Belleville, IL. (10/3/2021) Heading into the homestretch of the 2021 racing season, the Lucas Oil POWRi Southwest Lightning Sprints would once again visit the smooth racing surfaces and speed producing corners of Barona Speedway. Showing talents well beyond his years, rookie-sensation and fourteen-year-old Braden Chiaramonte would capture his career-first POWRi Southwest Lightning Sprint feature victory while gaining points on the series-leader Grant Sexton.
Early on track battles would find Grant Sexton and Braden Chiaramonte each claiming their heat racing victories with Brent Sexton and AJ Bender benefiting from an Intermission re-draw that would shuffle the feature field starting lineup and putting the pair of California wheelmen on the front-row.
Edge of the seat green-flag feature racing would witness the pair of heat racing winners flying to the front of the field from a second-row grid with both drivers continuing to show speed. Using patience and precision, Braden Chiaramonte would out-wheel the seven-time feature winner from a fourth starting position to earn his career-first win in the series and extend his rookie-of-the-year campaign lead. Grant Sexton would attempt to overtake the speedy Chiaramonte several times with the leader holding off every challenge as Grant was forced to settle into the runner-up spot.
Brent Sexton and Ryan Dumas would find themselves in a heavy contended battle for third and fourth with Brent gaining ground in the later stages of the feature to finish third with Dumas driving from starting eighth to place fourth. Rudy Padilla would hold off the hard charge of eleventh starting DJ Dumas to round out the top-five finishers for the Lucas Oil POWRi Southwest Lightning Sprints at Barona Speedway.
POWRi SWLS Feature Results from Barona Speedway on Saturday, October 2nd:
- 73 | Braden Chiaramonte | El Cajon, CA | 4 | Heat Race Winner
- 3 | Grant Sexton | Lakeside, CA | 3 | Heat Race Winner
- 2B | Brent Sexton | Lakeside, CA | 1
- 80 | Ryan Dumas | San Diego, CA | 8
- 47D | Rudy Padilla | CA | 5
- 15X | DJ Dumas | El Cajon, CA | 11 | Hard Charger (+5)
- 21 | AJ Bender | San Diego, CA | 2
- 18 | David Bezio | El Cajon, CA | 12
- 13 | Peter Benker | Alpine, CA | 6
- 10 | Brett Horn | El, Cajon, CA | 10
- 15 | Jon Squire | El Cajon, CA | 9
- 54 | Jim Squire III | Lakeside, CA | 7
- 56 | Cody Griggs | Lakeside, CA | 13
Up next for the Lucas Oil POWRi Southwest Lightning Sprints will be a return to Barona Speedway on October 30th. Pit Gates open at noon with hot laps slated for a 5:00 PM starting time, more track information can be found online at www.baronaspeedway.com.
The Lucas Oil POWRi Southwest Lightning Sprint Car Series would like to thank the following sponsors for making the 2021 racing season possible: Lucas Oil, Sexton Fire Protection, RTL Traffic Control & Equipment, Victory Graphix, United Cleaning Company, BK Wing, and A.M. Ortega Construction Inc. For updates on the Lucas Oil POWRi Southwest Lightning Sprint Car Series, visit the series website at www.raceswls.com or “Like” their Facebook page.
Follow along for more information on the further growth of all the POWRi Lightning Sprints and items such as race recaps, updates, full results, and press releases online at www.powri.com, for on Twitter & Instagram at @POWRi_Racing or on Facebook at POWRi. POWRi League rules, contingencies, forms, and payouts can be found under the info tab at the top of the POWRi website.