Oklahoma City, OK – In fan-thrilling fashion, Christopher Bell stole the checkers in the opening night of the Fourth Annual Turnpike Challenge at I-44 Riverside Speedway and then backed it up with a dominant victory for night two, claiming a weekend sweep with the POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget and West Midget Leagues.  Bell’s 23rd career victory moved him solidly into the third position on the all-time win list with the POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget League.

Starting outside front row to defending POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget League champion Zach Daum, Bell was simply outpaced on the start by Daum.  Falling in line for second and doing his best to pursue Daum, Bell’s Keith Kunz Motorsports teammate Spencer Bayston hounded the duo.  With the top three drivers working every inch of the high-banked red clay track, the action was slowed a total of three times.

Fending off several advances by Bell, Daum charged towards lap traffic as laps wound down.  It wouldn’t be until less than a dozen laps were left that Bell capitalized on a moment and powered past Daum for the top position.  With the 30 lap feature event coming to a close, Spencer Bayston began to challenge Daum for second.  Coming to the line for all the marbles, Bayston would narrowly edge Daum for the second position by a mere three thousandths of a second.

“That was really, really tough,” commented a victorious Christopher Bell.  “The track got extremely physical with the ledge there.  I was huffing and puffing.  I need a drink of water real bad.  But, that was a lot of fun.  Thank you to all the fans that come out, they’re the reason we’re out here.”

“That was not an easy track,” Spencer Bayston said.  “It was really curby.  Going single file there on the top, one, two, three behind Bell, I was really just waiting on him to make a move so we could all race a little bit.  I didn’t want to make a move and then fall back, but then he threw a move and I fell back.  I wasn’t able to race for the lead.”

“We were pretty good there for a while, but then the curb got built up bigger and bigger and we just got too tight,” stated Zach Daum.  “That’s what we normally are, we worked all winter trying to free the car up and I think we stumbled on something there.  I can’t thank everybody enough.”

Midgets

Speedway Motors Heat Race Winners: Heat 1: 1K – BRAYTON LYNCH, Heat 2: 5D – ZACH DAUM, Heat 3: 9$ – KYLE CLARK, Heat 4: 77S – DANNY STRATTON, Heat 5: 97 – SPENCER BAYSTON, Heat 6: 52 – ANDREW DEAL, Heat 7: 9 – MATT MOORE, Heat 8: 7 – AUSTIN BROWN

C Feature Winners: 28 – ACE MCCARTHY, 08 – CANNON MCINTOSH

Semi Feature Winners: 4A – LOGAN SEAVEY, 71 – RYAN ROBINSON

Great Clips Feature Winner: 21 – CHRISTOPHER BELL

POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget Series Feature Results (30 laps): 1. 21 – CHRISTOPHER BELL  2. 97 – SPENCER BAYSTON  3. 5D – ZACH DAUM  4. 27 – TUCKER KLAASMEYER  5. 71 – RYAN ROBINSON  6. 4A – LOGAN SEAVEY  7. 44 – WESLEY SMITH  8. 32 – TREY MARCHAM  9. 9 – MATT MOORE  10. 37 – ANDREW FELKER  11. 67K – HOLLY SHELTON  12. 3N – JAKE NEUMAN  13. 77S – DANNY STRATTON  14. 82M – STEVEN SHEBESTER  15. 1K – BRAYTON LYNCH  16. 96 – CODY BREWER  17. 7 – AUSTIN BROWN  18. 52 – ANDREW DEAL  19. 57D – DANIEL ROBINSON  20. 10 – GEO WHITE  21. 9$ – KYLE CLARK  22. 28 – ACE MCCARTHY  23. 71K – TANNER CARRICK  24. 73 – JASON MCDOUGAL

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