Oklahoma City, OK – Starting 2017 off strong, Frank Galusha laid down 20 solid laps in the delayed POWRi Speedway Motors 600cc Outlaw Micro League season opener at I-44 Riverside Speedway. The Fourth Annual Turnpike Challenge marks the inaugural running of the POWRi Speedway Motors 600cc Outlaw Micro League alongside the POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget and West Midget League.
Starting inside row two, Frank Galusha had to contend with Harley Hollan and four-time and defending series champion, Nathan Benson. At the start of the race, Hollan led Galusha and Benson until Andy Bishop brought out the yellow in turns three and four. Resuming racing, Galusha never missed a beat and immediately went to challenge Hollan for the lead. Charging deep to the bottom in turns three and four, Galusha powered past Hollan with Hollan returning exiting off four.
After a few more circuits of challenges, Galusha made the pass for the lead off turn two stick, powering past Hollan and into turn three. With his eyes set on lap traffic, Galusha carefully navigated the field with Hollan and Benson in tow. Coming down to the wire, Galusha would hold strong with Hollan in second and Benson rounding out the top three.
“I just had the mindset to stay composed,” Frank Galusha commented. “I knew that I had two fast guys in front of me. With Harley racing here a lot, I needed to make sure I put together 20 good laps. The car was good late, but we were a little tight to begin with. On that restart, I just went for it. We had a little battle there, but once I got to clean air, it was good. I wanted to start off strong and we did exactly that. We’re going to start over here for tonight’s program and try to do it again.”
“It was a good run, just couldn’t catch Frank,” said Harley Hollan. “The car was good, just a little fine tuning and we will be ready for tonight.”
“We’re a little bit disappointed,” Nathan Benson stated. “We probably just overthought it with the sun and just got the car a little bit too tight and bogged the motor down. Frank and Harley were fast. There’s a lot of fast cars here, so third’s nothing to be ashamed of, but when you start on the pole, you don’t have much hopes of anything other than staying in the lead. We’ll regroup, we got a pretty good draw again for tonight. I’ve got my wife and my boy out here so we’re having a pretty good time regardless, but we want to leave here with a win.”
Micros
Speedway Motors Heat Race Winners: Heat 1: 83 -JIM WOODS, Heat 2: 14H - HARLEY HOLLAN, Heat 3: 12 - FRANK GALUSHA, Heat 4: 3 - COLE ROBERTS, Heat 5: 20S - STEVEN CURBOW
Semi Feature Winners: 23 - CHRIS COCHRAN, 11B - KAYLEE BRYSON
Great Clips Feature Winner: 12 - FRANK GALUSHA
POWRi Speedway Motors 600cc Outlaw Micro Series Feature Results (20 laps): 1. 12 - FRANK GALUSHA 2. 14H - HARLEY HOLLAN 3. 2B - NATHAN BENSON 4. 34 - KJ SNOW 5. 55B - BRANDON ANDERSON 6. 73 - JASON MCDOUGAL 7. 81 - FRANK FLUD 8. 83 -JIM WOODS 9. 20S - STEVEN CURBOW 10. 2S - COOPER SMITH 11. 11B - KAYLEE BRYSON 12. 27 - SHAWN WICKER 13. 42 - HANK DAVIS 14. 3 - COLE ROBERTS 15. 23 - CHRIS COCHRAN 16. 22S - SLATER HELT 17. 42 - ANDY BISHOP 18. 118 - SCOTT EVANS 19. 51B - JOE B MILLER 20. 10 - BROCK BERRETH 21. 628 - ACE MCCARTHY 22. 23L - JASON LAIR 23. 35 - DERRIK ORTEGA
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