EYEWEAR QUALIFYING: 1. Justin Grant, 2J, RMS-10.039; 2. Cannon McIntosh, 08, Dave Mac Dalby-10.084; 3. Thomas Meseraull, 7x, RMS-10.124; 4. Ethan Mitchell, 19m, Bundy Built-10.143; 5. Logan Seavey, 25, Malloy-10.193; 6. Bryant Wiedeman, 01, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-10.206; 7. Buddy Kofoid, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-10.210; 8. Chase McDermand, 40, Mounce/Stout-10.221; 9. Kaylee Bryson, 71, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-10.233; 10. Chance Crum, 26, Rudeen-10.256; 11. Ryan Timms, 89x, CBI-10.267; 12. Hayden Reinbold, 19T, Reinbold/Underwood-10.285; 13. Mitchel Moles, 89, CBI-10.296; 14. Kyle Jones, 7u, Trifecta-10.317; 15. Kevin Bayer, 91K, Bayer-10.326; 16. Zach Daum, 9m, Bundy Built-10.332; 17. Kaidon Brown, 97K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-10.350; 18. Maria Cofer, 57, Abacus-10.352; 19. Brenham Crouch, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-10.374; 20. Taylor Reimer, 25K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-10.388; 21. Jonathan Beason, 8K, Hard Eight-10.396; 22. Mariah Ede, 71E, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-10.401; 23. Austin Shores, 00, Chandler-10.413; 24. Jace Park, 87, CBI-10.417; 25. Trey Marcham, 32, Marcham-10.433; 26. Tanner Berryhill, 17, Shophouse-10.453; 27. Alex Sewell, 15, Mounce/Stout-10.457; 28. Dominic Gorden, 83, CBI-10.467; 29. Gavin Miller, 71m, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-10.511; 30. Andrew Deal, 15D, Deal-10.528; 31. Andrew Felker, 11A, Felker-10.538; 32. Trey Gropp, 17B, Dave Mac-10.592; 33. Kevin Reed, 36, Reed-10.688; 34. Glenn Bratti, 24T, Bratti-10.883.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Kaidon Brown, 2. Jonathan Beason, 3. Kaylee Bryson, 4. Mitchel Moles, 5. Justin Grant, 6. Logan Seavey, 7. Gavin Miller, 8. Trey Marcham, 9. Kevin Reed. 1:45.08
COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Maria Cofer, 2. Kyle Jones, 3. Tanner Berryhill, 4. Bryant Wiedeman, 5. Cannon McIntosh, 6. Chance Crum, 7. Mariah Ede, 8. Andrew Deal, 9. Glenn Bratti. 1:45.36
PIT STOP USA THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Buddy Kofoid, 2. Thomas Meseraull, 3. Andrew Felker, 4. Kevin Bayer, 5. Alex Sewell, 6. Austin Shores, 7. Brenham Crouch, 8. Ryan Timms. NT
ROD END SUPPLY FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Zach Daum, 2. Jace Park, 3. Chase McDermand, 4. Dominic Gorden, 5. Ethan Mitchell, 6. Hayden Reinbold, 7. Trey Gropp, 8. Taylor Reimer. NT
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (12 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature) 1. Justin Grant, 2. Cannon McIntosh, 3. Logan Seavey, 4. Ethan Mitchell, 5. Alex Sewell, 6. Brenham Crouch, 7. Trey Marcham, 8. Ryan Timms, 9. Andrew Deal, 10. Hayden Reinbold, 11. Gavin Miller, 12. Mariah Ede, 13. Taylor Reimer, 14. Chance Crum, 15. Trey Gropp, 16. Kevin Reed, 17. Austin Shores, 18. Glenn Bratti. NT
FEATURE: (50 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Buddy Kofoid (4), 2. Mitchel Moles (1), 3. Justin Grant (10), 4. Thomas Meseraull (6), 5. Chase McDermand (3), 6. Bryant Wiedeman (5), 7. Kyle Jones (14), 8. Cannon McIntosh (11), 9. Kaylee Bryson (2), 10. Maria Cofer (9), 11. Zach Daum (7), 12. Jace Park (17), 13. Logan Seavey (13), 14. Andrew Felker (21), 15. Trey Marcham (22-FA), 16. Alex Sewell (19), 17. Dominic Gorden (20), 18. Tanner Berryhill (18), 19. Kaidon Brown (8), 20. Taylor Reimer (24-P), 21. Hayden Reinbold (23-P), 22. Ethan Mitchell (12), 23. Brenham Crouch (15), 24. Jonathan Beason (16). NT
(P) represents a provisional starter. (FA) represents a first alternate.
**Taylor Reimer flipped during the fourth heat. Ethan Mitchell & Brenham Crouch flipped on lap 33 of the feature.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-22 Mitchel Moles, Laps 23-50 Buddy Kofoid.