Boat, the 2008 series Rookie of the Year, has found success in his first full year of USAC National Midget competition since the 2010 season, joining Shane Golobic (DuQuoin) and Spencer Bayston (Gas City) to become the third different first-time winner in the series in 2016 in his Tucker-Boat Motorsports/PristineAuction.com – K & C Drywall/Spike/Speedway Toyota.
“I knew my car was going to come to me on the bottom on that last restart, so I wasn’t super nervous,” Boat admitted. “I was committed to the top, but Tyler Thomas showed me the bottom in (turns) one and two and I just went down there to make them beat me on the top. What a great car we had, though! Those laps in the middle of the race, when everybody else was on the bottom and we were up top, this thing was hauling! It was dicey getting through the lapped traffic, but it’s exciting to get my first National win. It feels like a monkey off our back and I think we’re going to start rolling from here. We have some momentum now and I’m excited to get the rest of the week going.”
Thomas hadn’t made an appearance in a USAC Midget National Championship event since the Indiana Midget Week finale at Kokomo Speedway nearly two months ago, but the Collinsville, Oklahoma native made his return to the series a successful one, equaling his career-best USAC finish of second in his Tyler Thomas Motorsports/BT Machine – AirGroup/Spike/Esslinger.
“I drove as hard as I could drive,” Thomas said. “Chad (Boat) drove a great race and didn’t make any mistakes. I didn’t feel like I did either; it’s tough to run second again. We took a two-month break from midget racing to get our program right and it paid off. My dad worked his tail off these last two months to make sure these engines were running right. I just really want to win. It seems like I’ve had a lot of seconds, but we’ll get our win. You have to lose some before you win them, though. Our confidence right now is not even in the same ballpark. We feel really good about what we have. (Solomon Valley Raceway in) Beloit (Kansas) is a good track for us, so we’re excited for tomorrow.”
Fellow Oklahoma native Brady Bacon earned his fourth consecutive top-five series finish with his third place run Tuesday night.
Although he’s yet to pick up a feature win this season, Bacon’s consistency has put him just 15 points out of the point lead behind Bayston and Clauson in the latest standings for the USAC National Midget Championship on the strength of six top-five finishes in nine series starts in his FMR Racing/Beast/Toyota.
“We got into lapped traffic and that was tough tonight,” Bacon said. “We had a car good enough to win, (we) just needed the cards to fall a little differently. Chad (Boat) and Tyler (Thomas) got through the traffic better at the beginning, but we were up beside them when that first yellow came out, so we were good enough to run with them. It’s great to come to a place, though, where the fans are really into the event and everybody who was a part of it did a fantastic job.”
RESULTS: USAC National Midget Championship; Tuesday Night Thunder; Jefferson County Speedway; Aug. 2, 2016
A-Main (35 laps): 1. Chad Boat, 2. Tyler Thomas, 3. Brady Bacon, 4. Bryan Clauson, 5. Spencer Bayston, 6. Carson Macedo, 7. Tucker Klaasmeyer, 8. Holly Shelton, 9. Ryan Robinson, 10. Tanner Thorson, 11. Brayton Lynch, 12. Chett Gehrke, 13. Keith Rauch, 14. Lance Bennett, 15. Bob Harr, 16. John Klabunde, 17. Dustin Weland, 18. Terry Goodwin, 19. Ryan Greth, 20. Dave Darland, 21. Anton Hernandez, 22. Jeff Stasa.
CREDIT: USAC Media
