Local middle schooler wins NASCAR youth championship

MACOMB TOWNSHIP — Like many of his L’Anse Creuse Middle School East peers, Bryce Koerner has 12 years of life rolled onto his odometer. Bryce, however, would contest this to some extent.

When Bryce was 9 in the summer of 2021, his mother, Lauren, found a listing for a quarter midget race car. They followed the listing out to the Waterford Hills racetrack and, after running the open-wheeled car for a few laps, Bryce was certain his life had only just begun.

“He told us when he exited the car that he did not begin until he sat in that car, so the nine years before did not count,” Lauren said.

One car became two, two cars became three and now with five cars to his name and three years of racing under his belt, Bryce Koerner clinched the Midwest Thunder 2024 formula modified championship.

“It feels amazing,” Bryce said. “It feels like so much is already off my chest.”

Claiming the championship with a win with 285 points scored over his five best weekends, Bryce clinched the season at the final event at Kokomo Quarter Midget Club in Kokomo, Indiana on Sept. 8.

Bryce is the first member of his family to get into racing. His father and crew chief, Nick Koerner, grew up around motorsports and while Lauren is experienced in the world of automobiles, racing had not played a major role until that fateful trip to Waterford.

The road to Bryce’s championship officially began in November 2021 at the Buckeye Winternationals in Columbus, Ohio, where he ran in a performance-restricted race for rookies to the world of quarter midget racing.

“Essentially, (a quarter midget) is a scaled-down version of an actual midget race car,” Lauren said. “It is built on a tubular frame with springs and shocks, and it can be made out of bodies of either sheet metal, fiberglass or carbon fiber. It has a full roll cage and nerf bars, and these cars run on engines that are single cylinders that are manufactured by either Honda or Briggs & Stratton.”

From there, Bryce began taking on different levels and classifications of quarter midget racing. His 2024 Midwest Thunder season would include races in five classes including the top-level formula modified class, and events would typically run from 8 a.m. all the way into the late evening.

“It takes a lot of hard work and dedication to the class, and you just have to get the setups spot-on,” Bryce said. “You have to have a good setup in the car. You have to have a good mindset going into the race. If you don’t, it might not end up a very good day.”

Success in racing was not immediate. Lauren describes the past three years as a steady progression of increasing goals to hit. Across four classes in his 2023 season, Bryce achieved two top 10 finishes. With the addition of a formula modified campaign — initially against Lauren’s wishes due to the speed of the class — new goals had to be set.

“We said for the two classes last year that (Bryce) had (top 10s), try and make a top five, and for the two you were not able to, try and make a top 10,” Lauren said. “In one of them, he actually got fourth in, so he went from 12th last year to fourth. That is the biggest thing for us, that incremental, obtainable goal and to keep plugging away.”

While winning is always great and nothing is sweeter than a championship, Bryce says some of his coolest moments have come from meeting NASCAR Cup Series stars along the way. Bryce received his first checkered flag from NASCAR Cup Series driver Carson Hocevar at the pro’s home track, Kalamazoo Speedway. Trips to Darlington, South Carolina, for events in 2023 and 2024 have led to meetings with Cup drivers Ross Chastain and Joey Logano, respectively. A 2023 trip to Watkins Glen, New York, led to Bryce joining John Hunter Nemechek for NASCAR Xfinity Series driver introductions alongside his younger brother and fellow racer Oliver Koerner. But the coolest meeting of all was a random encounter with Tony Stewart in a Fort Wayne, Indiana, hotel lobby.

“It was really cool, but it was kind of funny meeting him at a hotel on New Year’s Eve,” Bryce said. “We were staying there, and he came to race there in his USAC midget, and he stopped by at the hotel for a little bit. I asked if he could sign my two trophies that I got for the day; they were two fourth-place trophies and he said yeah. Those are probably two of my favorite trophies I have.”

With Bryce’s Midwest Thunder formula modified championship taking place in a NASCAR Youth Series sanctioned event, questions have begun to be asked about where his racing career will go next — and how far he can take it.

“I am trying to go the legend cars/late model route, but it’s been between that and deciding if I wanted to do some USAC midget cars and all that kind of stuff,” Bryce said. “It’s kind of waiting to see what happens, but we did have a friend that offered a test ride in a legend car in Florida.”

Asked if he can take this all the way to the top?

“Yes,” Bryce said. “I think I could be able to if I put my mind to it.”

Bryce’s 2025 season is set to focus on the national NASCAR Youth Series events. The series is expected to kick off in February 2025.

The racing journeys of Bryce and Oliver are chronicled on the Koerner Racing Facebook page.