Belleville, IL. (3/24/22) Christopher Bell would lead every lap of the 2022 season opener to earn his thirtieth career feature victory within Lucas Oil POWRi National and West Midget League competition by checking into the Port City Raceway winners circle and kicking off the Ninth Annual Turnpike Challenge presented by Super Clean, in exciting wheel-to-wheel battling fashion.
Packing the pits with an outstanding field of twenty-six entrants, Kaylee Bryson would clock in the quickest hot-lap time with a 9.881-second lap during their session. Cannon McIntosh, Bryant Weideman, and Kaylee Bryson would all earn heat racing wins as Christopher Bell notched the night's high-point qualifier accolade and pole-starting spot for the thirty-lap feature event with Weideman lining up to his right.
Launching on the initial laps would find Bell flying out to a solid lead with Weideman and third-starting Bryson in hot pursuit during the opening stages of a highly contested main event. With laps ticking away rapidly action throughout the field would be aplenty with drivers jockeying for positions in every corner.
Weaving through back-battling traffic, Christopher Bell would put on a dazzling display of driving perfection while proving his prowess at Port City Raceway within POWRi racing by withstanding late-race restarts to claim his thirtieth career feature victory to pull even with Bryan Clauson for second all-time on the career win-count and only four wins behind the all-time leader Brad Loyet.
“These mid-week races are a lot of fun; I can’t say enough great things about this team behind me and how they gave me the car to beat tonight, said a victorious Bell in victory lane. “I’ve been stuck on win twenty-nine for a few years now and it feels really good to finally get win number thirty; hopefully it will be less time for the next one, who knows maybe tomorrow night at I-44 Riverside” added a celebratory Christopher.
Late race dramatics would come into play behind the winner as the defending POWRi National Midget Champion Bryant Weideman would stay within striking distance to finish runner-up with Mitchel Moles grabbing the final podium placement for third. Dominic Gordon and Jonathan Beason would both race spiritly all event with Gordon placing fourth and Beason rounding out the top-five finishers.
Port City Raceway | Turnpike Challenge Night 1 | 3/24/22:
Hoosier Racing Tire Top Hot Lap Time: 71-Kaylee Bryson (9.881)
Advanced Racing Suspensions Heat Race 1 Winner: 08-Cannon McIntosh
MVT Services Heat Race 2 Winner: 01-Bryant Weideman
Auto Meter Heat Race 3 Winner: 71-Kaylee Bryson
Max Papis Innovations High Point Qualifier: 67-Christopher Bell
Toyota Racing Development Hard Charger: 87-Jace Park (+6)
Lucas Oil Feature Winner: 67-Christopher Bell
Lucas Oil A Feature (30 Laps): 1. 67-Christopher Bell[1]; 2. 01-Bryant Wiedeman[2]; 3. 89-Mitchel Moles[4]; 4. 83-Dominic Gorden[8]; 5. 8J-Jonathan Beason[10]; 6. 25K-Taylor Reimer[7]; 7. 26-Chance Crum[9]; 8. 71-Kaylee Bryson[3]; 9. 08-Cannon McIntosh[6]; 10. 97-Brenham Crouch[11]; 11. 32-Trey Marcham[16]; 12. 00-Ryan Timms[15]; 13. 87-Jace Park[19]; 14. 60M-Zac Millikin[12]; 15. 84-Jade Avedisian[18]; 16. 71E-Mariah Ede[14]; 17. 44-Branigan Roark[17]; 18. 40-Chase McDermand[13]; 19. 14E-Hank Davis[21]; 20. 21-Emilio Hoover[22]; 21. 17B-Austin Barnhill[20]; 22. 17-Tanner Berryhill[5]
Super Clean B Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 44-Branigan Roark[1]; 2. 84-Jade Avedisian[8]; 3. 87-Jace Park[6]; 4. 17B-Austin Barnhill[4]; 5. 14E-Hank Davis[5]; 6. 21-Emilio Hoover[9]; 7. 7U-Kyle Jones[2]; 8. 22-Curtis Jones[10]; 9. 15-Gavin Stout[7]; 10. 21K-Karter Sarff[3]
Advanced Racing Suspensions Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 08-Cannon McIntosh[1]; 2. 26-Chance Crum[3]; 3. 17-Tanner Berryhill[6]; 4. 25K-Taylor Reimer[8]; 5. 71E-Mariah Ede[7]; 6. 44-Branigan Roark[5]; 7. 17B-Austin Barnhill[4]; 8. 21K-Karter Sarff[9]; 9. 22-Curtis Jones[2]
MVT Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 01-Bryant Wiedeman[4]; 2. 8J-Jonathan Beason[2]; 3. 40-Chase McDermand[1]; 4. 83-Dominic Gorden[8]; 5. 97-Brenham Crouch[9]; 6. 00-Ryan Timms[7]; 7. 14E-Hank Davis[3]; 8. 15-Gavin Stout[5]; 9. 21-Emilio Hoover[6]
Auto Meter Heat 3 (10 Laps): 1. 71-Kaylee Bryson[4]; 2. 67-Christopher Bell[7]; 3. 89-Mitchel Moles[8]; 4. 60M-Zac Millikin[6]; 5. 32-Trey Marcham[3]; 6. 7U-Kyle Jones[5]; 7. 87-Jace Park[1]; 8. 84-Jade Avedisian[2]
Up next for the Lucas Oil POWRi National and West Midget Leagues will be the final two days of the Ninth Annual Turnpike Challenge presented by Super Clean at I-44 Riverside Speedway in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on March 25-26.
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Photo Credit: Danny Clum