WISE MAN HUNTS DOWN USAC EASTERN FOCUS MIDGET TITLE IN 2022
By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Speedway, Indiana (December 22, 2022)………Hunter Wise has been highly familiar with USAC success in his young career, and in 2022, he added one more trophy to his ever-growing collection.
However, this wasn’t the 17-year-old’s first rodeo in terms of USAC driving championships. He also previously captured a staggering eight USAC .25 Midget titles between 2016 and 2019.
This year, the Allentown, Pa. racer collected a convincing USAC Eastern Focus Midget championship on the basis of three feature victories at Virginia’s South Boston Speedway and Dominion Raceway as well as at North Carolina’s Tri-County Speedway.
Impressively, he achieved his winning ways behind the wheel of two different cars for two different teams, garnering his Virginia victories for Radical Racing and his Tar Heel State score in the seat of his family’s Wise Racing machine.
Wise’s championship run also came following previous close calls over the past two seasons where he finished as the runner-up in the Eastern tally for 2020 and fourth in 2021.
Brady Allum (Gold Hill, N.C.) and Logan Sulyi (Raleigh, N.C.) both put together career years with the series. Allum elevated from seventh in the standings in 2020 to third in 2021 to the second slot in 2022. Meanwhile, in his first full season with the series, Sulyi cracked the podium with a third place finish in the points.
Allum and Sulyi were also among the three first-time series winners in 2022, all of whom experienced their breakthrough moment during the month of July. Allum reigned victorious at Anderson (Ind.) Speedway while Sulyi took care of business at Tennessee’s Veterans Motorplex.
The third first-time winner of the year was veteran racer Dakoda Armstrong (New Castle, Ind.), a frequent competitor in NASCAR’s Xfinity and Camping World Truck Series as well as a 2004 USAC Kenyon Midget titlist. Armstrong dropped in at Anderson over the summer to score the victory.
For Armstrong, it was his first USAC-sanctioned feature win in 14 years, with the last one also occurring at Anderson in 2008 when he bested the field to win a 400-lap midget main event.
Also erasing a lengthy, but not quite as long, dry spell with the series was Neal Allison (Greensboro, N.C.) who picked up his first USAC Eastern Midget win since 2019 in April at Virginia’s South Boston Speedway.
Chris Lamb (Colfax, N.C.) continued to climb up the all-time USAC win chart, adding two points-race wins and two special event scores to his resume this season. Lamb increased his series win total to 64 with points race triumphs at South Carolina’s Dillon Motor Speedway and at West Virginia’s Ona Speedway, plus non-points events versus the USAC Radical Focus Midget series to close out the season in November at Arizona’s Havasu 95 Speedway.
Also placing themselves into the win column were a pair of drivers in non-points special events. NEMA Lites standout P.J. Stergios (Candia, N.H.) won a rare one-off winged event for the series at Massachusetts’ Seekonk Speedway as part of the Boston Louie Seymour Memorial.
Kyle Tellstrom (Boise, Idaho), the newly crowned USAC Radical Focus Midget champ for 2022, took two-in-a-row on his home turf during back-to-back nights of the Chaz Groat Memorial at Idaho’s Meridian Speedway in September.
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2022 USAC EASTERN FOCUS MIDGET STAT LEADERS:
Driver Champion: Hunter Wise
Most Feature Wins: 3-Hunter Wise
Laps Led: 59-Brady Allum
Top-Fives: 8-Hunter Wise
Top-Tens: 9-Brady Allum & Hunter Wise
Fast Qualifying Times: 4-Brady Allum
Feature Starts: 9-Brady Allum & Hunter Wise
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2022 USAC EASTERN FOCUS MIDGET DRIVER POINT STANDINGS:
POS. PTS. DRIVER, HOMETOWN
1. 624 Hunter Wise, Allentown, Pa.
2. 571 Brady Allum, Gold Hill, N.C.
3. 505 Logan Sulyi, Raleigh, N.C.
4. 452 Dillon Thomas, Clover, S.C.
5. 436 Chris Lamb, Colfax, N.C.
6. 218 Chad Allum, Gold Hill, N.C.
7. 209 Caleb Edington, Thomasville, N.C.
8. 169 Nathan Byrd, Goodyear, Ariz.
9. 117 Kyle Tellstrom, Boise, Idaho
10. 104 River Merrill, Salt Lake City, Utah
11. 92 Mike Ward, Gastonia, N.C.
12. 91 Cheyenne Merrill, Salt Lake City, Utah
13. 49 Casey Tillman, Boise, Idaho
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2022 USAC EASTERN FOCUS MIDGET FEATURE WINNERS:
Apr 9: Dillon Motor Speedway - Dillon, SC
WINNER: Chris Lamb (Radical Racing #9)
Apr 29: South Boston Speedway - South Boston, VA
WINNER: Neal Allison (Parker Brothers Racing #10)
Apr 30: South Boston Speedway - South Boston, VA
WINNER: Hunter Wise (Radical Racing #1)
May 21: Ona Speedway - Ona, WV
WINNER: Chris Lamb (Radical Racing #9)
Jun 11: Dominion Raceway - Spotsylvania, VA
WINNER: Hunter Wise (Radical Racing #1)
Jul 9: Veterans Motorplex - Greenbrier, TN
WINNER: Logan Sulyi (Mike Sulyi #19)
Jul 29: (R) Anderson Speedway - Anderson, IN
WINNER: Dakoda Armstrong (Radical Racing #5)
Jul 30: (R) Anderson Speedway - Anderson, IN
WINNER: Brady Allum (Chad Allum #87A)
Aug 24: (SE) Seekonk Speedway - Seekonk, MA
WINNER: P.J. Stergios (Matt Seymour #4)
Sep 23: (SE-R) Meridian Speedway - Meridian, ID
WINNER: Kyle Tellstrom (Mike Creevan #89)
Sep 24: (SE-R) Meridian Speedway - Meridian, ID
WINNER: Kyle Tellstrom (Mike Creevan #89)
Oct 15: Tri-County Speedway - Hudson, NC
WINNER: Hunter Wise (Wise Racing #47)
Nov 11: (SE-R) Havasu 95 Speedway - Lake Havasu, AZ Chris Lamb
WINNER: Chris Lamb (Radical Racing #5)
Nov 12: (SE-R) Havasu 95 Speedway - Lake Havasu, AZ Chris Lamb
WINNER: Chris Lamb (Radical Racing #5)
**(SE) represents a non-points special event
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2022 USAC EASTERN FOCUS MIDGET FEATURE WINS:
3-Hunter Wise (Apr 30 at South Boston Speedway, Jun 11 at Dominion Raceway & Oct 15 at Tri-County Speedway)
2-Chris Lamb (Apr 9 at Dillon Motor Speedway & May 21 at Ona Speedway)
1-Neal Allison (Apr 29 at South Boston Speedway)
1-Brady Allum (Jul 30 at Anderson Speedway)
1-Dakoda Armstrong (Jul 29 at Anderson Speedway)
1-Logan Sulyi (Jul 9 at Veterans Motorplex)
NON-POINTS SPECIAL EVENT FEATURE WINS:
2-Chris Lamb (Nov 11 at Havasu 95 Speedway & Nov 12 at Havasu 95 Speedway)
2-Kyle Tellstrom (Sep 23 at Meridian Speedway & Sep 24 at Meridian Speedway)
1-P.J. Stergios (Aug 24 at Seekonk Speedway)
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2022 USAC EASTERN FOCUS MIDGET FEATURE LAPS LED:
59-Brady Allum
48-Dakoda Armstrong
46-Hunter Wise
44-Chris Lamb
40-Logan Sulyi
30-Eric Lewis
29-Neal Allison
27-Avery Stoehr
2-Chad Allum
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2022 USAC EASTERN FOCUS MIDGET TOP-5 FEATURE FINISHES:
8-Hunter Wise
7-Brady Allum
6-Logan Sulyi
4-Chris Lamb & Dillon Thomas
2-Toby Alfrey, Neal Allison, Chad Allum & Avery Stoehr
1-Dakoda Armstrong, J.T. Bierman, Nathan Byrd, Caleb Edington, Eric Lewis, A.J. Sanders, Bradley Swift & Kyle Tellstrom
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2022 USAC EASTERN FOCUS MIDGET TOP-10 FEATURE FINISHES:
9-Brady Allum & Hunter Wise
7-Chris Lamb, Logan Sulyi & Dillon Thomas
4-Caleb Edington
3-Chad Allum, Nathan Byrd, Eric Lewis & Avery Stoehr
2-Toby Alfrey, Neal Allison, Dakoda Armstrong, River Merrill, Kyle Tellstrom & Mike Ward
1-J.T. Bierman, Joe Liguori, Cheyenne Merrill, A.J. Sanders, Bradley Swift & Casey Tillman
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2022 USAC EASTERN FOCUS MIDGET FAST QUALIFYING TIMES:
4-Brady Allum
2-Logan Sulyi
1-Neal Allison & Casey Tillman
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2022 USAC EASTERN FOCUS MIDGET FEATURE STARTS:
9-Brady Allum & Hunter Wise
8-Logan Sulyi & Dillon Thomas
7-Chris Lamb
4-Chad Allum, Caleb Edington & Avery Stoehr
3-Nathan Byrd & Eric Lewis
2-Toby Alfrey, Neal Allison, Dakoda Armstrong, Cheyenne Merrill, River Merrill, Kyle Tellstrom & Mike Ward
1-J.T. Bierman, Joe Liguori, A.J. Sanders, Bradley Swift & Casey Tillman
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ALL-TIME USAC EASTERN FOCUS MIDGET FEATURE WINS: (FULL POINTS EVENTS)
57-Chris Lamb
21-Jessica Bean
18-Scott Hunter & Chase Scott
14-Nolan Allison
9-Nick Drake & Bradley Riethmeyer
8-Jared Irvan
7-Hunter Wise
6-Jeremy Frankoski
5-Jarett Andretti, Mark Burt, Eric Coomes, Sam Hatfield & Matt Lundstrom
4-Neal Allison, Rick Fedrizzi, Ryan Krachun, Michael Mohelski, Jake Nelke & Tanner Swanson
3-Tyler Corriher, Marc Dailey, George Kurtz, Andrew Layser, Wil Raber, Robbie Ray & James Robertson
2-Cole Custer, Nic Davidson, A.J. Davis, Connor Gross, Blaine Leydig, Aron Oakley, Ross Rankine, Michael Sboro & Michael Ward
1-Cody Acton, Toby Alfrey, Brady Allum, Brit Andersen, Dakoda Armstrong, Christopher Bell, Jake Blackhurst, Kyle Bonsignore, Calvin Carroll, Nikki Carroll, Adam Clarke, Josh Clemons, Kevin Conway, Tyler Cottongim, Dylan Duhaime, Derek Fisher, Jake Garcia, Terry Hall, Brandon Hartsell, Justin Hommel, Steven Intravaia, Josh Lakatos, Preston Lattomus, Joe Liguori, Brad Loyet, Sam Mazzo, Logan Sulyi & Bradley Swift
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ALL-TIME USAC EASTERN FOCUS MIDGET FEATURE WINS: (NON-POINTS SPECIAL EVENTS)
7-Chris Lamb
4-Jessica Bean
2-Dan Cugini & Kyle Tellstrom
1-Chad LaBastie, Jon Seaman, P.J. Stergios, Casey Tillman & Mike Ward
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USAC EASTERN FOCUS MIDGET DRIVER CHAMPIONS:
2004: Chase Scott
2005: Chase Scott
2006: Chase Scott
2007: Tanner Swanson
2008: Bradley Riethmeyer
2009: Jeremy Frankoski
2010: Scott Hunter (Eastern & Carolina)
2011: Nick Drake (Overall), Scott Hunter (Dirt) & Jarett Andretti (Pavement)
2012: Jared Irvan
2013: Chris Lamb
2014: Scott Hunter
2015: Chris Lamb
2016: Chris Lamb
2017: Jessica Bean
2018: Jessica Bean
2019: Jessica Bean
2020: Jessica Bean
2021: Jessica Bean
2022: Hunter Wise
