RESULTS: NERRC 5 – Midnight Madness

Photo by Mike Pettruci

Midnight Madness Moves to August

For 2026, the Midnight Madness and Last Chance Majors events swapped places on the Thompson calendar. The Majors took over the July 4th weekend, and that meant our one-day night racing event was moved to the middle of August. While the Majors suffered under extreme heat (read about it here), the weather was ideal for this year’s night race.

There were 8 race groups, meaning a packed schedule and a LONG 14-hour day for all our dedicated workers. They took up their positions around 10:00 am and the last cars finished a little after 11:30 pm. A big THANK YOU needs to go out to all those volunteers that manned their stations for the entirety of the event.

While it wasn’t a day full of entirely clean racing, the track crews did their jobs and cleaned up as quickly as possible to get the next groups out on track as soon as safely possible. Over the course of a morning qualifying session, then a day race, and then the night race under the lights – two drivers managed to set new track records.

Each group was well-subscribed, with both Mazda groups putting out 30+ cars on the track at a time.

Overall, it was another successful night race. Next up will be NER’s one race at Palmer for our Pig Roast weekend. And yes, the Ice Cream truck will be there as well! Be sure to join us.

New Track Records

C-Spec #192 – James Cutler – 1:26.363

G56 #18 –  Dave Maynard – 1:17.074