Belleville, IL – The 12th Annual Meents Memorial was an action-packed evening for the POWRi Speedway Motors 600cc Outlaw Micro series as Joe B. Miller took the victory over Craig Ronk, collecting his 27th career victory and 8th of 2016, while Nathan Benson mathematically earned his fourth championship in a row, cementing his legacy with POWRi as one of the most dominant drivers in the series. At the conclusion of the 20 lap main, Aidan Roosevans was able to celebrate earning the POWRi Speedway Motors 600cc Outlaw Micro Series Rookie of the Year Honors.
Starting in the third position, it was only a matter of time before Joe B. Miller was challenging Evan Weyant for the lead, but it took all the way until a caution on lap 11 that bunched the field up, as Weyant had Miller covered up to that point. After the restart, Miller was able to power past Weyant for the lead while a hard charging Craig Ronk worked his machine above the cushion towards the front and into the second position.
As laps quickly wound down, Ronk ran out of time to mount a challenge for the lead, settling for second while Evan Weyant rounded out the podium. Joey Wirth took fourth, while Alec Long took the fifth position.
“That was fun,” Joe B. Miller stated. “I knew the track was going to be very technical and that Craig would be coming the whole time, so I just tried to keep on my toes and keep going there. I’ve got to thank the Meents family for putting this race on, POWRi, and all the fans in the stands. I just feel pretty honored to be able to do that.”
“It feels good to run POWRi for the first time,” Craig Ronk said. “We’re definitely hoping to come back more next year. I couldn’t do this without Brad Coleman and my dad, Competitive Performance and Engler Injection.”
“We had that unfortunate yellow,” commented Evan Weyant. “It was one of those times you just wish you had a rearview mirror on the car to see who was coming and what line they were coming on. But it was a good night tonight.”
“We just had some bad luck with our clutch tonight,” said freshly crowned Rookie of the Year, Aidan Roosevans. “I just want to thank all my sponsors. We’re already looking forward to 2017.”
Micros
Speedway Motors Heat Race Winners: Heat 1: 77W - JOEY WIRTH, Heat 2: 99 - ALEC LONG, Heat 3: 1X - JB GILBERT, Heat 4: 5R - CRAIG RONK
Semi Feature Winners: 9W - NICK WORLEY, 08C - ALLEN COPE
Great Clips Feature Winner: 51B - JOE B MILLER
POWRi Speedway Motors 600cc Outlaw Micro Series Feature Results (20 laps): 1. 51B - JOE B MILLER 2. 5R - CRAIG RONK 3. 38 - EVAN WEYANT 4. 77W - JOEY WIRTH 5. 99 - ALEC LONG 6. 65E - CHAD ELLIOTT 7. 32X - BRAD MCDANIEL 8. 12C - CARLEE GRESS 9. 22S - SLATER HELT 10. 3B - SHELBY BOSIE 11. 32K - DERECK KING 12. 83B - JEFF BEASLEY 13. 14- KURT WESTERFIELD 14. 9W - NICK WORLEY 15. 01 - ZEB WISE 16. 10K - LUKE KILGORE 17. 08C - ALLEN COPE 18. 8W - BREANNA WIRTH 19. 1X - JB GILBERT 20. 22 - ANDY MALPOCKER 21. 1 - CAILIN HUNT 22. 23 - JEREMY CAMP
For further information, visit www.powri.com, “Like” POWRi on Facebook and follow @POWRi_Racing on Twitter.