the lead into turn three as Thorson outgunned Shelton for second on the white flag lap with a countersteer of his own off turn two. For the final two circuits, Rico was scot-free – and Shelton-free, as he extended a tradition of his own as a Lawrenceburg USAC Midget winner for the third time in his last three tries over Thorson, Shelton, Shane Golobic and Tyler Courtney.
Spike/Speedway Toyota. “I was kind of sluggish on the start, but we got really good there at the end,” Thorson said. “KKM is back. Any car owner that runs top three in one night is going to be pretty happy. The crew has been working really hard to get us better and better and tonight it showed. Holly Shelton nearly pulled off one of the major milestones in USAC history that has yet to be checked off: a female USAC National feature winner. Shelton, of Sacramento, CA, took a career-best third in her Keith Kunz-Curb-Agajanian Motorsports/Black & Decker - TRD/Bullet by Spike/Speedway Toyota, joining Sarah McCune and Stephanie Mockler as the third female driver to record multiple top-five finishes in a USAC National Midget event. Shelton finished 5th at Eldora in September of 2016.
“The bottom was too slow to roll by,” Abreu explained. “When you’re running that close to other cars and the leader’s there, it’s easy to make mistakes on the cushion when you don’t have anything to compare it to besides the speed of the car in front of you. I love doing slide jobs and running the high side like that. It’s all timing. You don’t want to be too short on them or shoot too far past the cushion. I just made sure my wheels were spinning every time I got to the cushion. I finally got clear enough of Holly to where I could slide myself in three and four and Victory lane was a reunion of sorts just break her momentum.” for the top-three finishers in Saturday night’s feature. Shelton, ThorAfter humble beginnings to his son and Abreu grew up throwing night, defending USAC National sliders on each other in Outlaw Kart Midget champion Tanner Thorson competition at Cycleland Speedway of Minden, Nevada, scored his best in Oroville, California. finish of Indiana Midget Week Saturday night at Lawrenceburg with Shelton shared that there wasn’t a second-place run, sandwiched any specific meeting to get the between his two teammates in the crew’s and drivers’ attention after a Keith Kunz-Curb-Agajanian Motor- disappointing start to the season by sports/JBL Audio - TRD/Bullet by Keith Kunz standards. The team 98
HIGHLINE MAGAZINE | EDITION 16