Youngster Wagner is class of Legends

Jeremiah Wagner was returning to Las Vegas from a race in San Bernardino, Calif., on May 24 when he learned that night’s event at the Bullring had been rained out.

The unexpected Saturday night off could have meant a chance for the 15-year-old to go to a movie, watch a video or play on his computer.

But almost instinctively, Wagner, his father and their two mechanics made a U-turn and headed back to Orange Speedway in Southern California to race back-to-back nights in their Legends Car.

No worries about the fuel costs for the additional, unplanned 600-mile round trip. No thoughts of a Saturday night away from a racetrack.

Those aren’t primary considerations when your immediate goal is to win a national championship and eventually follow the path of NASCAR stars Kurt and Kyle Busch to the Sprint Cup Series.

“The Las Vegas boys have done pretty good,” said Wagner, who is completing his ninth-grade year at Spring Valley Christian Academy. “That’s where I want to be.”

At Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Saturday, Wagner won his third consecutive feature and fourth of the year in Legends Cars, which are 5/8-scale replicas of 1940s sedans and coupes that are powered by motorcycle engines.

The Legends helped propel the Busch brothers’ careers before they turned 16, and that’s the course the Wagners are following.

“Jeremiah just has God-gifted talent to drive a race car,” said his father, Paul Wagner, a homebuilder in Southern Nevada. He said they have raced in Arizona and California this year and estimates they’ve traveled nearly 6,000 miles over the past 45 days.

Near the end of this month, the Wagners — along with full-time mechanics Paul Saiz and Chris Birdsong, who won Saturday’s Late Models race — will compete in five Legends events in five days in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and Oregon.

Jeremiah Wagner is the two-time reigning champion in the Legends Semi-Pro division. This year he moved up to the Pro class, in which he leads the national standings.

Wagner will be home-schooled next year to ease time demands on his racing schedule, which will include the regional ASA Speed Trucks series.

In other races Saturday in the Bullring’s NASCAR All-American Series, Robert Ewing won the 35-lap Super Late Models feature for his second win in three races.

Other winners were: Dennis Lovelady (Modifieds), Phil Goodwin (Chargers), Justin Johnson (Thunder Roadsters), Patrick O’Hanley (Bandolero Young Guns) and Jacob Tilton (Bandolero Bandits).

• LVMS DRAGSTRIP — John Dowd beat Tony Niswonger to win the Super Pro title at the LVMS dragstrip in the Jerry’s Nugget Championship Series.

Other winners were: Phil Doughty (Pro), John Phlegar (Sportsman) and Sean Conner (Motorcycle).

Contact reporter Jeff Wolf at jwolf@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0247.