Belleville, IL. – Tyler Thomas of Owasso, Oklahoma led every lap from the pole to claim his first POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget Series win of 2014 and Joe B. Miller took the win to snag his third POWRi Speedway Motors 600cc Outlaw Micro Series victory for the fourth and final night of Illinois SPEED week at the 1/5th mile high-banked Belle-Clair Speedway.
Sunday’s event at Belle-Clair Speedway was the fourth and final night of four straight nights of racing for the 2014 Illinois SPEED week. Teams competed at Quincy Raceways in Quincy, Illinois on Thursday, June 5th and Lincoln Speedway in Lincoln, Illinois on Friday, June 6th. Saturday’s event on June 7th at Macon Speedway in Macon, Illinois was cancelled due to rain.
Tyler Thomas started on the pole of the field and at the drop of the green flag, began to pull away while a battle for the second, third, and fourth positions ensued between Korey Weyant, Andy Malpocker, and Garrett Aitken. With three laps in the books, the caution flag flew for the first time as Jason McDougal of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma got sideways in turns one and two and saved it, but collected Derrick Myers of Stonington, Illinois who had nowhere to go. When Thomas led the field to the green, he would again take off as Aitken and Weyant battled for the third position. Their dual would be delayed as Jason McDougal would slow in turn three with a flat right rear tire.
As racing resumed, Aitken and Malpocker would battle for third. With 11 laps down, Weyant’s left rear tire on his A.J. Felker owned, Esslinger-powered FSC Chassis would go flat causing him to spin entering turn three. When the field restarted, a fierce battle for the third position between Andy Malpocker, Austin Brown, Daniel Adler and Seth Motsinger would ensue. With 17 laps down and Tyler Thomas out front and slowly pulling away, Parker Price-Miller of Kokomo, Indiana would slow on the front stretch, ailing from mechanical issues, ending his evening.
With racing back underway, the battle for the second position heated up as Garrett Aitken, Andy Malpocker, and Seth Motsinger continued to mix it up with drivers using every inch of Belle-Clair Speedway. With 24 laps in the book, Jake Blackhurst of Farmington, Illinois would slow and bring out the caution, unfortunately done for the evening. With Tyler Thomas leading the field to green, Malpocker, Aitken, and Motsinger would continue right where they left off in their battle for second. With Malpocker’s Purpose Wrecker-sponsored, Esslinger-powered Spike gaining an advantage over Aitken and Motsinger, Aitken would smack the cushion coming off turn four and lose ground to Seth Motsinger’s Esslinger-powered BOSS Chassis for the third position.
With the checkered flag in the air, Tyler Thomas would cross the finish line first, followed by Andy Malpocker of St. Charles, Missouri for a career best finish second place and rounding out the top three, a career best finish of third for Seth Motsinger of Salem, Indiana. “We started 16th in the feature and worked lap after lap on the bottom,” explained Motsinger. “We were up to second at one point and ended with a third place finish and I just couldn’t be happier with it. I can’t thank Ford, BOSS Chassis, and KBR Performance enough.”
“This is a win for us,” said second place finisher Andy Malpocker. “We ran 35 races in 2012 and I don’t think I got a top ten. Here we are sitting on the front row and it feels pretty good. I had a lot of fun tonight and I hope the fans did, too.”
“Our car was on a rail all night,” explained victorious Tyler Thomas. “Jeff Davis and my dad [Brian Thomas] gave me an awesome car all night. I normally don’t do so well at Belle-Clair. The cushion got pretty treacherous towards the end and it was hard to get back in a rhythm after the restarts, but managed to hold on to it. I’m really happy.”
Joe B. Miller of Millersville, Missouri took a thrilling victory in the 20 lap POWRi Speedway Motors 600cc Outlaw Micro Series feature to gather his third POWRi victory of the 2014 season. The POWRi Speedway Motors 600cc Outlaw Micro Series presented a whopping 76 cars signed in for the final night of SPEED week. Miller started in the third position for the feature and took the lead on the opening lap in his Speed Shack Performance, Kawasaki-powered Hyper Chassis. “We struggled earlier in SPEED week, we rebounded at Lincoln and had a good run, but we capped it off tonight, explained Miller. “I’ve got to thank a lot of people, without them this wouldn’t be possible.”
Nathan Benson of Concordia, Missouri, the defending POWRi Speedway Motors 600cc Outlaw Champion brought home another solid second place finish. “That was a heck of a race with Joe B,” explained Benson. “He’s [Joe B. Miler] so tough. I threw it in there a couple of times and I hope I didn’t crowd him too much. He races clean and he’s always tough. I’m happy with that. We’re just looking forward to more races with POWRi.”
Night two SPEED week micro winner Aaron Andruskevitch rounded out the top three. “It was a good night,” said third place finisher Andruskevitch. “Where else can you go and have almost 80 mini-sprints, on a Sunday night?”
POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget Series feature results (30 laps): 1. 91T – Tyler Thomas 2. 22 – Andy Malpocker 3. 2 – Seth Motsinger 4. 32 – Garrett Aitken 5. 7NZ – Brad Mosen 6. 7 – Austin Brown 7. 91 – Dereck King 8. 50 – Daniel Adler 9. 57D – Daniel Robinson 10. 1T – Tony Roney 11. 11C – Chet Gehrke 12. 35 – Matt Sherrell 13. 56 – Darren Hagen 14. 37 – Korey Weyant 15. 37X – Brett Anderson 16. 5C – Colten Cottle 17. 5D – Zach Daum 18. 17R – Andrew Felker 19. 39 – Spencer Bayston 20. 25 – Jake Blackhurst 21. 9P – Parker Price-Miller 22. 73 – Jason McDougal 23. 25M – Derrick Myers
POWRi Speedway Motors 600cc Outlaw Micro Series results (20 Laps): 1. 51B – Joe B Miller 2. 2B – Nathan Benson 3. 21 – Aaron Andruskevitch 4. 9 – Layne Himebaugh 5. 81 – Frank Flud 6. 8H – Matt Howard 7. 3N – Jake Neuman 8. 23 – Jeremy Camp 9. 22 – Travis Senter 10. 94 – Andrew Peters 11. 45 – Lucas Pejakovitch 12. 46 – Zach Taylor 13. 9K – Kyle Schuett 14. 15 – Jake Galusha 15. 1 – Dereck King 16. 8L – Brian Lunsford 17. 29 – Scott Sawyer 18. 12 – Frank Galusha 19. 17C – Chris Openshaw 20. 38 – Evan Weyant 21. 2R – Ryan Marsch 22. 37H – Nick Howard 23. 77W – Joey Wirth
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POWRi Media
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