Belleville, IL. (12/17/22) Daniel Robinson would use driving precision, patience, and experience in the Junior Knepper 55 at the Southern Illinois Center in DuQuoin Illinois on Saturday night to capture their second career victory with the Lucas Oil POWRi National Midget League after a thrilling wintertime festivity feature honoring a Land of Lincoln industry-leader.
Early DuQuoin competition with forty-three POWRi National Midget League entrants would see Kyle Cummins start quickest with a 9.564-lap in hot-laps as Shane Cottle, Joe B Miller, Kyle Cummins, Zach Daum, Thomas Meseraull, and Kyle Steffens each earned heat racing wins with Shane Cockrum and Ronnie Gardner picking up the semi-feature victory.
Setting the field of top-notch competitors of competition would find high-point qualifier Shane Cottle battling front-row counterpart Thomas Meseraull into the first pair of corners on the opening lap with Cottle throttling to the initial racing advantage as Meseraull, Kyle Cummins, Joe B Miller, and Zach Daum drove in hot pursuit all racing inside the running top five.
Leading the field for the first five revolutions, Cottle would suffer issues in turns one and two on lap six while racing for the lead. Forcing Cottle to the rear of the field, Thomas Meseraull would take the front of the field in the early stages of the fifty-five-lap feature event.
Sticking to the fastest lane out front, T-Mez would appear to be the dominant entry to beat while establishing a comfortable lead. Dealing with lap traffic at the point of the field for ten laps, Meseraull would spin himself on the front stretch to avoid major damage yet relinquish the lead.
Flying through the field to inherit the lead would witness Zach Daum and Kyle Cummins battle tooth and nail with each driver swapping the lead for several laps, as each competitor would set the pace of the field on four separate laps with Cummins gaining the mid-event advantage.
Entering into the front-end picture around the halfway mark would see Daniel Robinson use strategy by using the newly implemented “Commitment Cone” to battle into the runner-up position with Matt Westfall, Joe B Miller, and Travis Berryhill all inside the top-five.
Taking the top spot in outstanding action would find the DuQuoin-dominate Daniel Robinson lead the final thirty-two laps after using the first half of the race advancing nine positions. Robinson would set sail out front while encountering lap traffic only to see the advantage evaporate in the closing laps.
“This win means the world, I’ve kind of been a micro driver it seems here lately but I still think I got it behind the wheel of a midget. It takes patience here, all that money that my dad spent on bent nerf bars and junk wheels, it just pays in experience. This track slicked off late and lap traffic came into play so I was trying to run both lines basically.” stated Daniel Robinson in the Southern Illinois Center victory lane ceremony.
Zach Boden would pass seventeen other competitors to hard-charge to a solid runner-up showing by on .158-seconds with Kyle Cummins holding steady into completing the feature's final podium placement. Matt Westfall would finish fourth as Joe B Miller rounded out the POWRi National Midget League top-five finishers at the mini-magic-mile at DuQuoin Illinois in the Junior Knepper 55.
POWRi National Midget League | Southern Indoor Center | 12/17/22:
Hoosier Racing Tire Fast Hot Lap Time: 3G-Kyle Cummins (9.564)
Advanced Racing Suspensions Heat Race 1 Winner: 86-Shane Cottle
Auto Meter Heat Race 2 Winner: 51B-Joe B Miller
Schure Built Suspensions Heat Race 3 Winner: 3G-Kyle Cummins
AFCO Racing Heat Race 4 Winner: 91-Zach Daum
Rod End Supply Heat 5 Winner: 7X-Thomas Meseraull
Engler Machine Heat 6 Winner: 4A-Kyle Steffens
Max Papis Innovations Semi-Feature 1 Winner: 37X-Shane Cockrum
Super Clean Semi-Feature 2 Winner: 57R-Ronnie Gardner
MVT Services High Point Qualifier: 86-Shane Cottle
Toyota Racing Development Hard Charger: 51-Zach Boden(+17)
Lucas Oil Feature Winner: 57-Daniel Robinson
Lucas Oil A Feature 1 (55 Laps): 1. 57-Daniel Robinson[10]; 2. 51-Zach Boden[19]; 3. 3G-Kyle Cummins[5]; 4. 54W-Matt Westfall[4]; 5. 51B-Joe B Miller[9]; 6. 57A-Ronnie Gardner[18]; 7. 7X-Thomas Meseraull[2]; 8. 86-Shane Cottle[1]; 9. 17-Travis Berryhill[12]; 10. 21K-Karter Sarff[3]; 11. 12X-Christopher Dickey[22]; 12. 7T-Adam Taylor[11]; 13. 9P-Wes Pinkerton[14]; 14. 69-Joey Paxson[15]; 15. 15C-Carter Chevalier[21]; 16. 5LK-Jordan Kinser[20]; 17. 11G-Gage Rucker[13]; 18. 14-Chad Boespflug[7]; 19. 91-Zach Daum[6]; 20. 4A-Kyle Steffens[8]; 21. 37X-Shane Cockrum[17]; 22. 06-Rylan Gray[16].
Max Papis Innovations B Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 37X-Shane Cockrum[1]; 2. 51-Zach Boden[2]; 3. 15C-Carter Chevalier[6]; 4. 36C-Ian Creager[3]; 5. 44JB-Jakeb Boxell[10]; 6. 55-Chuck Walker[9]; 7. 7-Cody Beard[5]; 8. 35-Tyler Robbins[12]; 9. 95-Mikie Stirrett[4]; 10. 10X-Trevor Serbus[8]; 11. 41-Oliver Akard[11]; 12. 1H-Henry Chambers[13]; 13. 1S-Aaron Sanders[7]; 14. 44-Dani Aldrich[14].
Super Clean B Feature 2 (15 Laps): 1. 57A-Ronnie Gardner[3]; 2. 5LK-Jordan Kinser[1]; 3. 12X-Christopher Dickey[12]; 4. 001-Greg Mitchell[8]; 5. 4K-Kayla Roell[11]; 6. 10-Chett Gehrke[7]; 7. 21B-Trey Burke[10]; 8. 37-Ashton Thompson[5]; 9. 08-Daison Pursley[4]; 10. 36-Chris Baue[2]; 11. 56X-Mark Chisholm[6]; 12. 28Q-Sean Quinn[9]; 13. (DNS) 53-Sean Robbins.
Advanced Racing Suspension Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 86-Shane Cottle[7]; 2. 21K-Karter Sarff[8]; 3. 36-Chris Baue[1]; 4. 08-Daison Pursley[3]; 5. 56X-Mark Chisholm[4]; 6. 44JB-Jakeb Boxell[2]; 7. 41-Oliver Akard[6]; 8. (DNS) 1H-Henry Chambers.
Auto Meter Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 51B-Joe B Miller[1]; 2. 57-Daniel Robinson[3]; 3. 5LK-Jordan Kinser[2]; 4. 06-Rylan Gray[6]; 5. 15C-Carter Chevalier[5]; 6. 10-Chett Gehrke[7]; 7. 35-Tyler Robbins[4].
Schure Built Suspension Heat 3 (10 Laps): 1. 3G-Kyle Cummins[3]; 2. 14-Chad Boespflug[5]; 3. 51-Zach Boden[2]; 4. 37X-Shane Cockrum[6]; 5. 57A-Ronnie Gardner[7]; 6. 21B-Trey Burke[1]; 7. 12X-Christopher Dickey[4].
AFCO Racing Heat 4 (10 Laps): 1. 91-Zach Daum[3]; 2. 9P-Wes Pinkerton[2]; 3. 17-Travis Berryhill[5]; 4. 11G-Gage Rucker[7]; 5. 10X-Trevor Serbus[1]; 6. 001-Greg Mitchell[6]; 7. (DNS) 53-Sean Robbins.
Rod End Supply Heat 5 (10 Laps): 1. 7X-Thomas Meseraull[6]; 2. 7T-Adam Taylor[3]; 3. 69-Joey Paxson[4]; 4. 37-Ashton Thompson[2]; 5. 95-Mikie Stirrett[7]; 6. 55-Chuck Walker[5]; 7. (DNS) 44-Dani Aldrich.
Engler Machine Heat 6 (10 Laps): 1. 4A-Kyle Steffens[2]; 2. 54W-Matt Westfall[7]; 3. 36C-Ian Creager[1]; 4. 7-Cody Beard[3]; 5. 1S-Aaron Sanders[4]; 6. 28Q-Sean Quinn[5]; 7. 4K-Kayla Roell[6].
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