Charleston, IL – Michael “Buddy” Kofoid of Penngrove, California earned his third POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget League career win at Charleston Speedway. Kofoid carries great momentum into Saturday night’s show at Tri-State Speedway in Haubstadt Indiana, in hopes to sweep the weekend.
Starting in the 8th position for the 30-lap feature event, Kofoid kept his nose clean and tried to make his way through traffic and found himself in the 5th position on lap 2. Kofoid found his way around the top side to settle into the fifth position. When going back green after a restart Kofoid charged from the fifth position to take over third from Noah Gass.
Still charging the top side, Kofoid took the second position from his teammate Daison Pursley on lap 7. Jake Neuman sitting in the lead, settled in and found himself almost a second ahead of the field until the caution flag flew for Andy Bishop on lap 11. Neuman took to the top side after the restart and checked out as Gass running fourth threw a wild slide job for the second position but fell back into third.
As the laps wound down, Kofoid closed in on Neuman with three hundredths of a second each lap. Neuman continued to work the high side and Kofoid tried everything, but to no avail.
Finally, with 2 laps to go Kofoid tried to slide Neuman for the lead in turns 1&2, as Neuman got over the cushion and Kofoid capitalized for the top position.
“I got to second pretty quick and I felt I was pretty good on those restarts and could slide them and kind of keep them behind me,” stated Kofoid. “I noticed Jake was tight on entry of both corners and I started cheating it and I wouldn’t get near as tight. A couple of times I did, but I found that when I get tight, it would shoot me down off two, and it was better to turn the corner down instead of trying to ride it all the way down.”
“I really think I used my tires up early, the left rear looks like it’s gone,” commented second place runner Jake Neuman. “Hats off to him, they’re just a little better at the end.”
“Just happy to be in this car and happy to be with Dave Mac Motorsports, I got the whole season to go with them and we gotta win some races. I know we will, I’m happy, we did good. This is the first podium with them and did perfect. I really believe in this team and really believe we can do really well.” Stated Noah Gass who finished third to round out the podium.
Auto Meter Heat 1 Winner: 3N – Jake Neuman
KSE Racing Products Heat 2 Winner: 9 – Daison Pursley
Advanced Racing Suspensions Heat 3 Winner: 3B – Shelby Boise
Schoenfeld Headers Heat 4 Winner: 5T – Noah Gass
PAC Schroeder Torsion Bars High Point: 5T – Noah Gass
Rod End Supply Semi-Feature 1: 39BC – Cole Bodine
TRD Hard Charger: 4 – Ronnie Gardner
Lucas Oil Feature Winner: 67 – Michael Kofoid
POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget League Feature Results (30 laps): 1. 67 –Michael Kofoid 2. 3N – Jake Neuman 3. 5T – Noah Gass 4. 21KS – Jason McDougal 5. 71K – Cannon Mcintosh 6. 9 – Daison Pursley 7. 28 – Ace McCarthy 8. 4 – Ronnie Gardner 9. 25 – Chase Johnson 10. 72 – Sam Johnson 11. 39BC – Cole Bodine 12. 00 – Trey Gropp 13. 19M – Ethan Mitchell 14. 71 – Kaylee Bryson 15. 15 – Emerson Axsom 16. 21K – Emilio Hoover 17. 56D – Mitchell Davis 18. 3B – Shelby Boise 19. 11 – Andy Bishop 20. 97 – Austin Odell 21. 5D – Zach Daum 22. 2 – Landon Simon
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