“The Phenom” Conquers ARDC Midget Opener

Story By: NICHOLAS FILLMAN / RPW – NEWMANSTOWN, PA – The 78th season of the ARDC midget series kicked off on Saturday for the Clyde Martin Memorial at Lanco Speedway. This was after heavy rains forced the Series’ Friday race at the Linda’s Speedway to be cancelled.

The new season is marked by many new things for ARDC. That includes new drivers, owners, engine combinations, and most notably, the new partnership with the United States Auto Club (USAC), officially making the series USAC sanctioned for the first time.

2016 series champion Alex Bright picked up where he left off last season. Bright quickly moved through the field and captured the lead from early race leader Ryan Greth, at the halfway point of the feature. From that point forward, despite some cautions, he dominated the remainder of the feature event to collect his first victory of the season.

Bright will be a busy driver for the 2017 season as he will compete full-time with the USAC Eastern Midgets (ARDC) and also full-time aboard a newly-purchased BOSS Chassis entry for the entire USAC National Midget tour. That will take him coast to coast against the countries best.

Bright will also be competing in the USAC National Sprint Car ranks for the annual “Eastern Storm” come June aboard a brand new CS9 Chassis entry for long time 305 and 410 owner Rick Kaylor.

Coming home second on the night was Delaware competitor Troy Betts aboard his Elite Chassis entry. Betts is a regular with the United Racing Club (URC) 360 Sprint Car Series and has been dabbling with midget racing for a number of years. He’s even tried his hand at the annual Chili Bowl Nationals the past few years.

Betts ran a clean feature event and would collect his career best ARDC feature finish of second.

A young Pennsylvania hot-shoe who is becoming faster and faster in the midget is Bethlehem, PA driver Tommy Kunsman. Kunsman had some misfortune in his heat race Saturday, but would keep his nose clean, and survive the attrition to collect a solid 3rd place finish when the checkers flew. Kunsman pulled double duty with his 600cc micro sprint where he finished 13th.

A name that is known in the New York area is that of Adam Pierson, but not so much in midget racing, rather in Sportsman competition. Pierson will be competing often with ARDC with his branch of the FMR Racing stable. The tea, has asserted their dominance on the USAC National Tour with driver Brady Bacon.

Despite being involved in a early race caution, and surviving a incident with a rut in turn two that would see him on one wheel, Pierson worked his way back through the field to finish in the top five.

Massachusetts-native Anthony Nocella would round out the top five in the ARDC opener, aboard the Seymour Racing #29 entry. The team is one of two running with ARDC that utilizes a smaller horsepower VW engine in their midget. That is something which has recently been allowed under ARDC rule changes.

Nocella has run with ARDC in the past and was stout the entire feature event.

Bad luck fell upon two early front runners in the form of Ryan Greth, and Kyle Spence. Greth was leading the feature event and had recently been passed by Alex Bright, only to have caution fly. That gave him the lead back, but he had made contact with an infield tire causing suspension failure ending his bid for the win.

Spence, the driver from Bear, DE, was the only driver in the pit area saturday to be doing triple duty as he was running in all three divisions at his usual home track.

He was solidly in the top five the entire feature event and was bidding for second when an engine issue forced the 25 machine to halt in turn one.

Spence would rebound to finish third in the 600 micro main event.

Brendan Bright, who captured five feature event wins with ARDC in 2016, struggled with engine issues all night as well. He ran his heat and collected a second place finish, but was unable to start the feature event due to those lingering engine issues.

The ARDC season opener would see 17 midgets enter the pit area with many new additions to the field. It is worth noting that some ARDC front runners were not in attendance…most notably 3rd place in points driver Brett Arndt, Nick Wean, Jamie Speers, and Ryan Wilson.

Feature Finish: 77 Alex Bright, 22 Troy Betts, 21k Tommy Kunsman, 76e Adam Pierson, 29 Anthony Nocella, 23m Kenny Miller, 7j Shawn Jackson, 4s Johnny Smith, 12 Josh Heckman, 24 Jay Hartman, 25 Kyle Spence, 4 Ryan Greth, 14 Trevor Kobylarz, 35 Andrew Layser, 46 Kenney Johnson, 57 Jason Rice, 92 Brendan Bright.

600 micro notes:

Former ARDC Champion, 358 modified winner, Tim Buckwalter grabbed the victory in the Greth Racing 71 machine. He was followed by 2016 track champ Heath Hehnly, Spence, James Morris, and Luke Thomas.

Regular ARDC competitor Eric Heydenreich was in the pit area Saturday, but only with his 600 micro sprint. Look for Eric to make some starts with ARDC later on in the season.

Former ARDC midget regulars Jim Radney and Justin Grosz were back in 600 micro sprints on Saturday and will be weekly for the 2017 season. Radney aboard what is essentially the Hyper Chassis #95 house car ran the feature solidly in the top 10 until a late race incident.