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 BELLÂ 2. 97 – SPENCER BAYSTONÂ 3. 5D – ZACH DAUMÂ 4. 27 – TUCKER KLAASMEYERÂ 5. 71 – RYAN ROBINSONÂ 6. 4A – LOGAN SEAVEYÂ 7. 44 – WESLEY SMITHÂ 8. 32 – TREY MARCHAMÂ 9. 9 – MATT MOOREÂ 10. 37 – ANDREW FELKERÂ 11. 67K – HOLLY SHELTONÂ 12. 3N – JAKE NEUMANÂ 13. 77S – DANNY STRATTONÂ 14. 82M – STEVEN SHEBESTERÂ 15. 1K – BRAYTON LYNCHÂ 16. 96 – CODY BREWERÂ 17. 7 – AUSTIN BROWNÂ 18. 52 – ANDREW DEALÂ 19. 57D – DANIEL ROBINSONÂ 20. 10 – GEO WHITEÂ 21. 9$ – KYLE CLARKÂ 22. 28 – ACE MCCARTHYÂ 23. 71K – TANNER CARRICKÂ 24. 73 – JASON MCDOUGAL
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