Hagen Takes Home Midget Feature, King Scores Micro Win
Saturday, July 19th 2014
Belleville, IL. - Darren Hagen of Riverside, California ran away with the feature to take home his fourth career POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget Series victory of 2014 at the high-banked 1/5th mile Belle-Clair Speedway in Belleville, Illinois. Dereck King of Vienna, Illinois stole his 23rd career win in the POWRi Speedway Motors 600cc Outlaw Micro Series.
At the drop of the green flag, pole-sitter Jake Blackhurst of Mapleton, Illinois would take the early lead with Darren Hagen in tow. Driving the Kitchen Cooked-sponsored, Esslinger-powered, DRC Chassis, Blackhurst would attempt to run away from the field, only to have his pace slowed by the tumbling car of Blue Mound, Illinois' Derrick Myers. Myers would be ok, but damage sustained to the car would be enough to put an end to his evening. When green flag racing resumed, with one lap in the books, Blackhurst's lead would be short-lived as Darren Hagen would rim-ride the oval, taking the reins from Blackhurst coming off turn two. As quickly as Hagen dispatched Blackhurst, Austin Brown would take over second in his KBR Performance, Toyota-powered, Boss Chassis.
As Brown began to chase down Hagen, Spencer Bayston would bring out the red as he flipped his Esslinger-powered Spike, coming to rest on top of the Purpose Wrecker, Esslinger-powered Spike Chassis of Andy Malpocker. Both drivers were ok, but would be done for the night. After safety crews untangled the two cars, racing would resume with Hagen leading the field at a blistering pace leaving Brown to continue the chase. With eight laps in the books, the caution would fly as Zach Daum of Pocahontas, Illinois would come to an abrupt stop high in turn four, riding in the fourth position. Daumwould re-fire, but move to the infield on the restart.
With the field lined back up, Hagen would lead Brown and Blackhurst to the green. Just as Nick Knepper, currently in fourth from the eighth position, would make his move on Blackhurst for third, the caution would fly again as Seth Motsinger of Salem, Indiana looped it around in turn four. When racing resumed, Knepper would quickly takeover third from Blackhurst, then sliding Brown for second. But just as Knepper slid Brown for second, Jake Neuman of New Berlin, Illinois would take a wild ride down the back stretch, bringing out the red. Neuman would be alright, but unfortunately done for the evening as he climbed out of his heavily damaged car.
When yellow flag conditions resumed and the field was lined back up, Hagen would jump out to the lead leaving Brown to deal with Knepper. Knepper would slide Brown for second and Brown would try to return, but unfortunately Knepper's K&K Garage, Esslinger-powered Spike would be too strong for Brown to hold off. Aslaps wound down and Knepper's challenge for second complete, with Hagen already lapping cars, it would prove too difficult a task for Knepper to catch Hagen as Darren Hagen would cross the line first, followed by Knepper, and Austin Brown of Millstadt, Illinois in third. Coming home in fourth was Terry Babb of Decatur, Illinois and rounding out the top-five was Jake Blackhurst.
"I couldn't do it without these guys," said a victorious Darren Hagen. "I definitely have one of the best crew chiefs in the world, Levi Jones. What an awesome guy to drive for. And Shane Hmiel, what a great car owner. I have to take my hats off to these guys for giving me a great racecar to drive."
"It was really good tonight," mentioned second place finisher Nick Knepper. "But they were just a little bit better obviously, and I needed a caution there at the end. The Spike Chassis is running pretty good right now with Esslinger horsepower."
"We had a pretty rough start to the season," said third place finisher Austin Brown. "We definitely had a good car all night. I kind of got my momentum going there towards the end and I'm glad to bring home a third place finish.
Driving the Josh Kilgore-owned, FTZ-powered Boss Chassis, Dereck King of Vienna, Illinois held off repeated attempts from Nathan Benson to win in fan-thrilling fashion, the 20 lap POWRi Speedway Motors 600cc Outlaw Micro Series feature. "Progressively we've gotten better," explained a victorious King. "I can't thank Boss Chassis enough. As far as I'm concerned, we've beat the best in the business. I elbowed up there at the end and said he's [Nathan Benson] gonna really have to earn it because I want it worse than he did. What a track, it was fun."
Second place finisher Nathan Benson of Concordia, Missouri had proved to be a front runner all night winning his heat race and challenging King for the win the latter half of the feature. "You're a sitting duck when you've in the middle of the track," said second place finisher Nathan Benson. "I was looking to my left thinking he was coming underneath me and he squeezed by on the top. We had a good clean race, and I'm glad to see him win."
Third place finisher Jeremy Camp of Blue Mound, Illinois came from sixth place to bring home another top three. "Not a bad night," mentioned third place finisher Jeremy Camp. "We ran fourth for over half the race there. Just a lot of thirds here at Belleville. Hopefully we run well tomorrow."
POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget Series feature results (30 laps): 1. 56 - Darren Hagen 2. 55 - Nick Knepper 3. 7 - Austin Brown 4. 88 - Terry Babb 5. 25 - Jake Blackhurst 6. 11A - Andrew Felker 7. 1T - Tony Roney 8. 9P - Parker Price-Miller 9. 91 - Dereck King 10. 39R - Ross Rankine 11. 2 - Seth Motsinger 12. 57D - Daniel Robinson 13. 50 - Daniel Adler 14. 94 - Darren Kingston 15. 31 - Kyle Schuett 16. 79J - Jacob Patton 17. 3N - Jake Neuman 18. 32 - Garrett Aitken 19. 5D - Zach Daum 20. 22 - Andy Malpocker 21. 39 - Spencer Bayston 22. 25M - Derrick Myers 23. 10C - Dalton Camfield
POWRi Speedway Motors 600cc Outlaw Micro Series results (20 Laps): 1 - Dereck King 2. 2B - Nathan Benson 3. 23 - Jeremy Camp 4. 21Z - Jeremy Zumwalt 5. 40 - Devin Feger 6. 00 - Matt Ponder 7. 21 - Aaron Andruskevitch 8. 14 - Kurt Westerfield 9. 52 - Jason Harms 10. 3N - Jake Neuman 11. 44 - Ayrton Gennetten 12. 14T - Evan Turner 13. 21A - Austin VanToll 14. 10 - Derek LeMaster 15. 77W - Joey Wirth 16. 51B - Joe B. Miller 17. N2 - Nic Harris 18. 83 - Jeff Beasley 19. 14P - Broc Pemberton 20. 30H - Clayton Hisle 21. 118 - Stanley Kreisel 22. 3B - Shelby Bosie
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