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Quincy, IL– Austin Brown of Millstadt, Illinois took the lead away from Spencer Bayston on lap 25, running away from the Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports driver on his way to his first POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget Series victory of 2016. Brown’s win at Quincy Raceways earned him night number two of Illinois SPEED Week.
On the opening lap of the feature, Andy Malpocker would jump into the early lead trailed by Brown, as a gaggle of cars battled behind. By lap eight, Brown would be in position to pounce on Malpocker, diving to the bottom of turn three sliding for the lead, only to have Spencer Bayston charge by both drivers for the lead. Just as Bayston closed in on lap traffic, the first yellow of the evening would fly as Andrew Felker slid off the turn three banking bringing out the caution.
Returning to racing with 12 laps in the books, Bayston would lead the way, followed by Brown and Tucker Klaasmeyer. As Bayston closed in on traffic, the yellow would fly as teammates Carson Macedo and Holly Shelton sat collected in the middle of turns three and four. Coming back to green just shy of over halfway with 17 laps down, Justin Peck would throw a spectacular slide job to take the third position from Klaasmeyer. Klaasmeyer would attempt to return the favor entering one, only to loop his machine and collect Darren Hagen.
Coming back to green, Justin Peck would slide for second, taking the position from Brown, only to have lady luck bite the young wheelman one lap later as his machine bounced and biked wildly entering up on the turn one cushion sending the driver for a tumble. Peck would be alright, but done for the evening. With 20 laps in the books, Bayston would take off, but this time Brown would hang with him. On lap 22, Jason McDougal looped it entering turn one for the final caution of the evening. With eight laps left, Bayston would lead the field to green, but Brown would power by for the lead on lap 25.
Adding car lengths each lap, Brown would go on untouchable as Bayston finished second, followed by Zach Daum. Tanner Thorson ended up fourth, earning the Sport City Honda of Jacksonville Hard Charger Award after starting 21st. Jimi Quin rounded out the top five.
“I’ve got to thank my guys back there,” said Austin Brown. “The Keith Kunz cars are definitely the cars to beat right now. After the heat race, Keith was actually the one who helped us out and pointed out that our motor was going bad. Everyone in the pits helped us out to get it changed. I’m just really exhausted after changing that motor. I can’t thank everyone who helped and pitched in enough .”
“That’s what we’re going for this week; consistency,” Spencer Bayston said. “But everybody likes to win, and nobody likes getting beat. Hat’s off to Austin and Flea and all them. They did a great job and just out drove me. I made some dumb decisions running around in the slick. Congrats to him, we’ll keep plugging along and hopefully get this SPEED Week championship.”
“We’ve had some issues these last couple of weeks and we just needed to put together a night of racing and finish,” said Zach Daum. “I think we’ve got most of our issues worked out now, so hopefully we can just keep running and work on getting our car a little bit better and not worry about what is going to fall off our car next.”
Midgets
Speedway Motors Heat Race Winners: Heat 1: 7 – AUSTIN BROWN, Heat 2: 22 – ANDY MALPOCKER, Heat 3: 5X – JUSTIN PECK
Great Clips Feature Winner: 7 – AUSTIN BROWN
POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget Series Feature Results (30 laps): 1. 7 – AUSTIN BROWN 2. 97 – SPENCER BAYSTON 3. 5D – ZACH DAUM 4. 67 – TANNER THORSON 5. 8GQ – JIMI QUIN 6. 91T – TYLER THOMAS 7. 71 – RYAN ROBINSON 8. 3N – JAKE NEUMAN 9. 32 – GARRETT AITKEN 10. 11A – ANDREW FELKER 11. 67K – HOLLY SHELTON 12. 27 – TUCKER KLAASMEYER 13. 1K – BRAYTON LYNCH 14. 93K – RILEY KREISEL 15. 73 – JASON MCDOUGAL 16. 21 – TY HULSEY 17. 56X – MARK CHISHOLM 18. 5X – JUSTIN PECK 19. 24 – DAYNE KINGSHOTT 20. 17 – DARREN HAGEN 21. 5C – COLTEN COTTLE 22. 71K – CARSON MACEDO 23. 22 – ANDY MALPOCKER 24. 57D – DANIEL ROBINSON
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