The POWRi 410 Winged Sprint Car series made their only visit to the state of Iowa for 2024 on a beautiful Friday evening at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson with a solid roster of twenty-seven drivers on hand. New promoters Neal Kohlmorgan and Patrick Profeta had the surface of the three eighths mile D-shaped track smooth and juiced with Garret Williamson establishing a new track record in qualifying with a lap of 13.096 and nearly every driver who had a chance to be interviewed by Scottie Cook during the course of the evening commented on how this was the fastest that they had ever seen it here at Lee County.
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| The first heat race is ready to go at Lee County |
The field would be whittled down to twenty-two for the thirty lap $5,000-to-win main event and on the first wave of the green flag it would be Blake Hahn going to the front as the field exited turn two for the first time. However, in the middle of the pack, one car got sideways in turn one and that would cause a stack up with both Roger Crockett and Tasker Phillips getting upside down. Phillips had just raced his way into the final starting spot through the B-Main after missing his heat race due to mechanical issues, and this would now end his evening earlier than he had hoped.
Meanwhile Crockett, in the Beaver Tool #12x, would get repairs in the work area and the 2022 series champion would restart the race from the rear of the field. On this start the pole-sitter Aaron Reutzel would race ahead of Hahn exiting turn two to take the lead as laps started to go in the books. Four of them to be exact before the caution waved for Crockett who had slowed on the back stretch needing to duck back into the work area for additional repairs.
On this double file restart Austin McCarl would get a nice start to go from fifth to third and he would bring with him the ninth starting Paul Nienhiser who was making the bottom work and would soon slip by Austin to go third.
Reutzel would build about a straightaway advantage before he entered traffic and when the slower car of Xavier Doney closed the door on the leader entering turn one on lap nine, that would allow Hahn to close to just one car length going down the back stretch. Reutzel would then throw a big slider on Doney in what would be the "move of the race", at least as far as the winner was concerned, as this one would go the rest of the way under green.
Hahn was not able to find a way around the rim-riding Doney and soon five cars were now racing in a tight formation and in traffic for the runner-up position. McCarl would take advantage of that opportunity moving from fourth to second on lap sixteen. Williamson and Chase Randall were part of that pack as well and when McCarl started to drive away, the fun battle to watch was now for third.
As the laps wound down Reutzel had built a half track advantage over McCarl, who had still not caught back up with the lapped car of Doney, while the battle for third was now not far away from being lapped by the leader. Reutzel would continue to stretch the advantage until he took the checkers for the win followed in by McCarl for second. Williamson would nip Randall for third as Nienhiser slowed in the final two circuits giving up fifth to Blake Hahn while Gunner Ramey started seventeenth and finished in six. Nienhiser would actually pull into the infield exiting turn four on the final lap never taking the checkers, but he was scored as the final driver on the lead lap in seventh.
It was another impressive win for Reutzel who also won the last time that the 410's were here in May of 2023. While several of tonight's drivers will now pull to Knoxville for Saturday night action, the POWRi series moves on over to the I-70 Speedway just west of Kansas City to make it a big doubleheader weekend.
Stock Cars, Sport Mods and Hobby Stocks would provide support with a cool $1,000 going to the winner in each division. The Stock Cars would go first for twenty laps with Johnny Spaw's son Bronson starting from the pole position. Dustin Vis would just nip him at the line though to lead lap one and the ten car field would race the entire distance under the green. Both Dustin Griffiths and Derrick Agee would close in on Vis during the final half of the race and it was a thrilling run to the finish as Griffiths used the high line in turn four to take second as the white flag waved and he would then get a run on the leader with the checkers waiting. Exiting turn four Vis would drive up the track some, so Griffths tried one final move to get his nose under the winner at the stripe while Agee was right on Dustin's bumper as well to take third.
The final margin of victory would be 0.135 second while Agee was just another 0.247 back in third. Nicholas Profeta, who has moved from the Sport Mods to the Stock Cars this season would slip by Spaw late to finish fourth while Bronson would settle for fifth.
Only one caution would slow the 15-lap headliner for the Sport Mods and that would come on lap five as when Cole Gillenwater slowed on the high side exiting turn two, Reed Wolfmeyer had no place to go so he spun to keep from making hard contact. Shane Paris had taken the lead from Brandon Dale on lap two and he would go on to lead the rest of them as well in taking the victory. Dale would be the runner-up with Logan Cumby finishing in third. Kyler Girard and Jason VanZomeron would fill out your top five.
Putting the big money on top enticed only three Hobby Stocks to show up making me wonder if a $300-to-win and $100-to-start purse might have drawn better. They would start a twelve lap race in three wide formation and, whether it was staged or not, James Pilkington and Dustin Griffiths would entertain those of us who had stuck around for the final event of the night and they even swapped the lead twice mid-race, In the end though it would be Griffiths taking the top prize over Pilkington and Jeremy Dooley,
I want to thank the two young ladies at the pit gate for the hospitality that they gave to this late arriving reporter as I was busy getting some quality time in with the youngest of my five grandsons, Beckett who had brought his lovely mother back to Iowa from Texas for the weekend. Next up for me, if the schedule permits, will be another trip back up to the Benton County Speedway in Vinton this Sunday night with the PRO Late Model series joining the always exciting weekly divisions. Then, on Sunday May 26th, I look forward to the annual Memorial Day weekend Sprint Invaders show at 34 Raceway west of Burlington.
Hope to see you again soon here on the Back Stretch!
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