THROUGH THE YEARS: A LOOK AT LEFFLER MEMORIAL HISTORY
By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Wayne City, Illinois (August 9, 2023)………Nine races. Nine different winners.
That’s the story of the Jason Leffler Memorial Presented By Peoples National Bank, which resumes for its 10th edition on Friday night, August 18, at Wayne County Speedway in Wayne City, Illinois.
But the story of the Jason Leffler Memorial ultimately began as the brainchild of Doug Stringer, the former NASCAR Xfinity Series team owner who fielded Jason Leffler as his driver with the series during the 2000s.
Stringer also owned and promoted Wayne County Speedway, which is the home to the Leffler Memorial race, which began shortly after Leffler’s death in a sprint car accident at New Jersey’s Bridgeport Motorsports Park in 2013.
Leffler is one of USAC’s all-time greats, having won the National Midget championship in 1997-98-99 and the Silver Crown title in 1998 before going on to race extensively in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup, Xfinity and Camping World Truck Series, and also competed in the Indianapolis 500 in 2000.
Here’s a look at the first 10 years of the Jason Leffler Memorial between 2013-22.
2013: DAUM DOMINATES JASON LEFFLER MEMORIAL
Zach Daum started from the pole and was never seriously challenged for the lead in winning the inaugural Jason Leffler Memorial before an overflow crowd Wednesday at Wayne County Speedway.
Daum’s green-to-checkered flag triumph in the 30-lap race on the 1/8-mile track and earned him $5,000 against an outstanding 34-car field that raced to honor Leffler.
“What I liked the most about Jason was he was a gasser, a true racer,” Daum said. “I didn’t know him that well, raced against him a couple of times, but I watched him growing up winning three-straight USAC midget national championships. I’m honored to win this race in his honor. It means a lot. The amount of people who came out showed that he was as good as it gets as a father and a driver.”
2014: PITTMAN SHEDS THE WING TO WIN LEFFLER MEMORIAL
Daryn Pittman took time off from his full-time duties as a World of Outlaws Sprint Car series to overtake Bryan Clauson on lap 27 and led the final 14 laps to claim his first career midget win at the 1/8-mile Wayne County Speedway during the second annual Jason Leffler Memorial sponsored by Great Clips.
Pittman slid in front of Bell for second on lap 20, setting his sights on Clauson for the lead, then slowly, but surely reeled him in. Pittman took over the lead after Clauson caught the rut in turns three and four and bobbled just enough for Pittman and Christopher Bell to sneak by.
“I just won a race without a wing on it. In a midget,” stated an amazed Daryn Pittman. “I tell you what, this race is as high of a win I’ve had in my career. Just to race with Christopher Bell, Rico (Abreu), Bryan Clauson and to beat them, I’m speechless. I said from the first time I ever drove a midget, I want to run one of these things until I can jump up top and do a cage stand because that’s something wing guys just don’t ever get to do, so that was a lot of fun. I have to thank Doug Stringer and the entire Great Clips team for this race. This is a lot of fun to be a part of. I’m fortunate to be part of their family (Great Clips Racing) on the wing side in the sprint cars and I couldn’t be in a better place.”
2015: CLAUSON LOOTS LEFFLER MEMORIAL AT WAYNE CITY
Bryan Clauson fended off Rico Abreu in another legendary duel between the two, banking $20,000 in the third-annual Jason Leffler Memorial at Wayne County Speedway. The Noblesville, Indiana native knocked off his next crown jewel victory by fending off repeated advances from Abreu the entire latter half of the 40-lap feature for the Honda National Midget Series co-sanctioned by POWRi.
“This is a race that means a lot to everybody in the pit area. I’m sure Rico would say the same, and we’ve raced each other a lot for big wins the past few years. That was about as much fun as I’ve had in a long time, but there was a lot of money on the line, too, so it was pretty stressful. It felt like we swapped the lead a bunch of times, and I was able to pass him back each time and break his momentum before he got away. It was a bit of a chess match there to be able to beat him,” Clauson said.
2016: BACON A BEAST IN JASON LEFFLER MEMORIAL SCORE AT WAYNE CITY
Wayne County Speedway in southern Illinois is a place that’s become near and dear to Brady Bacon and the FMR Racing team. Nearly exactly one year to the day of Bacon and FMR’s initial series start, the duo reached its greatest height yet Friday night – their very first USAC National Midget feature victory in the midget racing season’s largest winner’s payout share in North America.
Bacon sped past Chris Windom on the eighth lap and immediately pulled away, leading the final 33 laps of the 40-lap “Jason Leffler Memorial” co-sanctioned by POWRi to, ultimately, take the commanding half-straightaway victory worth $20,000.
“I think it’s amazing how far we’ve come from this race last year to now,” Bacon said. “We were good at this race last year, but at the beginning of this year, we had some struggles and had to fine-tune some stuff and get things rolling to catch Keith (Kunz Motorsports) and some of the faster guys. I’m impressed how fast we’ve been able to do it.”
2018: TYLER THOMAS TALLIES FIRST USAC MIDGET WIN AT LEFFLER MEMORIAL
For much of the past decade, Tyler Thomas has been patiently waiting for his turn at USAC glory. There were the heartaches and the struggles, but the fire never waned inside the Collinsville, Oklahoma driver. On Sunday night, his turn finally arrived as he captured his first career USAC P1 Insurance National Midget feature win in the fifth running of the “Jason Leffler Memorial” at Wayne County Speedway in Wayne City, Illinois.
The triumph came just shy of two months following his first career USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car win at Kokomo (Ind.) Speedway two months earlier, making him the first driver to win both his first career USAC National Sprint Car and USAC National Midget features in the same season since Kyle Larson seven years earlier in 2011.
“To do both in the same year is something I’ll remember forever,” Thomas said. “For six or seven years, we’ve been trying to get a midget win. Tonight, this car was on rails from hot laps on. We made good changes all night. My dad did an awesome job on the car. It went everywhere I wanted it to go. It allowed me to be more aggressive, especially on starts on restarts. I could go where they weren’t, and the car would stick. To get it done at the Jason Leffler Memorial is a really special feeling. It’s such a prestigious race to win. I couldn’t be happier.”
2019: LATE-RACE HEROICS NET COURTNEY LEFFLER MEMORIAL WIN
Big track or small track, Tyler Courtney has seemingly excelled at venues of all dimensions throughout the 2019 USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget season. On Thursday night at the smallest track on the campaign, the 1/8-mile Wayne County Speedway in Wayne City, Illinois, Courtney delivered his second-straight late-race heroic effort, just weeks following his victory on the circuit’s largest track, the 1/2-mile Eldora Speedway, where he emerged victorious in much the same manner.
Courtney chased defending Wayne City winner Tyler Thomas for 37 of the 40 laps before making the winning move with just three laps remaining to become the sixth different winner of the Jason Leffler Memorial in the six years of the event that honors the late, four-time USAC National champion.
“This is a big race. This is the Jason Leffler Memorial,” Courtney exclaimed. “A lot of good guys have won this, and to add our name to the list, to go along with the rest of our season, it’s been incredible.”
2020: THORSON THROTTLES TO LEFFLER MEMORIAL VICTORY
The third race of Tanner Thorson’s tenure with Tom Malloy’s midget team turned out to be the charm as the Minden, Nev. native hunted down race-long leader Chris Windom with 11 laps remaining to capture the victory in Friday night’s Jason Leffler Memorial USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget feature at Wayne County Speedway in Wayne City, Ill.
In doing so, the 2016 series champion became the seventh different Leffler Memorial winner in the seven runnings of the event.
“This is one of the races I’ve wanted to win for a long time. I’ve never really been in the right situation, but now we did it.,” Thorson, a 2nd place Leffler Memorial finisher in 2016, said. “I never knew Jason (Leffler) on a personal level, but I know a bunch of people who were really good friends with him and always talked about how good of a guy he was and that he was definitely a badass in the racecar. There’s no two ways about that. I wish he was here to throw some sliders and race with us. This is an awesome event to win.”
2021: CHRISTMASTIME MAGIC: BELL FLIES TO LEFFLER MEMORIAL WIN
Christopher Bell came, saw, and conquered the 8th running of the Jason Leffler Memorial presented by Fatheadz Eyewear on a cool Saturday night in December as the event moved inside the Southern Illinois Center for the first time ever.
Less than a week before the USAC Midget non-points special event, it was announced that the NASCAR Cup Series driver and 2013 USAC National Midget champion from Norman, Okla. would be making his RMS Racing debut in the Walkapedia/EnviroFab/Response Management Services sponsored Spike/Speedway No. 7XT.
Outside front row starter Cannon McIntosh looked like he had been shot out of a cannon in the early going, taking the early advantage but hot on his heels was third-starting Bell, waiting for his chance to pounce. As the two neared lap traffic, Bell’s motor began to jingle in McIntosh’s ear, and after three laps of heavy pressure, Bell was finally able to sneak by to take the lead on lap 14 before going on to score the 50-lap, $8,000-to-win feature.
2022: MOLES HITS PAYDIRT, WINS JASON LEFFLER MEMORIAL
As part of his initiation to the USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship, Mitchel Moles has been required to make a plethora of first-time visits to a variety of racetracks in his Rookie season with the series. On three separate occasions in 2022, he has been triumphant in his debut appearance with the series at a particular venue. First, there was July’s round at Nebraska’s Jefferson County Speedway. He then accomplished the feat for a second time in September at Ohio’s Eldora Speedway.
The first time he laid eyes on Wayne City, Illinois’ Wayne County Speedway Friday night, the story remained the same as the Raisin City, Calif. native pulled off the season hattrick as a first-time caller, first-time winner yet again, this time during the ninth running of the Peoples National Bank Jason Leffler Memorial.
By doing so, Moles continued the Leffler Memorial’s miraculous string of nine different drivers and nine different teams to have won the event in its first nine renditions. As fate had it, Moles’ bid for victory was challenged throughout the high majority of the second half of the 40-lapper by the lone past Leffler Memorial winner in the entire field – Zach Daum.
“I knew right from the start of this deal that we were going to have to be patient,” Moles foretold. “I figured it was going to go to the bottom because the top gets tricky when it gets right up on the guardrail. Shane Golobic is pretty good at doing that. He actually taught me a lot about how to do this.”
RACE DETAILS:
The 10th running of the Jason Leffler Memorial featuring the USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship, Non-Wing Outlaw Micros, Restrictors & Junior Sprints takes place on Friday night, August 18, at Wayne County Speedway in Wayne City, Illinois.
Adult general admission tickets are $25. Kids 12 & under are free. Pit passes are $40.
Grandstands open at 5pm Central with the drivers meeting at 6:00pm and hot laps at 6:30pm with racing immediately following.
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PAST JASON LEFFLER MEMORIAL RESULTS:
2013 FEATURE: 1. Zach Daum, 2. Shane Cottle, 3. Dave Darland, 4. Shane Cockrum, 5. Bryan Clauson, 6. Chett Gehrke, 7. Dereck King, 8, Andrew Felker, 9. Hud Cone, 10. Daniel Robinson, 11. Bobby East, 12. Parker Price-Miller, 13. Tyler Robbins, 14. Justin Grant, 15. Jake Blackhurst, 16. Austin Brown, 17. Chris Bell, 18. Darren Hagen, 19. Tim Siner, 20. Colten Cottle, 21.Tyler Robbins, 22. Seth Motsinger.
2014 FEATURE: 1. Daryn Pittman, 2. Christopher Bell. 3. Bryan Clauson, 4. Justin Grant, 5. Zach Daum, 6. Spencer Bayston, 7. Andrew Felker, 8. Darren Hagen, 9. Rico Abreu, 10. Tanner Thorson, 11. Chris Windom, 12. Tyler Thomas, 13. Dave Darland, 14. Daniel Robinson, 15. Garrett Aitken, 16. Nick Knepper, 17. Shane Cockrum, 18. Colten Cottle, 19. Chett Gehrke, 20. Austin Brown, 21. Brady Bacon, 22. Parker Price-Miller, 23. Seth Motsinger.
2015 FEATURE: 1. Bryan Clauson, 2. Rico Abreu, 3. Zach Daum, 4. Daryn Pittman, 5. Payton Pierce, 6. Brady Bacon, 7. Jonathan Beason, 8. Danny Stratton, 9. Dave Darland, 10. Kevin Thomas Jr., 11. Andrew Felker, 12. Tracy Hines, 13. Kyle Schuett, 14. Anton Hernandez, 15. Ryan Robinson, 16. Tanner Thorson, 17. Isaac Chapple, 18. C.J. Leary, 19. Dereck King, 20. Tyler Thomas, 21. Darren Hagen, 22. Tucker Klaasmeyer, 23. Austin Brown, 24. Spencer Bayston, 25. Justin Peck, 26. Tyler Courtney.
2016 FEATURE: 1. Brady Bacon, 2. Tanner Thorson, 3. Carson Macedo, 4. Chris Windom, 5. Andrew Felker, 6. Alex Bright, 7. Chett Gehrke, 8. Spencer Bayston, 9. Dave Darland, 10. Jerry Coons Jr., 11. Shane Cottle, 12. Justin Peck, 13. Grady Chandler, 14. Jonathan Beason, 15. Chad Boat, 16. Riley Kreisel, 17. Ryan Robinson, 18. Tucker Klaasmeyer, 19. Andy Malpocker, 20. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 21. Jake Neuman, 22. Brayton Lynch, 23. Damion Gardner, 24. Colten Cottle, 25. Holly Shelton, 26. Jason McDougal, 27. Rico Abreu, 28. Gage Walker. NT
2017 FEATURE: Rained Out
2018 FEATURE: (starting position in parentheses) 1. Tyler Thomas (2), 2. Chad Boat (4), 3. Tyler Courtney (3), 4. Justin Grant (16), 5. Jonathan Beason (18), 6. Christopher Bell (7), 7. Spencer Bayston (8), 8. Zeb Wise (12), 9. Logan Seavey (9), 10. Kevin Thomas, Jr. (17), 11. Ryan Robinson (21), 12. Cole Bodine (11), 13. Sam Johnson (23), 14. Alex Bright (14), 15. Jerry Coons, Jr. (10), 16. Brady Bacon (6), 17. Tanner Carrick (15), 18. Dave Darland (13), 19. Jake Neuman (5), 20. Holly Shelton (20), 21. Tucker Klaasmeyer (22), 22. Jason McDougal (1), 23. Zach Daum (19).
2019 FEATURE: (starting position in parentheses) 1. Tyler Courtney (3), 2. Tyler Thomas (1), 3. Jason McDougal (2), 4. Logan Seavey (19), 5. Justin Grant (6), 6. Chris Windom (10), 7. Brady Bacon (16), 8. Daryn Pittman (15), 9. Sam Johnson (13), 10. Tucker Klaasmeyer (18), 11. Jesse Colwell (4), 12. Russ Gamester (21), 13. Gio Scelzi (11), 14. Daniel Robinson (8), 15. Zeb Wise (17), 16. Thomas Meseraull (12), 17. Tanner Carrick (7), 18. Jake Neuman (14), 19. Cannon McIntosh (22), 20. Kevin Thomas, Jr. (5), 21. Andrew Layser (20), 22. Holley Hollan (23), 23. Jerry Coons, Jr. (9).
2020 FEATURE: (40 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Tanner Thorson (6), 2. Chris Windom (2), 3. Kevin Thomas Jr. (4), 4. Cannon McIntosh (1), 5. Daison Pursley (3), 6. Tyler Courtney (10), 7. Kyle Cummins (11), 8. Chase Randall (5), 9. Emerson Axsom (7), 10. Justin Grant (9), 11. Jerry Coons Jr. (15), 12. Cole Bodine (20), 13. Cody Brewer (18), 14. Robert Dalby (19), 15. Tyler Thomas (14), 16. Chase Johnson (12), 17. Buddy Kofoid (17), 18. Kaylee Bryson (22), 19. Sam Johnson (21), 20. Hayden Reinbold (23*), 21. Brady Bacon (13), 22. Logan Seavey (8), 23. Jason McDougal (16). NT
2021 FEATURE: (50 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Christopher Bell (3), 2. Cannon McIntosh (2), 3. Chance Crum (5), 4. Sam Johnson (9), 5. Mitchel Moles (4), 6. Jordan Kinser (13), 7. Chad Boespflug (8), 8. Zach Daum (10), 9. Chett Gehrke (14), 10. Chase Briscoe (1), 11. Terry Babb (12), 12. Greg Mitchell (15), 13. Chase Howard (20), 14. Rylan Gray (7), 15. Jake Neuman (18), 16. Cory Eliason (6), 17. Max Adams (11), 18. Zach Boden (19), 19. Dillon Silverman (17), 20. Daniel Robinson (16). NT
2022 FEATURE: (40 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Mitchel Moles (3), 2. Zach Daum (4), 3. Buddy Kofoid (5), 4. Thomas Meseraull (1), 5. Bryant Wiedeman (2), 6. Ethan Mitchell (7), 7. Sam Johnson (9), 8. Chase McDermand (15), 9. Jacob Denney (14), 10. Cannon McIntosh (18), 11. Dominic Gorden (19), 12. Daison Pursley (6), 13. Daniel Robinson (13), 14. Chance Crum (10), 15. Kyle Cummins (21), 16. Karter Sarff (8), 17. Brenham Crouch (17), 18. Kaylee Bryson (11), 19. Hayden Reinbold (22), 20. Justin Grant (16), 21. Taylor Reimer (12), 22. Maria Cofer (20). NT