Belleville, IL. (9/17/21) Back for another adventurous night of open-wheel action at Lucas Oil Speedway for Night Two of the 11th Annual Jesse Hockett/Daniel McMillin Memorial, a determined field of sixty-one Lucas Oil POWRi Wingless Auto Racing Sprint League drivers would invade Wheatland Missouri with side-by-side racing aplenty. Leading every lap of the twenty-five-lap main event would find Nixa, Missouri wheelman Wesley Smith claiming the night and notching his fifth series win of 2021.
Early heat racing action would see Blake Vermillion, Samuel Wagner, Zach Clark, Justin Zimmerman, Anthony Nicholson, Wesley Smith, and Cody Baker all claim heat racing victories, with Jesse Vermillion racing from ninth to second in his heat race to earn the night’s High-Point qualifier accolades and a feature pole-starting position. Kory Schudy, Keith Martin, Wyatt Burks, and Zach Daum would each win their respective B-Feature.
Green-flag feature racing would find Jesse Vermillion and Wesley Smith leading the pack of twenty-three eager Lucas Oil POWRi WAR competitors to the initial green flag start with Smith shooting to the lead by using high-side momentum.
Smith would continue out-front throughout a pair of early restarts as hard elbows-up racing developed throughout the pack with Cody Baker racing his way into a runner-up position. With Smith leading and Baker charging quickly the laps would start to dwindle when entering the first corner on the twenty-second lap Smith would appear to lose water with a steam cloud erupting from the car. With Baker closing in on the lead he would slide high, running into the cushion, and flipping once taking him from the competition with Cody Baker okay but visibly upset at the circumstances.
Wesley Smith would continue his dominant run after the unexpected turn of events to maintain the front for the remainder of the race-winning his ninth career POWRi WAR feature event. Driving into the runner-up finishing position would find the clinching Rookie of the Year driver Xavier Doney with Jack Wagner racing his way to third from starting seventh.
Hard-charging his way through the field would find Justin Zimmerman finishing fourth from starting way back in twenty-first with point leader Mario Clouser would round out the top-five finishers for POWRi WAR at Lucas Oil Speedway’s Night Two of the 11th Annual Jesse Hockett/Daniel McMillin Memorial.
“This is truly a testament to this team, with the win on the line I didn’t hesitate to push it hard after the red. I know they can fix everything I break so I can drive this car hard, and I hope this win is a sign of things to come for the rest of the weekend” said a victorious Wesley Smith in post-race ceremonies. Adding “I was bouncing the wheel off the ledge the wing cars put up for us, this track was hammer down around the top and a lot of fun.”
Hoosier Racing Tire Top Hot Lap Time: 44 – Wesley Smith (15.183)
Advanced Racing Suspensions Heat 1 Winner: 73V – Blake Vermillion
MVT Services Heat 2 Winner: 73 – Samuel Wagner
AutoMeter Heat Race 3 Winner: 26 – Zach Clark
Rod End Supply Heat Race 4 Winner: #1 – Justin Zimmerman
Schoenfeld Headers Heat Race 5 Winner: 16 – Anthony Nicholson
AFCO Racing Heat Race 6 Winner: 44 – Wesley Smith
Diversified Machine Heat Race 7 Winner: 9 – Cody Baker
Max Papis Innovations High Point Qualifier: 5 – Jesse Vermillion
Super Clean Semi-Feature 1 Winner: 28 – Kory Schudy
Super Clean Semi-Feature 2 Winner: 79X – Keith Martin
Super Clean Semi-Feature 3 Winner: 11W – Wyatt Burks
Super Clean Semi-Feature 4 Winner: 5D – Zach Daum
Toyota Racing Development Hard Charger: #1 – Justin Zimmerman (+17)
Lucas Oil Feature Winner: 44 – Wesley Smith
Lucas Oil POWRi WAR Feature Results at Lucas Oil Speedway on September 17th, 2021:
- 44-Wesley Smith[2]; 2. 74-Xavier Doney[3]; 3. 77-Jack Wagner[7]; 4. 1#-Justin Zimmerman[21]; 5. 6-Mario Clouser[20]; 6. 36T-Trey Robb[12]; 7. 51B-Joe B Miller[8]; 8. 5D-Zach Daum[18]; 9. 11W-Wyatt Burks[17]; 10. 24LCR-Chris Morgan[6]; 11. 5C-Colten Cottle[22]; 12. 79X-Keith Martin[16]; 13. 20G-Noah Gass[9]; 14. 28-Kory Schudy[15]; 15. 5-Jesse Vermillion[1]; 16. 91-Riley Kreisel[23]; 17. 1-Paul White[19]; 18. 16-Anthony Nicholson[11]; 19. 27-Steve Thomas[14]; 20. 73-Samuel Wagner[10]; 21. 9-Cody Baker[5]; 22. 73V-Blake Vermillion[4]; 23. 11X-Tom Curran[13].
Advanced Racing Suspensions Heat Race 1: 1. 73V-Blake Vermillion[3]; 2. 24LCR-Chris Morgan[5]; 3. 51B-Joe B Miller[7]; 4. 11-Justin Melton[6]; 5. 82-Vinny Ward[1]; 6. 20-Shon Deskins[8]; 7. 13-Chase Howard[2]; 8. 79-Tim Kent[9]; 9. 37-Brian Beebe[4].
MVT Services Heat Race 2: 1. 73-Samuel Wagner[2]; 2. 36T-Trey Robb[4]; 3. 27-Steve Thomas[6]; 4. 89-Todd McVay[3]; 5. 79X-Keith Martin[9]; 6. 21X-Michelle Parson[8]; 7. 17K-Braden Knipmeyer[7]; 8. 66M-Max Grogan[1]; 9. 55L-Casey Lewallen[5].
AutoMeter Heat Race 3: 1. 26-Zach Clark[1]; 2. 77-Jack Wagner[5]; 3. 24X-Casey Shuman[6]; 4. 5D-Zach Daum[8]; 5. 11W-Wyatt Burks[9]; 6. 91-Riley Kreisel[7]; 7. 77X-Colt Treharn[2]; 8. 45X-Adam Wilfong[3]; 9. 7R-JD Black[4].
Rod End Supply Heat Race 4: 1. 1#-Justin Zimmerman[1]; 2. 28-Kory Schudy[3]; 3. 29T-Ryan Timmons[4]; 4. 2H-Luke Howard[2]; 5. 27M-Evan Mosley[8]; 6. 15B-Quinton Benson[9]; 7. 44H-Jason Howell[5]; 8. 77K-Katlynn Leer[7]; 9. 33L-Mark Lane[6].
Schoenfeld Headers Heat Race 5: 1. 16-Anthony Nicholson[2]; 2. 5-Jesse Vermillion[9]; 3. 20G-Noah Gass[7]; 4. 09-Robby McQuinn[1]; 5. 7S-Wade Seiler[6]; 6. 93-Taylor Walton[5]; 7. 36-Tyler Edwards[3]; 8. 52-JD Fry[8]; 9. 45-Jesse Bebee[4].
AFCO Racing Heat Race 6: 1. 44-Wesley Smith[5]; 2. 11X-Tom Curran[4]; 3. 51-Mitchell Moore[3]; 4. 90-Warren Johnson[1]; 5. 1-Paul White[7]; 6. 21-Caleb Stelzig[2]; 7. 57-Chase Parson[6]; 8. 2-Kyle Lewis[8].
Diversified Machine Heat Race 7: 1. 9-Cody Baker[3]; 2. 74-Xavier Doney[6]; 3. 5C-Colten Cottle[1]; 4. 24-Landon Simon[2]; 5. 6-Mario Clouser[7]; 6. 41-Brad Wyatt[5]; 7. 7JR-Robert Black[4]; 8. 69-Zach Sanders[8].
Super Clean B-Feature 1: 1. 28-Kory Schudy[2]; 2. 1-Paul White[4]; 3. 24X-Casey Shuman[1]; 4. 21X-Michelle Parson[6]; 5. 11-Justin Melton[3]; 6. 7S-Wade Seiler[5]; 7. 69-Zach Sanders[10]; 8. 17K-Braden Knipmeyer[8]; 9. 45X-Adam Wilfong[11]; 10. (DNF) 37-Brian Beebe[12]; 11. (DNS) 82-Vinny Ward; 12. (DNS) 7JR-Robert Black
Super Clean B-Feature 2: 1. 79X-Keith Martin[2]; 2. 6-Mario Clouser[4]; 3. 27M-Evan Mosley[3]; 4. 2H-Luke Howard[5]; 5. 57-Chase Parson[8]; 6. 13-Chase Howard[10]; 7. 26-Zach Clark[1]; 8. 09-Robby McQuinn[6]; 9. 36-Tyler Edwards[9]; 10. 66M-Max Grogan[11]; 11. 93-Taylor Walton[7]; 12. (DNS) 7R-JD Black.
Super Clean B-Feature 3: 1. 11W-Wyatt Burks[2]; 2. 1#-Justin Zimmerman[1]; 3. 15B-Quinton Benson[4]; 4. 41-Brad Wyatt[7]; 5. 77X-Colt Treharn[10]; 6. 51-Mitchell Moore[3]; 7. 90-Warren Johnson[6]; 8. 52-JD Fry[9]; 9. 79-Tim Kent[8]; 10. 33L-Mark Lane[11]; 11. 45-Jesse Bebee[12]; 12. (DNS) 24-Landon Simon.
Super Clean B-Feature 4: 1. 5D-Zach Daum[1]; 2. 5C-Colten Cottle[3]; 3. 91-Riley Kreisel[6]; 4. 29T-Ryan Timmons[2]; 5. 44H-Jason Howell[8]; 6. 20-Shon Deskins[5]; 7. 21-Caleb Stelzig[7]; 8. 89-Todd McVay[4]; 9. 2-Kyle Lewis[9]; 10. 55L-Casey Lewallen[11]; 11. 77K-Katlynn Leer[10].
Up next for the Lucas Oil POWRi WAR Sprint League will be Championship Night of the 11th Annual Jesse Hockett/Daniel McMillin Memorial at Lucas Oil Speedway, as well as the series season finale, on Saturday, September 18th. Classes scheduled to compete include the Lucas Oil POWRi WAR Sprint League and the Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series presented by MAVTV.
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