Belleville, IL. (11/10/23) Sam Hafertepe Jr would use perfect timing and a blast of speed off turn four to gain a Night One win of the Tri-State Speedway Salute to Service with the POWRi 410 Bandit Outlaw Sprint Series to notch his inaugural career win in a nearly flawless twenty-five lap feature event.
Flying onto the racing surface with twenty-six entrants of the POWRi 410 BOSS would see Cory Eliason set the track record in a quick qualifying time of 13.069-second lap with Paul Nienhiser, Roger Crockett, and Joe B Miller each earning heat racing victories as Cory Eliason notched the event high point qualifier award and pole starting position for the headlining feature with Riley Goodno notching the semi-feature victory.
Going into the initial green flag start with Cory Eliason and Sam Hafertepe Jr lined up in the front row, Cory Eliason would speed into the early racing advantage as Sam Hafertepe Jr, Noah Gass, Landon Crawley, and Zane DeVault all battled within the top five.
Quickly occurring lap traffic, Cory Eliason would appear to be on pace to sweep the nightly accomplishments until a mid-race battle would brew with Sam Hafertepe Jr finding ample speed using the high side exit to overtake the prized position.
Preserving the front of the field for the final eleven revolutions of the feature event, Sam Hafertepe Jr would earn his first career POWRi 410 BOSS feature victory in an action-packed twenty-five-lap thriller.
“Lap traffic really aided in this win tonight, dirty air was tough with the track so fast. I knew when Cory got tight it would change momentum and I was able to then use the lap cars as blockers for me,” said a celebratory Sam Hafertepe Jr in the Pocola Oklahoma winner's circle ceremony celebrations. Adding, “The track was really awesome tonight so hats off to this entire staff, we showed speed tonight and I’m excited about tomorrow.”
Contending intently behind the leader would find one-time leader of fourteen laps Cory Eliason finishing runner-up from starting pole position with teammate Aaron Reutzel flying forward eight spots to placing on the final podium placement from the starting eleventh on the initial green flag.
Noah Gass would be among the frontrunners all feature to advance one spot to finish fourth as Blake Hahn would move a pair of spots forward to round out the top-five finishers for the POWRi 410 Bandit Outlaw Sprint Series at Tri-State Speedway on Night One of the T2 Promotions Salute to Service.
Tri-State Speedway | POWRi 410 Bandit Outlaw Sprint Series | 11/10/23:
Hoosier Racing Tire Quick Qualifying Time: 8-Cory Eliason(13.069)
Advanced Racing Suspension Heat Race 1 Winner: 9X-Paul Nienhiser
Auto Meter Heat Race 2 Winner: 11-Roger Crockett
Schure Built Suspensions Heat Race 3 Winner: 51B-Joe B Miller
Max Papis Innovations Semi-Feature Winner: 22-Riley Goodno
MVT Services High Point Qualifier: 8-Cory Eliason
Super Clean Hard Charger: 50K-Kyle Bellm(+10)
Toyota Racing Development Feature Winner: 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr.
Toyota Racing Development A Feature (25 Laps): 1. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[2]; 2. 8-Cory Eliason[1]; 3. 8X-Aaron Reutzel[11]; 4. 20G-Noah Gass[5]; 5. 52-Blake Hahn[7]; 6. 9X-Paul Nienhiser[8]; 7. 6Z-Zane DeVault[6]; 8. 1-Brenham Crouch[15]; 9. 22X-JJ Hickle[14]; 10. 95-Matt Covington[9]; 11. 51B-Joe B Miller[12]; 12. 50K-Kyle Bellm[21]; 13. 87J-Jace Park[16]; 14. 22-Riley Goodno[17]; 15. 19-Ayrton Gennetten[4]; 16. 37-Bryce Norris[19]; 17. G6-Cody Gardner[18]; 18. 88R-Ryder Laplante[22]; 19. 17GP-Cole Duncan[13]; 20. 79-Gage Montgomery[24]; 21. 7S-Landon Crawley[3]; 22. 11-Roger Crockett[10]; 23. 91-Riley Kreisel[20]; 24. 74-Xavier Doney[23].
Max Papis Innovations B Feature (12 Laps): 1. 22-Riley Goodno[1]; 2. G6-Cody Gardner[2]; 3. 37-Bryce Norris[4]; 4. 91-Riley Kreisel[3]; 5. 50K-Kyle Bellm[8]; 6. 88R-Ryder Laplante[5]; 7. 16TH-Kevin Newton[7]; 8. 74-Xavier Doney[6]; 9. 79-Gage Montgomery[10]; 10. (DNS) 84-Brandon Hanks.
Advanced Racing Suspensions Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 9X-Paul Nienhiser[1]; 2. 19-Ayrton Gennetten[2]; 3. 8-Cory Eliason[4]; 4. 6Z-Zane DeVault[3]; 5. 1-Brenham Crouch[6]; 6. 22-Riley Goodno[5]; 7. 37-Bryce Norris[8]; 8. 74-Xavier Doney[9]; 9. 79-Gage Montgomery[7].
Auto Meter Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 11-Roger Crockett[1]; 2. 52-Blake Hahn[2]; 3. 7S-Landon Crawley[3]; 4. 17GP-Cole Duncan[6]; 5. 22X-JJ Hickle[7]; 6. 8X-Aaron Reutzel[4]; 7. 91-Riley Kreisel[9]; 8. 16TH-Kevin Newton[8]; 9. 84-Brandon Hanks[5].
Schure Built Suspensions Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 51B-Joe B Miller[1]; 2. 95-Matt Covington[2]; 3. 20G-Noah Gass[3]; 4. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[4]; 5. 87J-Jace Park[5]; 6. G6-Cody Gardner[7]; 7. 88R-Ryder Laplante[6]; 8. 50K-Kyle Bellm[8].
Hoosier Racing Tire Qualifying 1: 1. 8-Cory Eliason, 00:13.069[1]; 2. 8X-Aaron Reutzel, 00:13.091[10]; 3. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr, 00:13.097[3]; 4. 6Z-Zane DeVault, 00:13.144[4]; 5. 7S-Landon Crawley, 00:13.174[20]; 6. 20G-Noah Gass, 00:13.216[12]; 7. 19-Ayrton Gennetten, 00:13.231[16]; 8. 52-Blake Hahn, 00:13.293[6]; 9. 95-Matt Covington, 00:13.325[15]; 10. 9X-Paul Nienhiser, 00:13.345[8]; 11. 11-Roger Crockett, 00:13.360[23]; 12. 51B-Joe B Miller, 00:13.417[9]; 13. 22-Riley Goodno, 00:13.417[13]; 14. 84-Brandon Hanks, 00:13.422[11]; 15. 87J-Jace Park, 00:13.438[19]; 16. 1-Brenham Crouch, 00:13.517[25]; 17. 17GP-Cole Duncan, 00:13.600[24]; 18. 88R-Ryder Laplante, 00:13.646[7]; 19. 79-Gage Montgomery, 00:13.689[2]; 20. 22X-JJ Hickle, 00:13.706[18]; 21. G6-Cody Gardner, 00:13.708[14]; 22. 37-Bryce Norris, 00:13.791[22]; 23. 16TH-Kevin Newton, 00:13.825[21]; 24. 50K-Kyle Bellm, 00:13.857[17]; 25. 74-Xavier Doney, 00:13.974[26]; 26. 91-Riley Kreisel, 01:00.000[5].
Next up the POWRi 410 Bandit Outlaw Sprint Series will see action on Championship Night of the T2 Promotions Salute to Service at Tri-State Speedway in Pocola Oklahoma on November 11th for $12K to win followed by the series season finale on November 12th at Tulsa Speedway for $7K to win.
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Photo Credit: Richard Bales