Belleville, IL. (10/13/22) Zach Daum would hold steady using a low line in the Donnie Ray Crawford Sooner State 55 at Port City Raceway on Thursday Night to capture his twenty-first career victory with the Lucas Oil POWRi National and West Midget League, running in conjunction with the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series presented by Toyota, in the intense feature honoring the Oklahoma talent.
Early Port City Raceway competition with forty entrants of Lucas Oil POWRi National and West Midget League, in conjunction with the Xtreme Outlaw Midgets, would see Ethan Mitchell start quickest with a 9.123-second group qualifying-lap as Dominic Gorden, Gavin Miller, Zach Daum, Daniel Whitley, and Cannon McIntosh each earned heat racing wins with Corbin Rueschenberg and Taylor Reimer picking up the semi-feature win.
Setting the field of competitors for fifty-five laps of competition would find high-point qualifier Zach Daum roll an invert of six during Intermission to invert the first three rows. Pole-sitter Daniel Whitley would battle front-row counterpart Gavin Miller into the first pair of corners on the opening lap with Gavin Miller capturing the initial racing advantage as Cannon McIntosh, Daison Pursley, and Brenham Crouch drove in hot pursuit all inside the top five during the first few laps.
Mechanical issues for a front pack-running Cannon McIntosh would bring out the first caution of the feature on lap five taking him from the competition and bunching the field back together with fifty laps remaining.
Cruising out front after the early restart, Gavin Miller would lead Brenham Crouch and Zach Daum for the running podium placement as Daison Pursley and Jade Avedisian battled behind the leading trio.
Overtaking for the front of the field, Brent Crews would grab the lead on lap twenty-five by using the high-side with Zach Daum racing into runner-up as Gavin Miller, Brenham Crouch, and Chelby Hinton all drove inside the top five. Lap traffic would come into play as contact with Gavin Miller would bring the caution on the track while bunching the field back together.
Running two very different lines, Brent Crews and Zach Daum would battle intensely with Crews running high side as Daum snuck around the inside line. Daum would overtake for the front with the low-line showing speed late as Brent Crews would be involved in an accident with lap traffic on lap thirty-five sidelining him for the rest of the feature.
Maintaining the front of the field, Zach Daum would not be denied with the Lucas Oil POWRi National and West Midget League, in conjunction with the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series presented by Toyota, to earn their first feature victory of the season.
“It’s about time really, we’ve been consistent but this win makes it even better. This win feels good for Bundy, I was debating about moving up to the top but I figured the bottom was where I needed to be,” stated Zach Daum in the Port City Raceway victory lane.
Gavan Boschele would secure a solid runner-up showing with Chelby Hinton hard-charging his way to completing the feature's final podium placement. Kyle Jones would finish fourth as Bryant Wiedeman rounded out the Lucas Oil POWRi National and West Midget League, in conjunction with the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series, top-five finishers at Port City Raceway for the Donnie Ray Crawford Sooner State 55.
POWRi National & West Midget League/Xtreme | Port City Raceway | 10/13/22:
Hoosier Racing Tire Fast Hot Lap Time: 19M-Ethan Mitchell (9.123)
Advanced Racing Suspensions Heat Race 1 Winner: 71K-Dominic Gorden
Auto Meter Heat Race 2 Winner: 71M-Gavin Miller
Schure Built Suspensions Heat Race 3 Winner: 9M-Zach Daum
AFCO Racing Heat Race 4 Winner: 57-Daniel Whitley
Shoenfeld Headers Heat Race 5 Winner: 08-Cannon McIntosh
Max Papis Innovations Semi-Feature 1 Winner: 26R-Corbin Rueschenberg
Super Clean Semi-Feature 2 Winner: 25K-Taylor Reimer
MVT Services High Point Qualifier: 9M-Zach Daum
Toyota Racing Development Hard Charger: 14X-Chelby Hinton
Lucas Oil Feature Winner: 9M-Zach Daum
Lucas Oil A-Feature (55 Laps): 1. 9M-Zach Daum[6]; 2. 5-Gavan Boschele[19]; 3. 14X-Chelby Hinton[21]; 4. 7U-Kyle Jones[12]; 5. 01-Bryant Wiedeman[15]; 6. 71-Daison Pursley[4]; 7. 97-Brenham Crouch[5]; 8. 25K-Taylor Reimer[18]; 9. 84-Jade Avedisian[9]; 10. 71M-Gavin Miller[2]; 11. 71K-Dominic Gorden[8]; 12. 19M-Ethan Mitchell[14]; 13. 19AZ-Hayden Reinbold[13]; 14. 55-Jonathan Beason[7]; 15. 26R-Corbin Rueschenberg[17]; 16. 72J-Sam Johnson[23]; 17. 21-Emilio Hoover[25]; 18. 71E-Mariah Ede[24]; 19. 57-Daniel Whitley[1]; 20. 97K-Brent Crews[10]; 21. 61-Kale Drake[20]; 22. 40-Chase McDermand[11]; 23. 8-Alex Sewell[16]; 24. 08-Cannon McIntosh[3]; 25. 26-Chance Crum[22].
Last Chance Showdown 1 (12 Laps): 1. 26R-Corbin Rueschenberg[2]; 2. 5-Gavan Boschele[4]; 3. 14X-Chelby Hinton[9]; 4. 72J-Sam Johnson[1]; 5. 11A-Andrew Felker[7]; 6. 15D-Andrew Deal[8]; 7. 80-Josh Hawkins[12]; 8. 71E-Mariah Ede[6]; 9. 80HD-Joshua Hanna[10]; 10. 17B-Austin Barnhill[11]; 11. 14J-Jody Rosenboom[3]; 12. 8X-Austin Shores[5].
Last Chance Showdown 2 (12 Laps): 1. 25K-Taylor Reimer[1]; 2. 61-Kale Drake[6]; 3. 26-Chance Crum[5]; 4. 81G-Greyson Springer[4]; 5. 00-Talin Turner[3]; 6. 50-Daniel Adler[9]; 7. 06-Rylan Gray[7]; 8. 21-Emilio Hoover[8]; 9. 91-Jeff Stasa[11]; 10. 52J-Corey Joyner[10]; 11. 08X-Ace McCarthy[2]; 12. 7K-Kolton Gariss[12].
Toyota Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 71K-Dominic Gorden[1]; 2. 55-Jonathan Beason[3]; 3. 01-Bryant Wiedeman[2]; 4. 19M-Ethan Mitchell[4]; 5. 5-Gavan Boschele[5]; 6. 11A-Andrew Felker[6]; 7. 14X-Chelby Hinton[7]; 8. 91-Jeff Stasa[8].
TJ Forged Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 71M-Gavin Miller[2]; 2. 71-Daison Pursley[4]; 3. 7U-Kyle Jones[3]; 4. 08X-Ace McCarthy[1]; 5. 81G-Greyson Springer[7]; 6. 71E-Mariah Ede[5]; 7. 15D-Andrew Deal[6]; 8. 7K-Kolton Gariss[8].
Shoenfeld Headers Heat 3 (10 Laps): 1. 9M-Zach Daum[4]; 2. 40-Chase McDermand[2]; 3. 72J-Sam Johnson[1]; 4. 8-Alex Sewell[3]; 5. 8X-Austin Shores[5]; 6. 06-Rylan Gray[7]; 7. 80HD-Joshua Hanna[8]; 8. 52J-Corey Joyner[6].
DMI Heat 4 (10 Laps): 1. 57-Daniel Whitley[2]; 2. 97-Brenham Crouch[4]; 3. 19AZ-Hayden Reinbold[3]; 4. 14J-Jody Rosenboom[7]; 5. 00-Talin Turner[1]; 6. 61-Kale Drake[5]; 7. 21-Emilio Hoover[6]; 8. 80-Josh Hawkins[8].
Toyota Heat 5 (10 Laps): 1. 08-Cannon McIntosh[2]; 2. 97K-Brent Crews[5]; 3. 84-Jade Avedisian[4]; 4. 26R-Corbin Rueschenberg[6]; 5. 25K-Taylor Reimer[3]; 6. 26-Chance Crum[1]; 7. 50-Daniel Adler[8]; 8. 17B-Austin Barnhill[7].
Qualifying 1 (3 Laps): 1. 19M-Ethan Mitchell, 00:09.123[6]; 2. 55-Jonathan Beason, 00:09.217[8]; 3. 01-Bryant Wiedeman, 00:09.302[1]; 4. 71K-Dominic Gorden, 00:09.326[5]; 5. 5-Gavan Boschele, 00:09.362[2]; 6. 11A-Andrew Felker, 00:09.379[4]; 7. 14X-Chelby Hinton, 00:09.506[7]; 8. 91-Jeff Stasa, 00:09.946[3].
Qualifying 2 (3 Laps): 1. 71-Daison Pursley, 00:09.432[8]; 2. 7U-Kyle Jones, 00:09.463[7]; 3. 71M-Gavin Miller, 00:09.534[5]; 4. 08X-Ace McCarthy, 00:09.565[2]; 5. 71E-Mariah Ede, 00:09.595[1]; 6. 15D-Andrew Deal, 00:09.663[4]; 7. 81G-Greyson Springer, 00:09.821[3]; 8. 7K-Kolton Gariss, 10:00.000[6].
Qualifying 3 (3 Laps): 1. 9M-Zach Daum, 00:09.267[2]; 2. 8-Alex Sewell, 00:09.452[3]; 3. 40-Chase McDermand, 00:09.549[5]; 4. 72J-Sam Johnson, 00:09.957[7]; 5. 8X-Austin Shores, 00:10.158[4]; 6. 52J-Corey Joyner, 00:10.365[6]; 7. 06-Rylan Gray, 00:10.367[8]; 8. 80HD-Joshua Hanna, 00:10.440[1].
Qualifying 4 (3 Laps): 1. 97-Brenham Crouch, 00:09.226[1]; 2. 19AZ-Hayden Reinbold, 00:09.562[2]; 3. 57-Daniel Whitley, 00:09.586[4]; 4. 00-Talin Turner, 00:09.766[3]; 5. 61-Kale Drake, 00:09.846[7]; 6. 21-Emilio Hoover, 00:09.876[8]; 7. 14J-Jody Rosenboom, 00:09.879[6]; 8. 80-Josh Hawkins, 00:10.236[5].
Qualifying 5 (3 Laps): 1. 84-Jade Avedisian, 00:09.349[2]; 2. 25K-Taylor Reimer, 00:09.388[5]; 3. 08-Cannon McIntosh, 00:09.389[6]; 4. 26-Chance Crum, 00:09.459[4]; 5. 97K-Brent Crews, 00:09.523[3]; 6. 26R-Corbin Rueschenberg, 00:09.557[7]; 7. 17B-Austin Barnhill, 00:09.674[8]; 8. 50-Daniel Adler, 00:09.781[1].
Next up for the Lucas Oil POWRi National and West Midget League, running in conjunction with the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series, will be a continuation of the end-of-season Oklahoma swing with a two-day visit to I-44 Riverside Speedway on October 14-15 in the Annual Meents Memorial.
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