Macon, IL – In a race that kept fans on the edge of their seat, Kevin Thomas, Jr. claimed his third win of 2018 with the POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget League, the Fourth Annual Rich Camfield Memorial. Thomas Jr.’s other two wins include his sweep of POWRi’s Inaugural Sunshine State Midget Challenge in Florida.
Starting outside row three, Thomas, Jr. had his work cut out for him when the green flag flew as pole sitter Tanner Carrick set a blistering pace with Tyler Thomas and Zach Daum in tow. Enduring a series of cautions, Carrick maintained a health lead for a majority of the race all the way until heavy lap traffic with a handful of laps to go.
As battles through the field were thick, Thomas, Jr. caught Carrick and narrowly edged him for the lead after picking the better line, taking control with three to go. Winning by a couple car lengths, Thomas, Jr.’s Petry Motorsports Toyota-powered Spike edged Tanner Carrick with fellow Petry Motorsports teammate Jerry Coons, Jr. rounding out the podium. Tyler Thomas took fourth with Petry Motorsports’ Jason McDougal in fifth.
“That was awesome,” commented Kevin Thomas, Jr. “I’ve never actually got to run a feature here at Macon. They did a little bit of track work there and kind of dried it off and it made for a hell of a race. I’ve got to thank Bob Sargent for that, having the balls to come out there and do that and take a chance on the racetrack. It’s fun to be back out here in the Petry car. I think we’ve won three out of four races that we’ve been together. It’s really fun working with everybody and thanks to Scott Petry for letting me run this weekend. The state of Illinois has treated me well today.”
“It’s just tough when you’ve got the lead and you’re a sitting duck out there behind the lap cars,” stated Tanner Carrick. “I’ll take a second place any day and we’ll go on to tomorrow, my favorite track. Hopefully we can get another win there.”
“That was pretty exciting,” said Jerry Coons, Jr. “I tried to take half the field out early in the race in turn four and fell back to around eighth, so I had my work cut out for me. Terry and the guys have this Petry Motorsports car working well and I just kept digging. But, like I said, I made a big mistake down there and it cost us a lot of track position. Who knows, we had a pretty good racecar there and if we would have gotten into traffic, we might have had a shot at it, but we’ll come home with third.”
Midgets
Speedway Motors Heat Race Winners: Heat 1: 35 - KEVIN THOMAS, JR., Heat 2: 91T - TYLER THOMAS, Heat 3: 15 - JASON MCDOUGAL, Heat 4: 5D - ZACH DAUM
Toyota Semi Feature Winner: 91 - DANIEL ROBINSON
Mesilla Valley Transportation Feature Winner: 35 - KEVIN THOMAS, JR.
POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget League Feature Results (30 laps): 1. 35 - KEVIN THOMAS, JR. 2. 71K - TANNER CARRICK 3. 25 - JERRY COONS, JR. 4. 91T - TYLER THOMAS 5. 15 - JASON MCDOUGAL 6. 67 - LOGAN SEAVEY 7. 5D - ZACH DAUM 8. 97 - MARIA COFER 9. 55 - NICK KNEPPER 10. 91 - DANIEL ROBINSON 11. 21KS - KARTER SARFF 12. 88 - TYLER NELSON 13. 37 - TERRY BABB 14. 71 - RYAN ROBINSON 15. 39BC - ZEB WISE 16. 27 - TUCKER KLAASMEYER 17. 3N - JAKE NEUMAN 18. 9K - KYLE SCHUETT 19. 77W - JOEY WIRTH 20. 50 - DANIEL ADLER 21. 72 - SAM JOHNSON 22. 67F - KYLE O'GARA 23. 51B - ADAM TAYLOR 24. 16C - DAVID CAMFIELD
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