Belleville, IL. (9/3/23) Kevin Thomas Jr. would ride away with the seven-thousand-dollar payday after leading the final four laps of the feature to gain the win in the Championship Night running of the Lake Ozark Speedway Triple Sprint Showdown for the POWRi 410 Bandit Outlaw Sprint Series to notch his inaugural career win in an outstanding solid-green twenty-five lap feature event.
Flying onto the finely prepared racing surface with twenty-seven entrants of the POWRi 410 BOSS, the series home facility in Eldon Missouri would see Kevin Thomas Jr. set the quick qualifying time of an 11.797-second lap with Garet Williamson, Blake Hahn, and Jace Park each earning heat racing victories as Zach Hampton notched the event high point qualifier award and pole starting position for the headlining feature.
Going into the initial green flag start with Zach Hampton and Blake Hahn lined up in the front row, Blake Hahn would speed into the early racing advantage as Hampton, Garet Williamson, Kevin Thomas Jr., and Lachlan McHugh battled within the top five.
Setting a blistering pace and occurring lap traffic at a rapid rate, Blake Hahn would click away laps while leading as Zach Hampton and Kevin Thomas Jr. stayed within striking distance and action aplenty flowed behind the leading trio throughout the pack of competitors.
Using late-race heroics, Kevin Thomas Jr would use a deep drive into turn three to slide by Blake Hahn on the exit of four for the preferred position as Hahn maintained momentum to keep pace and battle back on the new leader.
Preserving the front of the field for the final four revolutions around a beautifully prepared surface of the feature event, Kevin Thomas Jr. would not be denied in earning his first career POWRi 410 BOSS feature victory in an action-packed caution-free twenty-five-lap feature.
“This felt really good out there, I knew we had a good car this weekend and that I had to get up on the wheel and go,” said Kevin Thomas Jr. in the Lake Ozark Speedway winner's circle ceremony celebrations. Adding, “I’ve never won a wing show like this before so this one feels special.”
Contending intently behind the leader would find one-time leader of twenty-one laps Blake Hahn finishing runner-up from starting second with Garet Williamson placing on the final podium placement from the starting fourth.
Pole-sitter Zach Hampton would be among the frontrunners all feature to finish fourth as Lachlan McHugh would round out the top-five finishers for the POWRi 410 Bandit Outlaw Sprint Series at Lake Ozark Speedway on Championship Night of the Triple Sprint Showdown.
Lake Ozark Speedway | POWRi 410 Bandit Outlaw Sprint Series | 9/3/23:
Hoosier Racing Tire Quick Qualifying Time: 16TH-Kevin Thomas Jr(11.797)
Advanced Racing Suspension Heat Race 1 Winner: 12X-Garet Williamson
Auto Meter Heat Race 2 Winner: 52-Blake Hahn
Schure Built Suspensions Heat Race 3 Winner: 87J-Jace Park
MVT Services High Point Qualifier: 35-Zach Hampton
Super Clean Hard Charger: 1JR-Steven Russell(+6)
Toyota Racing Development Feature Winner: 16TH-Kevin Thomas Jr
Toyota Racing Development A Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. 16TH-Kevin Thomas Jr[3]; 2. 52-Blake Hahn[2]; 3. 12X-Garet Williamson[4]; 4. 35-Zach Hampton[1]; 5. 25-Lachlan McHugh[6]; 6. 19-Ayrton Gennetten[7]; 7. 74-Xavier Doney[8]; 8. 1JR-Steven Russell[14]; 9. 51B-Joe B Miller[11]; 10. 87J-Jace Park[9]; 11. 91-Riley Kreisel[15]; 12. 23B-Brian Bell[13]; 13. 93-Taylor Walton[16]; 14. 7A-Will Armitage[12]; 15. 79-Gage Montgomery[18]; 16. 00-Broc Elliott[22]; 17. 37-Bryce Norris[10]; 18. 6-Corey Nelson[20]; 19. 3P-Russell Potter[24]; 20. 2H-Ivan Glotzbach[21]; 21. 16THH-Kevin Newton[19]; 22. 7B-Hunter Barron[23]; 23. 118-Jacob Bloodworth[25]; 24. 9-Tyler Duff[5]; 25. 15-Jack Potter[17].
Advanced Racing Suspensions Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 12X-Garet Williamson[2]; 2. 37-Bryce Norris[1]; 3. 16TH-Kevin Thomas Jr[4]; 4. 19-Ayrton Gennetten[3]; 5. 23B-Brian Bell[7]; 6. 15-Jack Potter[5]; 7. 6-Corey Nelson[6]; 8. 00-Broc Elliott[8]; 9. 3P-Russell Potter[9].
Auto Meter Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 52-Blake Hahn[3]; 2. 35-Zach Hampton[4]; 3. 74-Xavier Doney[2]; 4. 7A-Will Armitage[6]; 5. 1JR-Steven Russell[7]; 6. 79-Gage Montgomery[5]; 7. 16THH-Kevin Newton[1]; 8. 7B-Hunter Barron[8]; 9. 118-Jacob Bloodworth[9].
Schure Built Suspensions Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 87J-Jace Park[1]; 2. 9-Tyler Duff[3]; 3. 51B-Joe B Miller[5]; 4. 25-Lachlan McHugh[4]; 5. 91-Riley Kreisel[7]; 6. 93-Taylor Walton[8]; 7. 2H-Ivan Glotzbach[6]; 8. (DNS) 14E-Kyle Bellm; 9. (DNS) 9C-Billy Butler.
Qualifying 1: 1. 16TH-Kevin Thomas Jr, 00:11.797[2]; 2. 35-Zach Hampton, 00:11.906[5]; 3. 25-Lachlan McHugh, 00:11.931[18]; 4. 19-Ayrton Gennetten, 00:12.018[4]; 5. 52-Blake Hahn, 00:12.063[8]; 6. 9-Tyler Duff, 00:12.084[13]; 7. 12X-Garet Williamson, 00:12.152[12]; 8. 74-Xavier Doney, 00:12.181[16]; 9. 14E-Kyle Bellm, 00:12.237[10]; 10. 37-Bryce Norris, 00:12.239[1]; 11. 16THH-Kevin Newton, 00:12.294[6]; 12. 87J-Jace Park, 00:12.306[20]; 13. 15-Jack Potter, 00:12.311[3]; 14. 79-Gage Montgomery, 00:12.348[24]; 15. 51B-Joe B Miller, 00:12.351[27]; 16. 6-Corey Nelson, 00:12.382[19]; 17. 7A-Will Armitage, 00:12.466[15]; 18. 2H-Ivan Glotzbach, 00:12.470[26]; 19. 23B-Brian Bell, 00:12.515[21]; 20. 1JR-Steven Russell, 00:12.700[17]; 21. 91-Riley Kreisel, 00:12.721[23]; 22. 00-Broc Elliott, 00:12.812[9]; 23. 7B-Hunter Barron, 00:12.833[7]; 24. 93-Taylor Walton, 00:12.859[22]; 25. 3P-Russell Potter, 00:13.630[25]; 26. 118-Jacob Bloodworth, 00:13.707[14]; 27. 9C-Billy Butler, 00:14.000[11].
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