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Springfield, MO –
Springfield Raceway PR / Tim Tuttle
Lucas Oil POWRi PR
New Zealand’s Michael Pickens drove to his fourth feature victory in four events over the past two seasons in the POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget Series, leading all 30 laps Saturday at Springfield Raceway.
“We backed up what we did last year,” Pickens said.
The four-time New Zealand champion’s four wins have been accomplished at four different tracks. He won Friday at Valley Speedway in Grain Valley, Mo., and last year at Peoria (Ill.) Speedway and Fayette County Speedway in Brownstown, Ill. The 29-year-old also has Midget victories in Badger, USAC and Australia.
Pickens started from pole and used a combination of speed and savvy to keep his Esslinger-powered Breka underneath him in a race when his biggest threats fell by the wayside with tire and mechanical failures on the fast quarter-mile track.
“The race was about tire management and not burning them up,” Pickens said. “You’ve got to be thinking all the time.”
Brett Anderson of Belleville, Ill., climbed from 19th starting position to second by the 17th lap and was less than a car length behind in a rousing seven-lap challenge that included making side-by-side contact in turn four. But at the start of the 24th lap, Anderson’s right rear tire deflated and sent his XXX-Fontana sliding off the track in turn two.
“I popped a tire,” Anderson said. “I went from 19th to passing for the lead. It’s a shame. It sucks.”
Garrett Aitken of Paris, Ill., climbed from 10th on the grid to move to second and within a couple of car lengths of Pickens by the fifth lap. The 16-year-old POWRi rookie maintained second until Anderson passed him and was second for the restart on lap 24. But Aitken’s left-rear tire went flat and he fell out.
Jonathan Beason of Broken Arrow, Okla., made a brilliant restart from third on the 24th lap and passed Pickens for the lead on the back straight, but the caution came out and the running order reverted to the previous lap.
“I started 14th and was biding my time,” Beason said. “I had some running room on the restart and got into the lead, but a rock knocked an injector off the engine and I was just limping around to the end from there.”
Rico Abreu finished second, his best finish in POWRi and in a Midget, in a Toyota-powered Bullet. The 20-year-old from Rutherford, Calif., passed Beason for second on a restart and briefly had the lead before a caution came out with two laps to go.
“I passed Pickens, then the caution came out and I had to restart second,” Abreu said. “I drove from the back (starting 13th) and had to get to the front before the track took rubber. We were good all around the race track. I was trying to save the tires, but at the same time, you’ve got to use up the tires to get up front. I started getting nervous when all those tires starting blowing up.”
Abreu wasn’t able to mount a serious challenge in the two laps after the final restart, finishing three car lengths behind Pickens.
“It’s good to be up there in the hunt and finish in the top three,” Abreu said.
Blake Hahn, a 17-year-old from Sapulpa, Okla., started on the outside of the front row and drove steadily to finish a POWRi-best third.
“It felt great to run third to those two (Pickens, Abreu) guys,” Hahn said.
Springfield was a combined POWRi Lucas Oil National/West Series event. Chett Gehrke of Broken Arrow, Okla., who is running for both championships, was the top West finisher in fifth.
In support action on the Green Lawn Funeral Homes Sponsored event Webb City USRA Modified Driver Mitch Keeter made a move on the low side of the Speedway around leader Jerry Lankton on lap 6 to take his second win of the season on the racy “ Quick – Quarter “ in the Budweiser USRA Modified feature.
The feature saw 4 different leaders with the top 8 shuffling back and forth. Rob Muilenburg took the opening lead for two laps and then John Yeoman took charge. Lankton swung to the outside on the high groove and grabbed the lead on lap 4 until giving – up the top spot to Keeter. Lankton rallied back in the latter stages of the race to apply pressure to Keeter and gave several looks to the leader. Behind the top two were Yeoman, A fast moving Brian Green, and early leader Muilenburg.
Reliable Chevrolet USRA B Modified action had current National point leader Scott Drake take advantage of a lap 13 caution and overtook leader Don Luna to capture their feature event.
Luna had built a large lead over the field until the caution waved for a spinning car in turn 3. As Drake made the winning pass over Luna in turn 4, Ryan Hendrix followed Drake to take over second place and gave chase for the top spot with Luna still in the hunt. Following the top 3 to the stripe were Michael Maggard and current track point leader Mike Hailmann.
Wheeler Metals Legends cars again gave the capacity crowd an outstanding feature event with 4 different leaders and as many as 8 drivers running at the front of the pack. Jay Reynolds took the opening lead as Park Jones quickly went to the front pack. Wayne Johnston threw his name in the front pack as point leader Mike Hailmann and Justin Comer were on the move forward.
Johnston then took command and Jones on the following lap. When Jones took over, Hailmann went to the extreme outside groove while Comer waited patiently of the bottom groove. Hailmann would grab the lead on lap 16 with Jones right beside him. On the final lap, Comer made the bottom lane stick and went right around the top 2 to secure his first win of the season. Jones crossed the line in a very close second followed by Hailmann, Billy Cottrill, and Caleb McDugle.
Casey’s General Stores Midwest Modified action saw Craig Keeter take advantage of a couple of restarts and hold off the late race surge from current point leader Trevor Drake to capture his first win of the season. Drake made several attempts to take the top spot with Keeter holding a fast and smooth line tonight. As Drake gave chase, Gary Krebs along with Todd McGregor started to run down the top runners while racing for position before finishing in this order as Taylor Moore completed the top 5.
Pepsi Pure Stock action also saw several different leaders and 3 wide action and some wild racing coming for the checkered flag. Bret Testerman and leader Jack Hamer made contact in turn 4 as both drivers went spinning around. Testerman was able to keep going forward to secure his second win of the season as Hamer slid back to a 6th place finish. Tanner Sitton would lead the opening 6 laps before Testerman grabbed the top spot. Sitton rallied back as Hamer patiently in the 3 wide battle for the lead. Hamer took the lead on lap 9 as Testerman and Sitton closed back in on the leader. With the wild finish behind the winner was Tyler Thulin, Darrell Storment, Sitton and lady driver Elizabeth Jolley.
Veteran Bob Maggard Sr. took the early lead and held on to capture his first win of the season in the Street Stock division. Following Maggard was point leader Jim Reid, Wayne Bysor, early contender Wayne Morris and Jason Bresee as over 110 race teams checked in the pits.
Action continues next Saturday night with racing at 7PM sharp featuring USRA Modifieds, USRA B Modifieds, Legends, Pure Stocks, Midwest Moods, Young Lions Legends and Street Stocks.
Results-Green Lawn Funeral Homes Night
USRA Modified A Ft-1)Mitch Keeter-Webb City 2)Jerry Lankton-Lampe 3)John Yeoman III-Joplin 4)Brian Green Pierce City 5)Rob Muilenburg-Sparta 6)Jackie Dalton-Carthage 7)Erik Maggard-Brighton 8)Billy Dalton-Exeter 9)Dave Elson-Springfield 10)Corey Weir-Nixa 11)Fred Slagle-Pierce City 12)Bobby Pearish-Oronogo 13)Jason Summers-Carthage 14)Scott Symmonds-Bolivar
USRA B Modified A Ft-1)Scott Drake-Webb City 2)Ryan Hendrix-Joplin 3)Don Luna-St James 4)Michael Maggard-Springfield 5)Mike Hailmann-Reed Springs 6)Kaleb Copher-Webb City 7)Wayne Graybeal-Springfield 8)Mike Mansker-Springfield 9)Jeremy Thulin-Miami, Okla. 10)Jared Thulin-Miami, Okla. 11)John Hurn-Joplin 12)Blake Ellis-Sarcoxie 13)Shane Bias-Everton 14)Jeff Scroggins-Brookline 15)Ken Scott-Willard 16)Jon Yeoman Jr.-Granby 17)Gary Rodocker-Willard 18)Aaron Speck-Republic
Legends A Ft-1)Justin Comer-Joplin 2)Park Jones-Joplin 3)Mike Hailmann-Reed Springs 4)Billy Cottrill-Joplin 5)Caleb McDugle-Quapaw, Okla. 6)James McDugle-Quapaw, Okla. 7)Matt Gruenberg-Joplin 8)Tyler Horton-Joplin 9)Bill Cottrill-Joplin 10)Paul Horton-Joplin 11)Darrell McWhirter-Bentonville, Ark. 12)Rodney Baird-Oldfield 13)Wesley Smith-Nixa 14)Kylan Garner-Sarcoxie 15)Wayne Johnston-Rolla 16)Jay Reynolds-Springfield 17)Larry Smoot-Joplin 18)Ty McWhirter-Bentonville, Ark. DNS-Calvin Garner-Sarcoxie
Midwest Modz A Ft-1)Craig Keeter-Webb City 2)Trevor Drake-Webb City 3)Gary Krebs-Clever 4)Todd McGregor-Clever 5)Taylor Moore-Bois D’ Arc 6)Dakota Maggard-Republic 7)Rusty Forrest-Ozark 8)Bobby Gough-Joplin 9)Shawn Eggeman-Willard 10)Steve Moore-Springfield 11)Michael Page-Webb City 12)Ken Walker-Springfield 13)Rusty Adams-Miami, Okla. 14)Austin Johnson-Joplin 15)Nathan Gold-Willard 16)Mike Cooper-Joplin 17)Matthew Thulin-Miami, Okla.
Pure Stock A Ft-1)Bret Testerman-Miami, Okla. 2)Tyler Thulin-Miami, Okla. 3)Darrell Storment-Bolivar 4)Tanner Sitton-Bolivar 5)Elizabeth Jolley-Billings 6)Jack Hamer-Ava 7)Josh Bell-Willard 8)Lenny Bell-Willard 9)Philip Schloesser-Everton DNS-David Moellering-Billings, Cody Dudley-Joplin
Street Stock A Ft-1) Bob Maggard Sr.-Brighton 2) Jim Reid-Springfield 3)Wayne Bysor-Bolivar 4)Wayne Morris-Miami, Okla. 5)Jason Bresee-Joplin DNS-John Gamble-Marshfield, Daniel Deason-Bolivar