For Buddy Kofoid, the Sweet Springs Motorsports Complex in Missouri is where it all started. For Cannon McIntosh, it was the home of one of its finest driving performances.
Both had some of their most spectacular and monumental moments behind the wheel at the USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship competition in Sweet Springs.
2022 USAC John Hinck Championship at Sweet Springs Motorsports Complex
Now two of the most “fuego” riders of the 2022 season are looking to become the first repeat winners of USAC Sweet Springs this Friday and Saturday night at the John Hinck Championship presented by Dahmer Powertrain.
Multiple lead changes and photo finishes – it’s been the calling card of USAC racing at Sweet Springs since the series debuted on the 1/6 mile dirt oval in 2018.
This weekend, the peloton will be aiming for $4,021 to be won in Friday’s 30-lap event and $5,021 to be won in Saturday’s 40-lap main event.
The additional $21 represents the car number traditionally sported by Hinck family TKH Motorsports midgets, pickups and sprint cars, normally driven by event promoter Brady Bacon of Elite Racing Promotions. Terry and Kelly Hinck of TKH are the sons of race namesake John Hinck.
Buddy and cannon
Four previous USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship appearances at Missouri’s Sweet Springs Motorsports complex have featured events featuring multiple lead changes each year with no less than three drivers taking part in the first-place trade.
Two past Sweet Springs USAC Midget winners are on board for this weekend’s events: the two most recent in fact – McIntosh and Kofoid.
One thing the two had in common back then was driving for Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports.
Those victories, coupled with wins for Logan Seavey and Tanner Carrick in 2018 and 2019, respectively, gave KKM an unbeaten USAC record of 4-0 at Sweet Springs going into the weekend.
4-For-4. 🏆🏆🏆🏆@KKM_67 has a stranglehold on the road to victory @ssmctrack at USAC @NosEnergyDrink National midget competition.
2018: Seavey
2019: Carrick
2020: McIntosh and KofoidWill the party continue? Who is most likely to end it?
We will have the answers on Friday. & Sat. night! pic.twitter.com/EE463Qde9i
— USAC Race (@USACNation) September 8, 2022
McIntosh (Bixby, Oklahoma) was the only driver to lead both nights at Sweet Springs in 2020. He only led one, the last on Night 1, after finding the leader on the final lap to win by a nose, making it the closest finish of USAC’s entire 2020 season at 0.056 seconds.
Since then, McIntosh has won two POWRi Midget events at Sweet Springs in July 2021 and July 2022. He will race the family’s No. 08 Dave Mac Motorsports throughout the weekend.
Current series leader and defending USAC National Midget Champion Kofoid (Penngrove, Calif.) found redemption in his 2020 Sweet Springs debut.
On the opener of Night 1, Kofoid’s race was more than half a lap away, after he and Justin Grant immediately launched into the back, ending both riders’ evenings.
Kofoid returned the following night and took a ferocious charge from McIntosh 75% of the way into the race, then was forced to hold off more newcomers to take the win, which served as USAC’s first career win. .
Daison’s Incredible Comebacks
Ten months after a horrific accident at Arizona Speedway in November 2021 left Daison Pursley with a broken neck and spinal damage that briefly left him paralyzed from the neck down, he will return for the first once in the cockpit of a USAC National Midget.
Pursley (Locust Grove, Oklahoma) recently picked up his first midget victory since returning from injury in the POWRi event at Lake Ozark Speedway in Missouri last weekend.
He also sports a POWRi win at Sweet Springs, earning top honors in October 2021 and his two USAC top-10 finishes at Sweet Springs in 2020 resulted in a sixth straight finish in his rookie season.
Among Kofoid and Pursley’s teammates is Kaylee Bryson (Muskogee, Oklahoma), who made headlines in 2020 with her first Fatheadz Fast Qualifying time with the series at Sweet Springs. In doing so, she became only the fifth woman to accomplish the feat, while her best finish at Sweet Springs came with a 10th place finish in 2020. With POWRi, she finished second at Sweet Springs in July 2021.
Since then, Taylor Reimer (Bixby, Oklahoma) has become the first woman to earn three quick qualifying times with the USAC National Midgets. She ran sixth with POWRi at Sweet Springs in July.
KKM’s USAC debut in Sweet Springs this weekend will come from Bryant Wiedeman (Colby, Kansas), Brenham Crouch (Lubbock, TX), Cade Lewis (Bakersfield, CA) and Mariah Ede (Fresno, CA).
Three of the four in that group competed with POWRi at Sweet Springs, with Crouch finishing second in July, while Wiedeman took third in July 2021 and Lewis finished 14th twice in 2021.
Hope Springs Eternal (For Victory)
Grant (Ione, Calif.) holds the USAC National Midget 10-lap track record at Sweet Springs with a 2:03.358, set on Night 1 in 2020. His best finish on the track was a ninth-place finish in 2018.
Thomas Meseraull (San Jose, Calif.) has finished in the top 10 in his two starts at Sweet Springs, finishing fifth and ninth on consecutive nights in 2020.
Two-time USAC National Midget Champion Jerry Coons Jr. (Tucson, Ariz.) will return to the No. 85 Central Motorsports seat. He finished seventh at Sweet Springs in 2019.
Coons has previously won part of the USAC National Midget in Missouri State, winning in 2006 at Lake Ozark. The USAC Triple Crown champion has finished on the podium in three of his five series starts this season.
The CB Industries team brings three USAC National Midget recruits to Sweet Springs.
Rookie of the Year contender and sole series winner Mitchel Moles (Raisin City, Calif.) leads a team that also includes Jace Park (Overland Park, Kansas) and Chase McDermand (Springfield, Illinois).
McDermand will serve in the No. 86 CBI on a weekend deal with the team, before returning to his regular run with Mounce-Stout Motorsports afterwards.
Park and McDermand both have previous POWRi experience at the venue, with Park taking fifth place in October 2021, and McDermand, similarly, landing a fifth in July. Meanwhile, CBI team owner Chad Boat made two starts at Sweet Springs as a driver, finishing 10th and 5th respectively in 2018 and 2019.
Ethan Mitchell (Mooresville, NC) made three starts at Sweet Springs, with 17th as his best on Night 2 of 2020. Bundy Built Motorsports teammate Zach Daum (Pocahontas, Illinois) was the winner of the heat race and 13th-place finisher in the feature in the USAC Sweet Springs initial race in 2018.
To start
You can include Chance Crum (Snohomish, Wash.) among those making their USAC debut at Sweet Springs, but not necessarily their first midget start on the track.
Crum landed a second-place finish with POWRi at Sweet Springs in October 2021. Joe B. Miller (Millersville, Mo.) landed a strong fourth-place finish just a few months ago in July. Branigan Roark (Lincoln, Mo.) landed a 12th-place finish in 2021.
Hayden Reinbold (Gilbert, Ariz.) returns to Sweet Springs after a pair of USAC visits in 2020 but is looking for his first pair of starts this weekend.
Jacob Denney (Galloway, Ohio), winner of this year’s USAC Midget Week at Lincoln Park Speedway, will make his first midget appearance at Sweet Springs this weekend, along with Austin Barnhill (Wilmington, NC) and Braden Chiaramonte (El Cajon, CA).
The details
The John Hinck Championship presented by Dahmer Powertrain at Sweet Springs includes the USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship, Velox Racing Outlaw Non-Wing Pickups and Engler Machine Restricted Pickups.
Both nights the pass sale will start at 3:00 p.m., pits being cleared by 4:00 p.m., front doors opening at 5:00 p.m., drivers meeting at 5:30 p.m., engine heat producing at 6:00 p.m. All of this will be followed by hot laps, qualifying and racing.
On Friday, general admission tickets will be $25, while children 12 and under will be free. Passes will be $35. Tickets will be available at the door on both race days.
On Saturdays, general admission tickets will be $30, while children 12 and under are free. Passes will be $40. Tickets will be available at the door on both race days.
Advance tickets for the event are on sale now at eliteracingpromotions.com.