Walker Fights through Challenging Night in Jacksonville

Gage Walker rolled into Jacksonville Speedway with high, yet reasonable, hopes to start the first of a planned POWRi weekend double. He was placed 3rd to start the fourth heat when his team discovered an issue. Walker described what happened: “We were lined up to roll out for my heat race, and realized we had the wrong left rear on. We had to grab a random left rear to throw on and didn't have the right stagger. I ended up 4th and missed transferring straight to the feature by one car.”

Undaunted, he started from the pole in the semi-feature and ran second, holding off several challenges over the twelve laps that enabled him to hang onto the runner-up position. Easily transferring to the feature, he pulled off from outside row 9 for the 30 lap race. As the leaders set a torrid pace at the front of the field, Walker was undergoing a totally new learning curve. But he was making the most of it before running the high line bit him, as it did so many others. The Indiana native described his run by saying, “I worked my way up to about 12th at one point, made a few mistakes and dropped back a few positions. I got to racing with some other cars and ended up 16th.”

Looking back over the evening, Walker observed, “The night didn't go too bad. There were a lot of really fast cars and the whole field was tough. We ran into a couple issues throughout the night. I would have liked a better finish, considering I had a pretty good car. Just made a few mistakes throughout the race. I definitely learned from them and should feel a lot more comfortable going back later in the year.

The POWRi race at Macon Speedway Saturday night fell victim to the rain that impacted other major series from Indiana to Virginia, causing it to be canceled early in the day. Therefore, the next race for Walker will be May 8th when POWRi heads to Belle-Clair Speedway.