Taylor Reimer drove to a USAC career-best second place finish to lead Toyota on the first night of the USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship’s Driven2SaveLives BC39 at the Dirt Track at IMS, Thursday night. By finishing second in the 30-lap feature, she transfers directly into Saturday’s A Main.
Reimer, who became the first female winner in national midget feature history last year with an Xtreme Outlaw victory at Millbridge Speedway, earned her sixth runner-up finish of 2023 over the three national midget series.
Reimer started from the fourth position, but quickly moved up to second behind leader Thomas Meseraull. The two would continue to pace the race, while most of the action was behind them as Chase McDermand, Buddy Kofoid, Jade Avedisian and Jacob Denney battled for spots in the top five.
As the race wound down, Reimer was closing on Meseraull and on the final lap was able to throw a slider through turns three and four, pulling side-by-side with Meseraull, but would come up just short of her first USAC win.
Denney would pass Kofoid on lap 29 to secure fourth, with Kofoid finishing fifth to give Toyota three of the top five finishers. Three more Toyota-powered drivers would place in the top ten as Avedisian was seventh, Gary Taylor was eighth and Kaylee Bryson came home in tenth.
Night two of the Driven2SaveLives BC 39 will take place on Friday night.
Quotes:
Taylor Reimer, Keith Kunz Motorsports: “I was trying to keep my ground on the restart. I felt we were a little better than Tmez (Meseraull), we just weren’t able to capitalize on his mistakes. I tried to throw a Hail Mary at the end, I just wasn’t close enough to him. This Keith Kunz Motorsports Yahoo Toyota #25 was great all night. It’s just awesome to be racing inside the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. This is so cool. We’re doing this in memory of Bryan Clauson and Driven2SaveLives. I think we have a great shot (in the feature).”
Toyota-Powered Drivers USAC Dirt Track at IMS Thursday Feature Results
Jacob Denney – 4th
Buddy Kofoid – 5th
Jade Avedisian – 7th
Gary Taylor – 8th
Kaylee Bryson – 9th
Bryant Wiedeman – 12th
Mariah Ede – 15th
Kyle Jones – 17th
Kevin Thomas Jr. – 21st
Toyota Racing PR
