Belleville, IL. (7/16/22) Karter Sarff would fend off all challengers in an action-packed thriller at Valley Speedway Saturday night to earn his first career feature victory with the Lucas Oil POWRi National & West Midget Leagues in Night Two of the Thunder in the Valley Weekend.
Early POWRi National & West Midget League competition would see Chase McDermand start the night on the right foot by clocking a 13.521-second lap and notch the quickest hot-lap time as Gavan Boschele and Emilio Hoover each would earn heat race victories.
Launching the field on the initial green flag launch would find high point qualifier Chase McDermand line up with Emilio Hoover opening on the outside of the front row as McDermand would take the initial racing lead. Using the low-line momentum McDermand and Kyle Jones would battle feverishly with Boschele and Brenham Crouch quickly closing on the frontrunners.
Challenged early and often, McDermand would appear to be on his way to repeating the weekend when ninth starting Karter Sarff worked his way through the field to pull even with the leading McDermand with a tough-fought battle breaking out for the front position between Sarff, Boschele, McDermand, Jones, and the hard-charging Mitchell Davis.
Fending off all competitors, Karter Sarff would eventually emerge victorious by sticking to a clean-middle line of racing with Chase McDermand settling into finishing runner-up as Gavan Boschele completed the features podium finishers.
“I can’t begin to explain what this means to us as a family team. We wanted this so damn bad, there were times when we wanted to give up but this team doesn’t have any quit in it. That’s what makes this win so special” said a successful Karter Sarff in the Valley Speedway victory lane.
Racing from deep in the field, Jace Park would find the front of the field late to finish fourth as Mitchell Davis advanced nine positions rounding out the Lucas Oil POWRi National & West Midget Leagues top-five finishers at Valley Speedway for Night Two of the Thunder in the Valley Weekend.
POWRi National Midget League | Valley Speedway | 7/16/22:
Hoosier Racing Tire Top Time: 40-Chase McDermand (13.521)
Advanced Racing Suspensions Heat Race 1 Winner: 5-Gavan Boschele
Auto Meter Heat Race 2 Winner: 21-Emilio Hoover
MVT Services High Point Qualifier: 40-Chase McDermand
Toyota Racing Development Hard Charger: 56-Mitchell Davis
Lucas Oil Feature Winner: 21K-Karter Sarff
Lucas Oil/Realty Connect A Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. 21K-Karter Sarff[9]; 2. 40-Chase McDermand[1]; 3. 5-Gavan Boschele[4]; 4. 87-Jace Park[12]; 5. 56-Mitchell Davis[14]; 6. 51B-Joe B Miller[8]; 7. 97-Brenham Crouch[6]; 8. 17-Kyle Jones[3]; 9. 31-Kyle Beilman[13]; 10. 44-Branigan Roark[7]; 11. 25K-Taylor Reimer[5]; 12. 21-Emilio Hoover[2]; 13. 19K-Riley Kreisel[11]; 14. 77W-Joey Wirth[10].
Advanced Racing Suspension Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 5-Gavan Boschele[1]; 2. 25K-Taylor Reimer[3]; 3. 40-Chase McDermand[7]; 4. 97-Brenham Crouch[6]; 5. 21K-Karter Sarff[4]; 6. 87-Jace Park[2]; 7. 56-Mitchell Davis[5].
Auto Meter Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 21-Emilio Hoover[2]; 2. 17-Kyle Jones[4]; 3. 51B-Joe B Miller[1]; 4. 44-Branigan Roark[6]; 5. 77W-Joey Wirth[3]; 6. 19K-Riley Kreisel[5]; 7. 31-Kyle Beilman[7].
Next up for the Lucas Oil POWRi National Midget League, as well as the POWRi West Midget League presented by Realty Connect, will be Night Three of the Thunder in the Valley weekend sweep on Sunday, July 17th along with the Lucas Oil POWRi Wingless Auto Racing Sprint League traveling to Sweet Springs Motorsports Complex to finalize the three-day speed-fest.
Can’t make it out to the track and don’t want to miss any of the action in the racing program? Subscribe today to MAVTV on www.FloRacing.com to catch all the action LIVE and ON-DEMAND.
Follow along for more information on POWRi and items such as race recaps, updates, full results, and press releases online at www.powri.com, or on Twitter & Instagram at @POWRi_Racing and Facebook at POWRi.