Belleville, IL. (10/8/23) Lighting issues in turn four would darken then cancel the feature just as the A-Main began to roll out on the track in the fifth annual running of the King of Kansas City feature at Valley Speedway with the POWRi Wingless Auto Racing Sprint League; unable to remedy the electrical issues would force track officials to cancel the remainder of the event.
Initial on-track actions would witness Wyatt Burks start quickest in hot laps with a 13462-second lap as Samuel Wagner, Wyatt Burks, and Kory Schudy would each earn heat race wins as well as Schudy snagging the event high-point qualifier award to earn the pole starting position for the twenty-five-lap main event.
Setting the field based on passing points would find all competitors begin to file around the track for the initial firing when an electrical surge would cause an entire light pole in turn four to expire and completely black out turn four and part of the front straight.
Working diligently for over an hour, Valley Speedway and POWRi officials ultimately decided to cancel the remainder of the event based on the inability to fix the lightning issues in the time needed to meet the impending track curfew.
“This is never how we want to end a race, sometimes things happen that are completely out of our control, and we have to adjust with the safety of our drivers as the main concern,” said race director Talin Turner.
Competitors entered will all receive equal pay and one hundred fifty seasonal points towards the championship.
POWRi WAR Heat Race Results (10/7/23):
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 73-Samuel Wagner[3]; 2. 74-Xavier Doney[4]; 3. 13-Chase Howard[1]; 4. 93-Taylor Walton[6]; 5. 11X-Tom Curran[5]; 6. B52-Blake Bowers[7]; 7. 16-Hannah Merritt[2]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 11W-Wyatt Burks[2]; 2. 24-Craig Carroll[1]; 3. 9-Chad Goff[4]; 4. 77-Jack Wagner[5]; 5. 15B-Quinton Benson[3]; 6. 1-Chris Desselle[6]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 28-Kory Schudy[5]; 2. 15E-Dakota Earls[1]; 3. 33-Wesley Smith[3]; 4. 24H-Ty Hulsey[6]; 5. 45-Jesse Bebee[2]; 6. 88-Chad Tye[4]
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Photo Credit: John Lee High Fly'N Photos