Thirty winged 410 Sprint Cars filled the pits and it took me by surprise to see that Aussie wheelman Ryan Newton had set quick time despite being the 24th driver out to trip the clock. It is nice to see this series using a heat race invert of four with drivers then earning passing points to go along with points achieved in qualifying and when Newton failed to advance from his fourth starting spot in the first heat race, it would line him up in seventh for the twenty-five lap main event.
A pair of young rising stars Xavier Doney and Cameron Martin would earn the front row and they would run most of the opening lap side-by-side before Martin nosed ahead to lead lap one. Doney would then throw a slider in one and two and hold off Martin's crossover attempt to establish himself as the leader on lap two. The red flag would fly just two laps later when Colton Fisher missed the entry to turn three and went through a grinding series of end over end flips along the cement retaining wall. And then, to add more drama and concern, the engine compartment broke out into flames briefly before the safety team quickly took care of business. Thankfully Colton was soon able to crawl out of his mangled race car and return to the pits under his own power.
Once back to green Doney started to pull away and my eyes were on Ryder McCutcheon who came into the night as the POWRi series points leader with just a handful of events still on the schedule. This is my first time to see the young 15-year-old phenom from New Mexico in person and I was impressed as he was the first driver to make the bottom line work in turns one and two. He has started sixth and was now up to battle Martin for second and after several laps of challenging he would pick up the spot on lap ten just as Doney was starting to navigate lapped traffic.
McCutcheon was closing the gap and it would be completely erased on lap twelve when Martin slipped off the top of turns one and two and slid to a stop to bring out a caution. With restarts in rows of two using a choose cone, McCutcheon would now start to the outside of the leader and one more lap was scored before Austin McCarl coasted to a halt on the front stretch.
Once back to green this one looked like it would be decided between Doney and McCutcheon with Ryder showing his nose prompting Doney to go the bottom line as well. With the laps winding down and just five remaining, lapped traffic also running in that low line would come into play and suddenly there was Ryan Newton, running third, and using the cushion on both ends to close quickly.
Newton would take second from McCutcheon with two to go and as the white flag waved Doney chose to go to the top in turns one and two trying to get around the lapped car of Scotty Milan, and in doing so he would also shut the door on Newton. The headline "Lapped Car Saves Doney at 34" went through my mind as they went down the back stretch, but when Doney chose to go to the bottom behind the lapper entering turn three, I knew that I could scrap that one as Newton nailed the cushion with perfection and charged around the outside of Doney to steal the win.
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| Ryan Newton - Brendan Bauman Photography |
This is Ryan's second career win with POWRi and it definitely gave the hearty crowd a thrill! Doney admitted that he was a sitting duck in his post race interview not knowing how good the high line was at the end, especially in turns three and four while McCutcheon maintained his point lead with an impressive podium finish in third. Jace Park, the driver who made a name for himself on the opening night of the Knoxville Nationals a few weeks ago, had a solid night starting fifth and finishing fourth while Joe B. Miller was the hard charger coming from sixteenth to finish fifth.
As if we didn't have enough young talent already on display tonight, 15-year-old Jett Barnes from Visalia, California, made his POWRi 410 debut and placed the Jason Meyer's owned #14 in sixth after starting from eighth. Creed Kemenah was seventh after starting eleventh, 18-year-old Cam Sorrels finished in eighth and John Barnard was ninth. I failed to mention that the first attempt at a start was waved off after Ayrton Gennetton slowed at the top of turn two. After a stop in the work area the three-time series champion would restart at the rear and race his way back up to tenth at the checkers.
The POWRi 410' now head to the Lake Ozark Speedway for a Saturday/Sunday twin bill along with the Heartland Modified Tour.
Mini Haulers would be the first of three features on the night and once they established their positions on the opening lap, the top four trucks would run the full twelve laps equidistant from each other by three to four truck lengths. It was actually kind of amazing how they maintained that formation throughout with Caleb Ealey posting his seventh win of the season. Dawson Tipps was the runner-up, Cody Webster finished third, Larry Hooper was fourth and Ethan Brown completed the top five.
It was a small, but talent laden roster of twelve IMCA Modified drivers that signed in, but after a huge plume of smoke in his heat race, Bill Roberts Jr. would not make the call for the final event of the night. Outside front row starter Shane Paris would hold the lead by a nose as lap one was scored and they would then stack 'em up four-wide for the lead in turn two.
Fourth-starting Jace Eckrich would emerge from that pack to take the point on lap two and he would then drive away to score a convincing victory in the non-stop twenty lap event. Currently third in the race for the National IMCA Modified Rookie-of-the-Year title, this win should get the second generation driver even closer to that goal. Mark Burgtorf and Chris Zogg waged a good battle for second with Zogg prevailing late. Brandon Banks finished in fourth while Charlie Mohr closed out the top five.
This would be race night number one of four on this Labor Day weekend for me as I now look forward to getting back on the mic with my colleague Bill Wright as the Sprint Invaders return to the West Liberty Raceway on Saturday night, and then on Sunday we make the trip down to the Quincy Raceways. Talk about two completely tracks on back to back nights, it will be fun to see who adapts the best as the Invaders are locked in a tight four way points battle with just five events remaining. Finally on Monday we will make our now annual trip to Boone to watch a full show of IMCA Late Models as well as a bunch of exciting qualifying action in the Sport Mods and the Hobby Stocks as the IMCA Super Nationals starts its week long run.
Look for us somewhere this weekend out on the Back Stretch!
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