There was a bit of a dry stretch for Tyler Courtney in the midst of the USAC Midget season this summer, but recently he’s been the biggest story on the tour.
Courtney earned his third victory in the past four races on Wednesday at Action Track USA, taking advantage of a poor night for series points leader Chris Windom.
Midway through the race, Windom got into a three-car accident and broke his right front shock, forcing him to the work area.
The team got it replaced, and Windom salvaged a 13th-place finish, however, it’s a big climb in the points for Courtney who is trying to repeat once again as USAC Midget Champion.
“We had a rough couple of months there on the midget side of things,” Courtney said on the FloRacing broadcast. “Here in the last couple of weeks, we’ve kind of turned some things back on and found some things that I think we can keep building on to, getting these wins and knocking them off.”
Courtney started on the front row, skipping to the outside of Robert Dalby and putting enough space between himself and the second place car during each green-flag run.
He barely had to defend the spot, no matter who was threatening as the second-place car.
“I just kind of reset mentally, I think we all did as a team,” Courtney said. “We just kind of hit the reset button and put the first couple months of the midget season and focused on the second half of the season. We’ve got a really good race car right now and we’ve just got to ride this high as long as we can.”
Buddy Kofoid nearly got up to the back bumper of the 7BC but wasn’t able to before being pushed off the track. He came home seventh and is still looking for his first win with the series.
Tanner Thorson had a shot at it late, as well, but he was stuck holding off Kofoid and then Christopher Bell – who came down to run a one-off race with the tour.
The pair rounded off the podium for Courtney, but ultimately never had a shot.
He has the Clauson-Marshall Racing entry driving like the champion he is.
The USAC Midgets return to the track on Thursday night as they head to Bridgeport Speedway for their second race of the regional stretch.
USAC Midget Action Track USA Results
1. Tyler Courtney
2. Tanner Thorson
3. Christopher Bell
4. Justin Grant
5. Cannon McIntosh
6. Chase Johnson
7. Buddy Kofoid
8. Tanner Carrick
9. Robert Dalby
10. Daison Pursley
11. Alex Bright
12. Cole Bodine
13. Chris Windom
14. Alex Yankowski
15. Andrew Layser
16. Emerson Axsom
17. Dillon Welch
18. Eric Heydenreich
19. Jeff Champagne
20. Kevin Woody
21. Kevin Thomas Jr.
22. Ethan Mitchell