July 4, 2015
Macon, IL – Andrew Felker mastered lap traffic to dominate the thrilling first of POWRi Freedom Fest at Macon Speedway, ending a two year dry spell in POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget Series competition, and capturing his first victory of the 2015 season. Nathan Benson capitalized on a late-race yellow to steal the win away from Aryton Gennetten in a caution-filled POWRi Speedway Motors 600cc Outlaw Micro Series feature event.
Pole-sitter Justin Grant of Piqua, Ohio took the early lead in the POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget Series feature event, holding off rookie Ryan Robinson at the stripe to lead lap one, while Andrew Felker began piloting the Stanton-Mopar, BOSS Chassis entry towards the front. On lap five, the field would slow as Kyle Schuett and Cole Fehr would bring out the caution, as their disabled machines sat at the bottom of turns one and two. Damage sustained to Schuett’s machine would be enough to sideline him for the remainder of the event, while Fehr would continue on.
Grant would lead the field back to green flag racing, but Ryan Robinson would lose a spot as Felker capitalized on the restart and took second from the young rookie. One lap later, Thomas Meseraull would spin into the infield entering turn one, due to a mechanical failure. Meseraull’s evening would come to an end, as the 5ive-6ix Inc., Great Clips Racing entry would be parked for the rest of the feature. Grant would again show the way as the field resume racing, this time with Felker in tow. It wouldn’t be until lap 10 that Felker would be able to pounce on Grant for the lead, but when he struck, Felker’s Stanton-Mopar, BOSS Chassis entry set its sights on stretching out the lead and reeling in lap traffic.
As the laps wound down, Felker methodically worked his way through traffic and held off a late race charge from second place finisher Darren Hagen. Justin Grant brought home third with Spencer Bayston coming in fourth. Ryan Robinson rounded out the top five.
“Finally got the monkey back off our back,” stated Andrew Felker. “We had a good car, just been fighting little issues. Thought we had them out of the way and they kept getting us tonight. Luckily we have a good Stanton-Mopar SR-11 that runs awesome. We’ll get these little bugs worked out and hopefully stay up front.”
“Anytime you have to start deep in the field, I have confidence going in knowing that Austin Brown and everyone have put a great car underneath me,” explained Darren Hagen. “It’s really a testimony to how great of a car they give. Hat’s off to Andrew Felker and his team. Great to see BOSS Chassis go one-two.”
“Larry gave me a great car,” said Justin Grant. “It’s disappointing to run third after leading. A couple of bobbles I made, and you can’t afford bobbles when you race against guys this good. We’ll work on it tomorrow and see if we can get it a little better and try to beat them.”
Nathan Benson of Concordia, Missouri, always persistent and calculated, pounced on a late race restart to steal the lead away from Aryton Gennetten and never looked back in the caution-filled 20 lap POWRi Speedway Motors 600cc Outlaw Micro Series feature event. It took Benson until the late-race restart with four laps to go to snag the lead as Benson’s FTZ-powered Pace Chassis flew by Gennetten for the top position. Gennetten was left to settle for second, while Chris Cochran brought home third. Tucker Klaasmeyer took fourth, and Dereck King earned a top five.
“Aryton Gennetten has been picking up the pace here the last month or so,” stated Nathan Benson. “I’d like to see him get his first win, but I’d have to be sitting in the grand stands to really cheer him on. When I’m out on the track, I want to win. Hats off to all my guys. FTZ built us one heck of an engine. We’ll be back tomorrow.”
“It’s heartbreaking to lead so many laps in a race,” said Aryton Gennetten. “It really stings a lot to not get that win. I plan on doing really well tomorrow night. Hopefully we can continue this momentum on into the rest of the season.”
“The car was rolling around pretty good,” explained Chris Cochran. “Just moving around, starting up front like that just trying to find a good line and keep pace with the front. Always good to start off the first night good and to carry that momentum into the second night.”
Midgets
Ford Heat Race Winners: Heat 1: 5C – Colten Cottle, Heat 2: 38 – Justin Grant, Heat 3: 17 – Darren Hagen, Heat 4: 39 – Spencer Bayston, Heat 5: 55 – Nick Knepper
Toyota Semi-Feature Winners: Semi 1: 1K – Brayton Lynch, Semi 2: 27 – Tucker Klaasmeyer
Great Clips Feature Winner: 11A – Andrew Felker
POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget Series Feature Results (30 laps): 1. 11A – Andrew Felker 2. 17 – Darren Hagen 3. 38 – Justin Grant 4. 39 – Spencer Bayston 5. 71 – Ryan Robinson 6. 5X – Justin Peck 7. 55 – Nick Knepper 8. 7 – Austin Brown 9. 57D – Daniel Robinson 10. 5C – Colten Cottle 11. 27 – Tucker Klaasmeyer 12. 7X – Gage Walker 13. 15 – Tim Siner 14. 50 – Daniel Adler 15. 3N – Jake Neuman 16. 52C – Isaac Chapple 17. 1K – Brayton Lynch 18. 15F – Cole Fehr 19. 7K – Robby Parish 20. 10C – Dalton Camfield 21. 56 – Thomas Meseraull 22. 9K – Kyle Schuett
Ford Heat Race Winners: Heat 1: 21 – Aaron Andruskevitch, Heat 2: 2B – Nathan Benson, Heat 3: 42 – Andy Bishop, Heat 4: 3 – Ayrton Gennetten
Toyota Semi-Feature Winner: Semi 1: 46 – Zac Taylor
Great Clips Feature Winner: 2B – Nathan Benson
POWRi Speedway Motors 600cc Outlaw Micro Series Feature Results (20 laps):1. 2B – Nathan Benson 2. 3 – Ayrton Gennetten 3. 7C – Chris Cochran 4. 27 – Tucker Klaasmeyer 5. 1 – Dereck King 6. 21 – Aaron Andruskevitch 7. 66 – Logan Wenneshiemer 8. 77W – Joey Wirth 9. 95 – Ryan Frantz 10. 28 – Luke Verardi 11. 12B – Blake McDermott 12. 22S – Slater Helt 13. 42 – Andy Bishop 14. 46 – Zac Taylor 15. 9 – Austin Stewart 16. 30T – Tyler Vantoll 17. 83B – Jeff Beasley 18. 21A – Austin Vantoll 19. 14X – Christian Ray 20. 3B – Shelby Bosie 21. 55B – Brandon Anderson 22. 70 – Eric Shelton
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Derek Schuett
POWRi Media