Photos: 79th Annual Turkey Night Grand Prix

With respect to the tradition of the Indianapolis 500 and the Turkey Night Grand Prix, Kyle Larson kisses the Aggie Trophy, which bears the name of all the winners of the long-running event.

After being overrun by rain for three days, the dirt surface at the beachfront 0.2-mile Ventura Raceway was an ever-changing, wild bronco ride.

USAC Midgets line up in the staging area for the first round of practice on Wednesday.

J.C. Agajanian Jr. is visited by Shane Carson.

2.5 liters, 400 horsepower.

Kyle Larson makes early practice laps on Wednesday.

USAC champ, Brady Bacon stands by to qualify.

16-year-old Holley Hollan, a midget racer from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, and the Keith Kunz Racing lineup in the pits.

Chase Johnson, making laps during opening practice, won the USAC West Coast Sprint Car Series portion of Turkey Night, dominating the 41-lap race over Tyler Courtney.

Karsyn Elledge leads a pack during qualifying heats.

Pulling double duty, 2019 USAC Midget champ Tyler Courtney leads his sprint car heat race into turn three.

Under stormy skies, Larson is fired off for his qualifying laps.

More rain showers and the cars are back under tarps.

Larson at speed on the backstretch.

Geoff Ensign was second in the USAC Sprint Car main.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. had a rough night, flipping twice and finishing 24th in the 30-car field.

Jake Swanson makes a qualifying lap.

Rico Abreu finished 17th after qualifying fifth.

Larson passes Colby Copeland in main event action.

Rookie of the Race, Cannon McIntosh leading Turkey Night.

With just a few laps to go in the midget main, Tyler Courtney flipped wickedly before stopping at the entry to turn one. Driver was a-ok.

In the first minutes of Saturday morning, Larson claims his third Turkey Night Grand Prix.

Co-grand marshall Gary Zarounian and J.C. Agajanian Jr., pose with Larson and the Turkey Night Grand Prix trophy.

Besides the Indianapolis 500, the annual Turkey Night Grand Prix is the oldest auto race in the U.S. It began on Thanksgiving night 1934, when J.C. Agajanian hosted the inaugural event for midget cars at the long-gone Gilmore Stadium in Los Angeles. Since then, the prestigious race has been held at nine different pavement and dirt tracks in Southern California, attracting some of the country’s most versatile race car drivers.

Photos Saroyan Humphrey

Spotlight | Winning the 79th annual Turkey Night Grand Prix from the 13th starting position took a gritty performance by Kyle Larson as he continued his NASCAR off-season tear with another win in his dirt midget. It was his third career win at the acclaimed 98-lap USAC Midget event, joining Ron Shuman (8), Billy Boat (3) and Christopher Bell (3).

Over 70 drivers competed for a spot in the 30-car main event but rain postponed the race from its traditional Thanksgiving race date to Friday. More rain fell during the heat races, causing another three-hour delay. But the show went on, as the hard-working track crew was able to bring the dirt racing surface back to race-ready condition. But it was edgy; like a wild bronco ride.

“I’ve always run well at the Turkey Night Grand Prix,” said Larson. “To get a win feels great. I had to work hard for that one—everybody did—just to get to the checkered flag. It was extremely rough, but fun, too, because it was challenging. The ruts changed throughout the race.”

Rookie of the race Cannon McIntosh, finished second after leading 67 laps but a broken radius rod wounded his midget’s performance. 

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