Lawrenceburg, Indiana (August 25, 2024)………Cale Coons charged from sixth to first on the opening lap and never looked back en route to victory during Saturday night’s USAC Midwest Thunder SpeeD2 Midget feature at Indiana’s Lawrenceburg Speedway.
Coons (Greencastle, Ind.) led the entire 20-lap distance in his Dooling Machine No. 63 to earn the non-points special event triumph over defending champion Zach Wigal (Belpre, Ohio), Matt Lux (Manilla, Ind.) and Tate Martz (Rushville, Ind.) with Luke Lemons (Moraine, Ohio) rounding out the top-five.
The event was the debut for the series at Lawrenceburg’s 3/8-mile dirt oval. Cale’s father, Jerry Coons Jr., previously captured a pair of USAC-sanctioned victories at Lawrenceburg, winning a non-points special event in 2009 and a full points race in 2010.
Series point leader Bryce Massingill (Troy, Ohio) retired from the event with three laps remaining due to steering issues while running inside the top-three.
Michael Magic (Winder, Ga.) was the VMS Fast Qualifier with a time of 17.848 seconds. Lux, Coons and Martz won each of the three heat races presented by Performance Electronics, Stiefel’s Home & Auto and Hoosier Auto Racing Fans.
Columbus, Ohio’s Alex Watson (21st to 9th) and Cloverdale, Ohio’s Abby Hohlbein (24th to 12th) shared feature hard charger honors courtesy of Performance Powder Coating.
Chett Gehrke (Broken Arrow, Okla.) advanced from 11th to 6th to earn Rosewood Machine & Tool Precision Move of the Race honors. His Tom Fedorczyk owned car suffered a driveline issue during hot laps which required the team to replace the quick change, driveshaft and torque tube prior to their heat race.
Kayla Roell’s first racing laps were turned at Lawrenceburg Speedway’s kart track when she was three years old. Her homecoming race was made more challenging when she drew the dreaded nine pill for the feature redraw. Roell received a Competition Suspension Inc. gift certificate to make up for her misfortune.
Magic earned the Impact Lucky 7th place feature finisher award. Larry Rice (Findlay, Ohio) was the recipient of the Saldana Racing Products certificate.
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USAC MIDWEST THUNDER SPEED2 MIDGET SPECIAL EVENT RACE RESULTS: August 24, 2024 – Lawrenceburg Speedway – Lawrenceburg, Indiana
FIRST VMS MOTORSPORTS QUALIFYING GROUP: 1. Matt Lux, 5, Wells-18.203, 2. Steven Gresham, 27G, Gresham-18.738, 3. Ian Creager, 36, Creager-18.770, 4. Casey Meyer, 9, Meyer-18.929, 5. Taylor Nibert, 11N, Taylor-19.017, 6. Jim Jones, 97, Jones-19.275, 7. Tommy Bigelow, 2B, Bigelow-19.298, 8. Jody Paul, 5J, Paul-19.365.
SECOND VMS MOTORSPORTS QUALIFYING GROUP: 1. Cale Coons, 63, Dooling-18.304, 2. Luke Lemons, 33L, Lemons-18.467, 3. Kayla Roell, 4K, Roell-18.732, 4. Cole Morgan, 7m, Morgan-18.736, 5. Cody Dye, 4T, Dye-18.840, 6. Larry Rice, 7R, Collett-19.469, 7. Chett Gehrke, 21, Fedorczyk-19.470, 8. Jason Shaffer, 40, Shaffer-19.471.
THIRD VMS MOTORSPORTS QUALIFYING GROUP: 1. Michael Magic, 5m, Magic-17.848, 2. Tyler Nelson, 10, Nelson-17.891, 3. Bryce Massingill, 35, Massingill-17.932, 4. Tate Martz, 34, GMB-18.037, 5. Josh Yenser, 11L, Taylor-18.167, 6. Alex Watson, 3w, Watson-18.200, 7. Zach Wigal, 18, Wigal-18.269, 8. Abby Hohlbein, 11H, Hohlbein-18.314.
PERFORMANCE ELECTRONICS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Matt Lux (4), 2. Ian Creager (2), 3. Taylor Nibert (5), 4. Steven Gresham (3), 5. Casey Meyer (1), 6. Tommy Bigelow (7), 7. Jody Paul (8). NT
STIEFEL’S HOME & AUTO SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Cale Coons (4), 2. Luke Lemons (3), 3. Kayla Roell (2), 4. Chett Gehrke (7), 5. Cole Morgan (1), 6. Cody Dye (5), 7. Larry Rice (6). NT
HOOSIER AUTO RACING FANS THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Tate Martz (1), 2. Bryce Massingill (2), 3. Josh Yenser (5), 4. Zach Wigal (7), 5. Tyler Nelson (3), 6. Michael Magic (4), 7. Alex Watson (6), 8. Abby Hohlbein (8). NT
FEATURE: (20 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Cale Coons (6), 2. Zach Wigal (12), 3. Matt Lux (4), 4. Tate Martz (5), 5. Luke Lemons (3), 6. Chett Gehrke (11), 7. Michael Magic (18), 8. Josh Yenser (7), 9. Alex Watson (21), 10. Kayla Roell (9), 11. Cole Morgan (14), 12. Abby Hohlbein (24), 13. Cody Dye (17), 14. Tommy Bigelow (16), 15. Larry Rice (20), 16. Bryce Massingill (1), 17. Tyler Nelson (15), 18. Casey Meyer (13), 19. Steven Gresham (10), 20. Jim Jones (22), 21. Ian Creager (2), 22. Jody Paul (19), 23. Jason Shaffer (23), 24. Taylor Nibert (8). NT
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-20 Cale Coons.
NEXT USAC MIDWEST THUNDER SPEED2 NON-POINTS SPECIAL EVENT MIDGET RACE: August 31, 2024 – Montpelier Motor Speedway – Montpelier, Indiana
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
VMS Motorsports Fast Qualifier: Michael Magic
Performance Electronics First Heat Winner: Matt Lux
Stiefel’s Home & Auto Second Heat Winner: Cale Coons
Hoosier Auto Racing Fans Third Heat Winner: Tate Martz
Performance Powder Coating Hard Charger: Alex Watson (21st to 9th) & Abby Hohlbein (24th to 12th)
Rosewood Machine & Tool Precision Move of the Race: Chett Gehrke
Competition Suspension Inc. Gift Certificate: Kayla Roell
Impact Lucky 7th Place Feature Finisher: Michael Magic
Saldana Racing Products Gift Certificate: Larry Rice
