Story by Brian Walker – Walker Racing Promotions
Belleville, IL | July 19, 2014 – In what could’ve been the most thrilling night all year long, a total of 30 POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget Series cars and 37 POWRi Speedway Motors 600cc Outlaw Micro Series drivers showed up for action at Belle-Clair Speedway as the “Battle at Belle-Vegas” commenced.
The trip to the Belleville, Illinois 1/5th mile was the third time that POWRi has visited the always exciting facility. With Belle-Clair’s local Late Model division also in action, fans were in for a triple threat of intense and crazy racing.
The POWRi Midget division would see four heat races and one semi feature that would help lineup the 30-lap feature, while the POWRi Micro division ran five heat races and two semi features to determine the starting order of the 20-lap feature.
Coming into the night it was almost anyone’s game to win with the dominant Keith Kunz Motorsports trio of Christopher Bell, Rico Abreu, and Tanner Thorson all idle in action. With guys like Darren Hagen, Austin Brown, Andrew Felker, Nick Knepper, Zach Daum, and Parker Price-Miller all competing in action, the night was set to be an incredible show from the beginning.
On the POWRi Micro side it was almost an open game as well. With such talent like Nathan Benson, Dereck King, Joe B. Miller, Jeremy Camp, and Aaron Andruskevitch in the pits, it was almost impossible to pick a for sure winner in the 20-lap main event.
The night kicked off in almost the best fashion possible as Austin Brown and Nick Knepper were throwing slidejobs for the lead during Midget heat one, which resulted in Brown edging Knepper for the win by an incredible margin of .024 seconds. Parker Price-Miller, Zach Daum, and Darren Hagen would win the remaining three Midget heat races. Matt Ponder, Aaron Andruskevitch, Nathan Benson, Jeremy Zumwalt, and Shelby Bosie claimed the five POWRi Micro heat races.
An exciting Midget semi feature would see Tony Roney and Seth Motsinger battle side by side for the lead almost all race long. Terry Babb would recover from a broken front end in his heat race as he stormed to the B-Main win and transferred Tony Roney, Dereck King, Darren Kingston, Seth Motsinger, and Kyle Schuett along with himself to the tail of the feature lineup
On the Micro side it was Nic Harris and Stanley Kreisel who picked up the B-Main wins while Joe B. Miller, Ayrton Gennetten, Jeff Beasley, and Clayton Hisle also transferred to the rear of the 22-car, 20-lap feature field.
After Jacob Patton used a provisional to make a 23-car POWRi Midget feature, the field assembled side by side and prepared for 30-laps of intense action at the 1/5th mile of Belle-Clair Speedway! With Jake Blackhurst on the pole and Darren Hagen alongside, the two drivers brought us to the green flag.
Mapleton, Illinois native Jake Blackhurst immediately jumped ahead of Hagen and led the opening lap in his Kitchen Cooked #25 DRC-Esslinger. Hagen quickly stepped up the pressure and right when the two started trading the top spot, the red flag for a wildly flipping Derrick Myers in turns three and four would come out. Myers would be fine and the cars would re-fire with 29 laps to go.
The Riverside, California native of Hagen would make quick work of Blackhurst on the restart as he powered his Five-Six Inc., Shane Hmiel owned #56 Beast-Esslinger around the cushion of the 1/5th mile and stormed into the lead on lap two. Austin Brown would pilot his KBR Performance, Toyota powered BOSS Chassis around Blackhurst the next lap as he began to hunt down Hagen for the lead.
Another red flag for Andy Malpocker and Spencer Bayston would fly on lap five as Hagen was forced to hold off a charging Brown. On the restart all eyes would be on the “hometown hero” from right there in Belleville, Illinois as Nick Knepper and Zach Daum were throwing slidejob after slidejob for the fourth spot.
The yellow would soon come out as Daum, trying to cross over a Knepper slidejob would come to a stop after stalling in turns three and four. Knepper immediately jumped back up on the wheel as the restart went green. Putting his right rear almost on the fence and pounding down the cushion atop the high-banked 1/5th mile as he stormed past Blackhurst and into third.
As Hagen was checking out on the field, the battle for fourth began to heat up as Price-Miller, Felker, Jake Neuman, and Tony Roney began swapping positions. The battle would come to a screeching halt when Neuman went flipping hard down the backstretch and brought out the red flag, he would be fine, but done for the night.
The restart with 17 laps remaining would see an incredible battle break out for second as Knepper and Brown started throwing sliders left and right at the action packed 1/5th mile. Knepper was finally able to complete a crossover move on Brown and move his K&K Garage, Spike-Esslinger into second behind Hagen.
The battle with Brown would prove costly to Knepper as Hagen had already built up a huge straightaway lead as he entered heavy lap traffic. While the front three were all separated by a lengthy margin, Felker, Roney, Blackhurst, and Price-Miller all continued to fight for the fourth and fifth positions.
Hagen would continue to slice and dice his way through the thick and thin lap traffic as the laps wound down. No more cautions nor drivers would slow down the #56’s monstrous pace as the Riverside, California native of Darren Hagen murdered the field to claim his fourth POWRi Midget victory of the season and 23rd of his career.
“I couldn’t do it without these guys,” said a victorious Darren Hagen. “I definitely have one of the best crew chiefs in the world, Levi Jones. What an awesome guy to drive for. And Shane Hmiel, what a great car owner. I have to take my hats off to these guys for giving me a great racecar to drive.”
Following Hagen to the line was hometown Belleville native of Nick Knepper in second, Austin Brown with a career best of third, Terry Babb charged from 17th to fourth, and Jake Blackhurst rounded out the top five. Andrew Felker, Tony Roney, Parker Price-Miller, Dereck King, and Ross Rankine rounded out the top ten.
Up next was the 20-lap POWRi Speedway Motors 600cc Outlaw Micro Series feature. Jeremy Zumwalt and Shelby Bosie would lead the field to green, but Bosie would be a scratch with a fuel issue before the feature rolled on the track. Thus, giving Zumwalt and three-time POWRi Micro champion, Dereck King the front row.
Zumwalt would quickly jump to the lead on the bottom side, but King was pounding down the fence up top. Just past five laps the Vienna, Illinois native of King was able to drive around Zumwalt by way of the cushion as he stormed into the race lead. The race calmed down for much of the 20-lap main event as the entire top four of King, Zumwalt, Benson, and Camp were all up top and on the cushion.
A green-white-checkered finish would setup an incredible final few laps as King led Benson, Zumwalt, and Camp to the final restart. The Concordia, Missouri native of Benson immediately chunked a monster slidejob on King in turn one and two. King crossed him over quickly, but Benson refused to go down without a fight as threw another monster slidejob going three and four while coming to the white flag.
King yet again crossed over the defending POWRi Micro champion, but Benson was back yet again in turns one and two with another huge slider. Benson threw one last move at him going into three and four while coming to the checkered flag. Expecting another typical crossover was Benson, but King mixed up and railed the cushion all the way through turns three and four as he flew around Benson and took home the victory!
“Progressively we’ve gotten better,” explained a victorious King. “I can’t thank Boss Chassis enough. As far as I’m concerned, we’ve beat the best in the business. I elbowed up there at the end and said he’s [Nathan Benson] going to really have to earn it because I want it worse than he did. What a track, it was fun.”
Driving the Josh Kilgore-owned, FTZ-powered Boss Chassis to the win as King only padded his lead as the all-time POWRi Micro feature winner. Current POWRi Micro point leader and defending champion, Nathan Benson grabbed a very close second. Jeremy Camp picked up third, Jeremy Zumwalt held on for fourth, and Devin Feger charged from 16th to fifth.
Tonight will see both the POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget Series and POWRi Speedway Motors 600cc Outlaw Micro Series head to Farmington, Missouri as they return to St. Francois County Raceway for the first time in eight years.
POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget Series Results!
Heat One (8 laps): 1. Austin Brown (3), 2. Nick Knepper (4), 3. Spencer Bayston (5), 4. Derrick Myers (7), 5. Seth Motsinger (6), 6. Joe B. Miller (1), 7. Johnny Murdock (2), 8. Derek Rossio (8).
Heat Two (8 laps): 1. Parker Price-Miller (2), 2. Jake Blackhurst (8), 3. Daniel Adler (5), 4. Ross Rankine (6), 5. Dalton Camfield (7), 6. Dave Camfield (4), 7. Kyle Schuett (1), 8. Tyler Robins (3).
Heat Three (8 laps): 1. Zach Daum (3), 2. Garett Aitken (5), 3. Andy Malpocker (4), 4. Daniel Robinson (6), 5. Darren Kingston (1), 6. Terry Babb (7), 7. Brian Riedick (2).
Heat Four (8 laps): 1. Darren Hagen (4), 2. Jake Neuman (1), 3. Andrew Felker (7), 4. Tony Roney (2), 5. Jacob Patton (5), 6. Dereck King (6), 7. Dave Camfield III (3).
B-Main (12 laps, 6 transfer): 1. Terry Babb (4), 2. Tony Roney (2), 3. Dereck King (6), 4. Darren Kingston (5), 5. Seth Motsinger (1), 6. Kyle Schuett (12), 7. Jacob Patton (3), 8. Dave Camfield (7), 9. Tyler Robins (13), 10. Joe B. Miller (8), 11. Dave Camfield III (9), 12. Brian Riedick (11), 13. Johnny Murdock (10), 14. Derek Rossio (14).
A-Main (30 laps): 1. Darren Hagen (2), 2. Nick Knepper (8), 3. Austin Brown (3), 4. Terry Babb (17), 5. Jake Blackhurst (1), 6. Andrew Felker (6), 7. Tony Roney (18), 8. Parker Price-Miller (7), 9. Dereck King (19), 10. Ross Rankine (14), 11. Seth Motsinger (21), 12. Daniel Robinson (15), 13. Daniel Adler (10), 14. Darren Kingston (20), 15. Kyle Schuett (22), 16. Jacob Patton (23), 17. Jake Neuman (12), 18. Garrett Aitken (5), 19. Zach Daum (4), 20. Andy Malpocker (13), 21. Spencer Bayston (9), 22. Derrick Myers (11), 23. Dalton Camfield (16).
Lap Leader(s): Jake Blackhurst 1; Darren Hagen 2-30.
Hard Charger(s): Terry Babb +13
POWRi Speedway Motors 600cc Outlaw Micro Series Results!
Heat One (8 laps): 1. Matt Ponder (2), 2. Kurt Westerfield (1), 3. Jeff Beasley (3), 4. Tyler VanToll (4), 5. Devin Feger (8), 6. Michael Bustamante (7), 7. John Potter (6), 8. Jacob Bowen (5).
Heat Two (8 laps): 1. Aaron Andruskevitch (1), 2. Jason Harms (2), 3. Jeremy Camp (6), 4. Stanley Kreisel (4), 5. Ayrton Gennetten (5), 6. Nic Harris (8), 7. Steve Finn (3), 8. Nick Shaefer (7).
Heat Three (8 laps): 1. Nathan Benson (3), 2. Evan Turner (1), 3. Jake Neuman (5), 4. Austin VanToll (6), 5. Heath Ross (7), 6. Bryan Nance (2), 7. Sean Robbins (8), 8. Daniel Malpocker (4).
Heat Four (8 laps): 1. Jeremy Zumwalt (4), 2. Joey Wirth (2), 3. Derek LeMaster (5), 4. Evan Weyant (3), 5. Rob Cook (1), 6. Alec Long (7), 7. Alex Owen (6), 8. Mike Smallwood (8).
Heat Five (8 laps): 1. Shelby Bosie (4), 2. Broc Pemberton (1), 3. Dereck King (7), 4. Austin Stewart (3), 5. Joe B. Miller (5), 6. Miles Paulus (2), 7. Clayton Hisle (6).
B-Main One (12 laps, 3 transfer): 1. Nic Harris (4), 2. Joe B. Miller (5), 3. Jeff Beasley (1), 4. Evan Weyant (3), 5. Sean Robbins (8), 6. Alec Long (6), 7. Nick Shaefer (11), 8. Alex Owen (9), 9. Tyler VanToll (2), 10. Bryan Nance (7), 11. Steve Finn (10), 12. Daniel Malpocker (12).
B-Main Two (12 laps, 3 transfer): 1. Stanley Kreisel (2), 2. Ayrton Gennetten (4), 3. Clayton Hisle (9), 4. Heath Ross (1), 5. Rob Cook (6), 6. Miles Paulus (7), 7. Michael Bustamante (5), 8. John Potter (8), 9. Mike Smallwood (10), 10. Jacob Bowen (11), 11. Austin Stewart (3).
A-Main (20 laps): 1. Dereck King (4), 2. Nathan Benson (3), 3. Jeremy Camp (7), 4. Jeremy Zumwalt (1), 5. Devin Feger (16), 6. Matt Ponder (5), 7. Aaron Andruskevitch (6), 8. Kurt Westerfield (12), 9. Jason Harms (10), 10. Jake Neuman (8), 11. Ayrton Gennetten (20), 12. Evan Turner (13), 13. Austin VanToll (15), 14. Derek LeMaster (9), 15. Joey Wirth (11), 16. Joe B. Miller (19), 17. Nic Harris (17), 18. Jeff Beasley (21), 19. Broc Pemberton (14), 20. Clayton Hisle (22), 21. Stanley Kreisel (18), 22. Shelby Bosie (2).
Lap Leader(s):
Hard Charger(s): Devin Feger +11