WILLIAMSTON, S.C. — 14-year-old Colorado young gun George Kurtz is, quite simply, on a roll in the USAC Speed2 Eastern Midget Series.
After scoring his first-career win one week ago at Hickory Motor Speedway, Kurtz backed up his recent surge with his second-straight wire-to-wire victory, leading all 35 laps of Friday night’s event at Anderson Motor Speedway.
Kurtz qualified fifth but started from the outside pole after the redraw, charging to the lead off turn two on the opening lap and never looking back from there.
He beat teammate Jessica Bean to the twin checkers by 3.391 seconds.
“This is awesome, to win again like this!” Kurtz said in victory lane. “I didn’t think we had the car today. We started off the day real, real tight and just made some real good adjustments. Two wins in a row … it’s just amazing. It’s a dream come true.”
Kurtz now leads the series point standings by 10 markers over Bean heading into Saturday night’s event at Hickory.
“It’s a lot of fun to come out from Colorado and race against competition like what there is here with the Eastern Midgets. We could stay out there and run the Western series, but we like doing this deal … and it’s certainly paying off so far. I couldn’t ask for any more.”
Bean, who struggled in qualifying and had to come through the field from sixth, was inside the top five by the end of the opening lap and found herself locked in a back-and-forth battle with teammate-for-the-night Anthony McCune for much of the feature.
She finally made the pass for second with 12 laps to go, diving hard into turn one to complete the move, but by then Kurtz was long out of reach in front.
“We had a really good car tonight, but just didn’t get the result to show for it,” Bean said. “Starting deep in the pack is tough because the competition in this series is so close. By the time I finally got to second, there was just too much ground to make up. I wish we could have qualified better … that’s really what kept us out of victory lane tonight.”
McCune, the 2015 Must See Racing Sprint Car Series Rookie of the Year, completed the podium in third after jumping in to substitute for series regular Sam Hatfield, who missed Friday night’s event due to a death in the family.
Friday was the first-ever series appearance for McCune, who also set fast time in qualifying with a lap of 15.593 seconds around the three-eighths-mile oval.
Jagger Parker and Nolan Allison completed the top five.
RESULTS: USAC Speed2 Eastern Midget Ass’n; Anderson Motor Speedway; April 21, 2017
Feature (35 laps): 1. George Kurtz [2], 2. Jessica Bean [6], 3. Anthony McCune [4], 4. Jagger Parker [1], 5. Nolan Allison [3], 6. Eric Lewis [5], 7. Jake Trainor [7], 8. Jake Garcia [8], 9. Mike Ward [10], 10. Neal Allison [9].
Time Trials: 1. Anthony McCune, 8, Radical-15.593; 2. Nolan Allison, 16, Allison-15.596; 3. Jagger Parker, 20, Parker-15.653; 4. Eric Lewis, 28, Radical-15.658; 5. George Kurtz, 4, Kurtz-15.668; 6. Jessica Bean, 5, Radical-15.669; 7. Jake Trainor, 8T, Trainor-15.713; 8. Jake Garcia, 35, Garcia-15.888; 9. Neal Allison, 15, Allison-16.052; 10. Mike Ward, 80, Ward-16.513.
About the Writer
Jacob Seelman is the Managing Editor of Race Chaser Online and creator of the Motorsports Madness radio show, airing at 7 p.m. Eastern every Monday on the Performance Motorsports Network.
Seelman grew up in the sport, watching his grandparents co-own the RaDiUs Motorsports NASCAR Cup Series team in the 1990s.
The 22-year-old is currently studying Broadcast Journalism at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C., and is also serving as the full-time tour announcer for the Must See Racing Sprint Car Series.
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