POWRi’s Illinois SPEED Week Yields Mixed Results for Walker
By Jessica Jenkins

Opting to start off his weekend in POWRi’s Illinois SPEED Week a day earlier than planned, Gage Walker and his #7x team pulled into Jacksonville Speedway for a good night of racing. Unfortunately the evening did not go quite the way the Indianapolis-based driver wanted. Though he started 8th in the second heat race and made his way up to a position that would have automatically sent him to the feature, a spin sent him back to a 7th place finish. That placed him in a 9th place starting spot for the first Semi and he ultimately finished in the same position, ending his night in Jacksonville early. Describing the evening at Western Illinois track, Walker stated, “It started off good; we had a really good car. In my heat race, I was moving forward, battling for third and got in there a little hot. I was getting antsy and a little too greedy and spun it out. So I started in the back in my semi and had a bunch of tough guys in there. I made my way up through (was 5th at one point) and just got battling. I think I got shuffled out to 7th, so didn’t make the feature. But I wasn’t too disappointed. We had a fast car, so it wasn’t too bad.”

Still, a better night at Macon Speedway on Saturday was definitely needed. For the young driver with a background of pavement racing, the focus was mainly to get more experience and make the feature. Early in the 8 lap heat race, Walker once again moved up to the top 3 from his 5th place start until the car pushed out a little too wide and went over the cushion, dropping him back the two positions he had gained. Luckily, with more than fifty cars at the track, POWRi changed up the format from the night before, allowing him another chance to put himself into the feature. And take advantage of it, he did! Rolling off in the first qualifier from 11th, he did not stay there long. He hugged the very bottom line the entire race and moved up to third, holding off 2014 Chili Bowl winner Rico Abreu on a couple restarts. Driving off turn 4 on the last lap, Walker came close to nipping Darren Hagen at the line for second. When asked what it was like to race wheel to wheel with those guys who have more experience, Walker responded: “It definitely gets my confidence up when you pass Rico Abreu and almost pass Darren Hagen for 2nd, and Chris Bell is right there [too]. I mean it was just a qualifier, but it was almost like an A main by who was in it.”

Speaking of A mains, that finish in the qualifier lined him up inside of row 4 in the feature. With more rubber down on the track, the bottom line did not work quite as well as earlier in the evening. Searching around for a line that would work with his car, Walker hung inside the top 10 or 11 for the first half of the race, giving it all he could. He explained what happened next: “About that time I was running around 10th and battling with a couple guys, throwing slide jobs, I guess my right front started going down. It got a real bad push going through the corner and one of the guys got up next to me, shoved me into the wall and didn’t give me any room. Just one of those racing things and shuffled me back to probably 15th.” With just a few laps left and fighting to hang on with an undiagnosed flat tire, he spun out on the backstretch as half the remaining field came at him, somehow managing to avoid him. He managed a 12th place finish, ahead of about 3 drivers who had fallen off the lead lap. Picking up with the final caution, Walker dictated that “one guy checked up, I guess his motor stalled, so I had to get on my brakes and spun out. Not really the feature I wanted, but can’t complain too much. I was one of the last cars standing, I guess.”

Next up on the schedule for Walker, he heads back to his home state for USAC’s Indiana Midget Week beginning on Wednesday at Gas City Speedway.

Remember to check out his new website for pictures and results at GageWalkerRacing.com