Grain Valley, MO. – Darren Hagen led all thirty laps of the main event, taking his first POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget Series win of 2014. Hagen held off challenges from Chett Gehrke of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma from the drop of the green flag, Friday night at the semi-banked 1/3 mile Valley Speedway. The first of two nights, Valley Speedway hosts night one of the Missouri Mid-State Midget Nationals and Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Missouri hosts the second and final night.
Pole-sitter Darren Hagen took the lead on the start and held off an initial challenge from Chett Gehrke until California native, Cole Wood’s flipping car brought out the red on lap two. Wood was alright, but unfortunately done for the night. When the race resumed, Hagen remained cool under the pressure applied by Gehrke and eventually started to pull away as a duel between Gehrke and Parker Price-Miller of Kokomo, Indiana ensued. Price-Miller, the 2013 POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget Series Rookie of the Year, overtook Gehrke and looked to be gaining ground on Hagen until his car lost power, bringing out the yellow and bunching up the field again.
The restart would give Gehrke another shot at Hagen, but it would also give Colten Cottle of Kansas, Illinois a shot at Gehrke.Coming from 10th place, Cottle in his Esslinger-powered DRC would be able to capitalize on Gehrke’s fading car with Jake Blackhurst in tow. “We managed to get up to the top-five pretty fast,” explained Cottle. “We got a new DRC this year and are finally starting to get things figured out. Hopefully we can keep it up.”
As the final laps in the feature began to wind down, Blackhurst would overtake Cottle as Hagen stretched his lead in the Great Clips-sponsored, Wilke-Pak Spike. “What an opportunity to drive for the Wilke family,” explained an extremely enthusiastic Darren Hagen. “To be a part of a team that has so much history behind them and to be a part of the Great Clips family, as well is awesome. To be a part of those two organizations and pull off a win is pretty special.”
Jake Blackhurst of Mapleton, Illinois brought home the second position in his Jake Blackhurst Racing, Esslinger-powered DRC. “If we could have found the bottom a little earlier, we might have had a shot at the lead,” explained Blackhurst. “But running second to Darren Hagen isn’t too bad.” Coming in fourth from the eighth position would be Austin Brown of Millstadt, Illinois driving his Toyota-powered Boss Chassis and rounding out the top five was Chett Gehrke.
POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget Series feature results (40 laps): 1. Darren Hagen, 2. Jake Blackhurst, 3. Colten Cottle, 4. Austin Brown, 5. Chett Gehrke, 6. Daniel Robinson, 7. Andrew Felker, 8. Corey Weyant, 9. Seth Motsinger, 10. Spencer Bayston, 11. Nathan Benson, 12. Michelle Decker, 13. Derek Holmwood, 14. Jake Neuman, 15. Jacob Patton, 16. Rick Forbes, 17. Todd McVay, 18. Mark Chisholm, 19. Zach Daum, 20. Andy Malpocker, 21. Parker Price-Miller, 22. Cole Wood
Tonight, Saturday May 3rd, the Lucas Oil POWRi National Midgets will arrive at Lucas Oil Speedway for the final night of the Missouri Mid-State Midget Nationals. Pill draw opens at 4:30 PM with hot laps at 6:45 PM, racing following hot laps. Pits open at 4 PM.
For more information, visit www.powri.com.
Contact:
Derek Schuett
POWRi Media
Derek.schuett@gmail.com