Marion, IL. – Joe B. Miller of Millersville, Missouri claimed his fourth POWRi Speedway Motors 600cc Outlaw Micro Series victory of the 2014 season at the 1/8 mile high-banked Southern Illinois Raceway.
Pole-sitter Dereck King of Goreville, Illinois would lead the field to the green in his FTZ-powered Boss Chassis, taking charge on lap one as Miller’s attempt to put pressure on King had no leg to stand on. With five laps in the book and King stretching out his lead, Jake Neuman would slow entering turn one, coming to a stop in turn two, bringing out the first caution of the 30 lap feature event. Shelby Bosie of Sherman, Illinois would pull to the infield, suffering mechanical woes unrelated to Neuman’s slowing.
As King would lead the field for the restart, Broc Pemberton of Mattoon, Illinois would slow coming off turn two with apparent mechanical issues, bringing out the second caution of the evening. With the field lined back up, upon taking the green flag for the restart, Dereck King’s rear axle would snap, sending Scott Sawyer of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma flipping as he ramped King’s right rear tire. The duo also collected Frank Flud of Pryor, Oklahoma who had nowhere to go. Both King and Sawyer would be ok, but the damage sustained to both cars would be enough to force the drivers to the pits. Flud would restart and tag the back of the field.
Due to King’s night-ending misfortune, Joe B. Miller would inherit the lead on lap six and lead the field to green. On the restart, Miller would pull away from Joey Wirth of Waterloo, Illinois running in the second position as Jeremy Camp of Blue Mound, Illinois did his best to put pressure on Wirth for second. The pace that Miller set would be a blistering one and he would soon enter lap traffic, with Wirth and Camp not too far behind. As Miller worked his way through lap traffic, Camp would ramp up the pressure for second on Wirth. With 19 laps in the books, Layne Himebaugh would receive contact from behind and spin, bringing out the yellow.
With the field bunched back up and Miller comfortably up front, Camp would be given another chance to work over Wirth for second, but Wirth was too strong running the high side as Camp craftily worked the bottom. Coming in fourth was Matt Howard of Lawrence, Kansas and rounding out the top five was Nathan Lauderbaugh.
“I hate to see that for King, but a win’s a win,” said a victorious Joe B. Miller. “We’re trying our hand at the sprint car deal this year and we’re trying to keep it split half and half for the micro when we can and the sprint car when we can. We were in Mt. Vernon headed to Macon [Macon, Illinois to run the sprint car] and it looked like rain so we made the decision at the last minute to come down here and thankfully it worked out. Without everybody’s help this wouldn’t be possible.”
“After that last caution I started seeing him [Camp] almost every lap and I was getting real worried,” explained Joey Wirth bringing home a career best, second place finish. “I just wanted the checkered to fly right away. I wanted to win but man it’s good to get a podium. This is my third year in micros and my second podium, so it’s a win for us.”
“It was a pretty good run,” said third place finisher Jeremy Camp after a thrilling run from 17th. “After that heat race I was ready to load it up and go home, but we made it back and won the semi. We had the bottom working pretty good so we just stuck down there, and then we were coming there at the end but I just kept missing my marks.”
POWRi Speedway Motors 600cc Outlaw Micro Series Feature Results (30 laps): 1. 51B – Joe B. Miller 2. 77W – Joey Wirth 3. 23 – Jeremy Camp 4. 8H – Matt Howard 5. 29L – Nate Lauderbaugh 6. 9K – Kyle Schuett 7. 81 – Frank Flud 8. 7H – Lindsey Howard 9. 40 – Devin Feger 10. 2B – Nathan Benson 11. 37H – Nicholas Howard 12. 3N – Jake Neuman 13. 52 – Jason Harms 14. 9 – Layne Himebaugh 15. 20 – Dylan Benscoter 16. 44 – Ayrton Gennetten 17. 20X – Tayler Hungate 18. 20S – Jacob Sanderson 19. 14P – Broc Pemberton 20. 1 – Dereck King 21. 29 – Scott Sawyer 22. 3B – Shelby Bosie 23. 23K – Kyle Stubblefield
For more information, visit www.powri.com
Contact:
Derek Schuett
POWRi Media
Derek.schuett@gmail.com