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Belleville, IL. – Bryan Clauson of Noblesville, Indiana claimed the 31 lap POWRi Lucas oil National Midget Series portion of the Charlene Meents Memorial at the high-banked 1/5th mile Belle-Clair Speedway in Belleville, Illinois. Kyle Schuett of Philo, Illinois scored his first career POWRi Speedway Motors 600cc Outlaw Micro Series victory with a last lap, last corner pass.
At the drop of the green flag, pole-sitter Colton Cottle would barely edge Spencer Bayston at the line for the early lead of lap one. Piloting the Cottle Flooring-sponsored, Esslinger-powered DRC, Cottle would check out leaving Parker Price-Miller battling with Spencer Bayston for second. Just as Cottle came up on lap traffic, the red flag would come out as Mark Chisholm, about to be lapped, got upside down in turn three, collecting Colton Cottle, Spencer Bayston, Justin Grant, and Parker Price-Miller. Chisholm would be alright and able to restart. The other drivers involved were able to restart, except for Justin Grant and Parker Price-Miller who would be done for the remainder of the event.
Justin Peck of Monrovia, Indiana would lead the field back to green in his Duracoat Products-sponsored, Esslinger-powered DRC upon inheriting the lead after the red. Peck would take off with Bryan Clauson and Zach Daum in tow. As Clauson’s Rusty Kunz Racing/Curb-Agajanian entry closed in on Peck, the duo would begin to battle raising the crowd to its feet. On lap 14, Clauson would make the pass stick and take over the lead from Peck. With Clauson comfortably out front, Daum, Peck and Tyler Thomas would all battle for second with plenty of slide jobs to go around.
As Clauson worked his way through lap traffic, the red flag would once again come out on lap 21 as Andrew Felker got tipped over on his side in turn four. Also involved was Mark Chisholm. All drivers involved were alright and able to continue racing. During the red Terry Babb would overheat and take his Fontana-powered Spike behind the wall to the work area, and be done for the evening.
When racing resumed, Clauson would power into a dominate lead, checking out from the rest of the field. As Clauson caught lap traffic, Zach Daum and Justin Peck would do their best to catch Clauson, but to no avail as Clauson would claim the checkers to the Charlene Meents Memorial, followed to the line by Zach Daum in second and Justin Peck in third. Coming in fourth was Tyler Thomas and rounding out the top five was Michael Pickens.
“I can’t thank everybody that works on this 63 car enough,” stated 2014 Charlene Meents Memorial Champion Bryan Clauson. “They made my job easy. I got a little help there early with that red that took out two or three guys which made it a little bit easier on us. It’s an honor to win the Arnie Knepper and now the Charlene Meents. It’s a pretty special opportunity to win these races. I love little Belleville.”
“We come out of here and we’re not tore up, we’re not upside down, and we’re in one piece,” said second place finisher Zach Daum. “I drove it harder than I ever had before here and we couldn’t gain on him, so I just got in a rhythm to finish the race.”
“They gave me a good setup and made my job easy,” explained third place finisher Justin Peck. “I wish we could have brought home second, I thought we were a little bit better than Zach, but he drove the wheels off it and made less mistakes than we did. I have to give it up to Clauson; he’s always fast here, and everywhere.”
Driving the Progressive Propane-sponsored, Yamaha-powered Sawyer Chassis, Kyle Schuett of Philo, Illinois won the action packed 20 lap POWRi Speedway Motors 600cc Outlaw Micro Series feature with a last lap, last corner pass on Aaron Andruskevitch. Schuett’s win was his first career POWRi Speedway Motors 600cc Outlaw Micro Series feature victory. “I just saw him get a little covered up in lap traffic and I made the move on the bottom,” said Schuett. “It worked out and I’m speechless. I can’t thank my mom, dad, and all my sponsors enough.”
“I had a good run going and I saw Nathan put his nose in a couple of times,” stated second place finisher Aaron Andruskevitch of Riverton, Illinois. “I was competing with him, but I didn’t know Schuett was back there. Still, it was a better night than last night. We struggled quite a bit last night.”
“These two tracks [Macon and Belle-Clair] are really my favorite,” said third place finisher Nathan Benson of Concordia, Missouri. “They’re the hardest to win on because they’re so technical and everything’s so tight. We had a heck of a heat race and that got us starting up front, but we just faded there at the end. Hats off to Kyle that was well deserved. I hate running third, but I’m happy to see him win.”
POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget Series Feature results (31 laps): 1. 63 – Bryan Clauson 2. 5D – Zach Daum 3. 5X – Justin Peck 4. 91T – Tyler Thomas 5. 2st – Michael Pickens 6. 11R – Ryan Chriswell 7. 15 – Tim Siner 8. 56 – Darren Hagen 9. 5C – Colten Cottle 10. 11A – Andrew Felker 11. 7 – Austin Brown 12. 57D – Daniel Robinson 13. 35T – Tyler Robbins 14. 22 – Andy Malpocker 15. 39 – Spencer Bayston 16. 39R – Ross Rankine 17. 2 – Seth Motsinger 18. 56X – Mark Chisholm 19. 7X – Gage Walker 20. 88 – Terry Babb 21. 35 – Justin Grant 22. 9P – Parker Price-Miller
POWRi Speedway Motors 600cc Outlaw Micro Series Feature results (20 Laps): 1. 9K – Kyle Schuett 2. 21 – Aaron Andruskevitch 3. 2B – Nathan Benson 4. 44 – Ayrton Gennetten 5. 51B – Joe B. Miller 6. 77W – Joey Wirth 7. 3B – Shelby Bosie 8. 8H – Matt Howard 9. 16B – Dakota Busche 10. 19 – Natasha Cox 11. N2 – Nic Harris 12. 00 – Matt Ponder 13. 28V – Luke Verardi 14. 23 – Jeremy Camp 15. 52 – Jason Harms 16. 65E – Chad Elliott 17. 14 – Kurt Westerfield 18. 39 – Austin Stewart 19. 109 – Tim Mervert 20. 37H – Nick Howard 21. 55 – Shawn Sears 22. 79J – Jacob Patton 23. 1 – Nick Knepper
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Contact:
Derek Schuett
POWRi Media
Derek.schuett@gmail.com